Author

“The only break from the darkness comes when the sub drops through clusters of bioluminescence that look like stars in the Milky Way.”

Why is it great? This piece about mining companies exploring the bottom of the ocean creates an upside-down outer space. The whole story is a kind of extended metaphor between…
February 22, 2017
The art of the obituary: It's a dying one

The art of the obituary: It’s a dying one

As newsrooms shrink, a former obit writer mourns the loss of bustling staffs that took deadline dives into fascinating lives, and looks fondly at the New York Times piece marking…
February 21, 2017
Meet the phone phreaks, the grandfathers of today's hackers (Russian or otherwise)

Meet the phone phreaks, the grandfathers of today’s hackers (Russian or otherwise)

Just in time for the weekend, here’s a little list of some of the things I’ve been listening to and reading this week, some of it online — Storyboard included,…
February 17, 2017
A Saudi feminist's spoken-word performance finds its power in protest

A Saudi feminist’s spoken-word performance finds its power in protest

Waad Janbi, a Saudi feminist and aspiring filmmaker, has long fought against misogyny using her hands–furiously typing on her smartphone or laptop. But last month, for the first time, she…
February 16, 2017

“The fences insured against a time when a scavenger in Gautam Nagar might learn that a shot of rare Scotch consumed in ten minutes at the Sheraton’s ITC Maratha cost exactly as much as he earned in seven hundred fourteen-hour days picking up aluminum cans and used tampon applicators, and find that information too much to bear.”

Why it’s great: The sentence is a story in itself. It creates a texture landscape in the reader’s mind (taste that rare scotch, sharp and warm in your throat; then…
February 15, 2017
Annotation Tuesday! Ron Rosenbaum and "The Secrets of the Little Blue Box"

Annotation Tuesday! Ron Rosenbaum and “The Secrets of the Little Blue Box”

The writer talks about his eerily prescient 1971 Esquire classic about "phone phreaks," and how it inspired Steve Jobs (who later said, “If we hadn’t made blue boxes, there would…
February 14, 2017
5(ish) Questions: Inara Verzemnieks and "Life in Obamacare's Dead Zone"

5(ish) Questions: Inara Verzemnieks and “Life in Obamacare’s Dead Zone”

“Life in Obamacare’s Dead Zone,” Inara Verzemnieks’ story about the health insurance coverage gap, came out in the New York Times Magazine a month after the presidential election, as the media buzzed…
February 9, 2017

“I think that the dying pray at the last not ‘please,’ but ‘thank you,’ as a guest thanks a host at the door.”

Why is it great? This is exciting — a guest submission from Pulitzer Prize winner Maria Henson, whose series of editorials on battered women in Kentucky was awarded the prize…
February 8, 2017
Get your piping hot National Magazine Awards winners right here!

Get your piping hot National Magazine Awards winners right here!

The American Society of Magazine Editors held its annual Ellies awards gala today, and it was a big night for Mother Jones and The New York Times Magazine.Here’s a handy list of…
February 7, 2017
5(ish) Questions: Ted Conover and “Immersion: A Writer's Guide to Going Deep”

5(ish) Questions: Ted Conover and “Immersion: A Writer’s Guide to Going Deep”

The journalist, who has spent the last 30 years immersing himself in others' lives, talks about going beyond the "cardboard versions" of people, and the ethics of undercover reporting
February 7, 2017