From the Editor

Stumbling into a social media community

Stumbling into a social media community

A few words on social media. I’m not going to get mired in the meta-mess that is Meta, the New&Never Improved Facebook. That’s well-trod territory. I admire and envy friends…
Collected reflections on John Hersey's "Hiroshima"

Collected reflections on John Hersey’s “Hiroshima”

Today is the 76th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. That’s not a notable number in the rather arbitrary realm of anniversary stories. But the event itself just seems to…
The journalistic dangers of binary thinking

The journalistic dangers of binary thinking

Meet Bethany Grace Howe, above. I met her a little over 10 years ago when she came to the Missouri School of Journalism as a nontraditional graduate student. “Nontraditional” essentially…
How Memorial Day memories become today's stories

How Memorial Day memories become today’s stories

The Memorial Day weekend caught me by surprise. After 16 months of no travel, and a schedule dictated only by this weekly newsletter, I lost the daily rhythm of showing…
How lessons from past stories can inform future stories

How lessons from past stories can inform future stories

My morning NPR ritual recently brought back two major landmarks in my journalism career this past week. May 18 was both the 41st anniversary of the eruption of Mount St.…
Writing: Nine parts mechanic, one part muse

Writing: Nine parts mechanic, one part muse

I spent the early years of my journalism career struggling with pretty much everything about the job, but especially with the writing. The reporting was often uncomfortable as I pushed…
The slogging reality of writing

The slogging reality of writing

The daughter of a friend reached out to me recently, seeking a bit of advice. She’s a young millennial and, after dabbling in various dabbles, she’s come back around to…
Some uncomfortable challenges facing journalism

Some uncomfortable challenges facing journalism

Some core questions I have about the challenges facing journalists were revived by a few things I read last week. None were surprising, but all carried nagging concerns that date…
Common-sense questions don't always yield common-sense answers

Common-sense questions don’t always yield common-sense answers

We invite you to spend a few moments traveling the world with photographers who, despite the risks of COVID, have remained on the front lines of storytelling. For more than…
Writing about nostalgia for homelands

Writing about nostalgia for homelands

Speculation runs hot these days about a return to some kind of post-pandemic normal. Among my employed journalism friends, that raises the question: When do you think you’ll go back?…