EDITOR’S NOTE: Full disclosure: I was the instructor at the writing workshop summarized below. The essay was pitched by the contributor — not assigned — after a discussion about the ethics of using intimate information. At my request, Page did … Read more
By Philip Kiefer In the last several weeks, Katherine J. Wu, a science writer at the Atlantic, has written a lot about cats. Her run started in late August with a profile of … Read more
If not for the astrophysicist and author Carl Sagan, University of Washington atmospheric scientist Cliff Mass might be writing and teaching about Nor’easters, Mount Washington in New Hampshire and Boston’s Back Bay instead of atmospheric rivers, Mount Rainier … Read more
Great story ideas are everywhere, and Corinne Purtill spotted a gem on a family trip to the Los Angeles Zoo, where she learned the story of a celebrity with a checkered past. Purtill had just joined … Read more
When I walk in the forest, my eyes almost always scan the ground. That’s not because I fear to lose my footing, but because poking through the duff or loitering on a mossy log or squatting at the edge … Read more
Call her the “Beyonce of earthquakes” or simply “the Earthquake Lady.” But when the foundations get shaky — whether it’s during a temblor or, now, a pandemic — Lucy Jones is … Read more
One of the things that distinguishes the coronavirus outbreak from disasters that have come before is the disorienting flood of research and information. Credit — or blame — that on the growing sophistication of science and science journalism, the … Read more
Canadian freelancer Eva Holland didn’t just report her debut nonfiction book, “Nerve: Adventures in the Science of Fear.” She lived it. For the book, she plummets out of an airplane, stands … Read more
Janica Johnson flipped her reporter’s notebook open to an empty page as she and her team prepared for an interview with Donna Shows, a cell biologist from the Benaroya Research Institute. They had specific questions in mind about … Read more
While there are no dearth of journalism textbooks on the market, many skim over well-trod territory rather than dive deep into a specialty field. And those that do take that deep dive — whether writing about how to interview … Read more
