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5(ish) Questions: Photographer Stuart Palley and “Terra Flamma: Wildfires at...
We’re drowning in imagery these days: photos on the pages of newspapers and magazines, on televisions, smart phones, iPads and laptops; full-wrap ads on buses, trains and towering buildings; even a...
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5 Questions: Abigail Keel and the RadioLab episode “Debatable”
I first heard “Debatable,” an episode of the RadioLab podcast about a black, queer student debater named Ryan Wash, while I was on a run in the woods of mid-Missouri. I kid you not – as I reached the...
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In flames: journalism under fire, and the terrible beauty of wildfire...
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, natch — and some of it on vinyl or actual...
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Why’s This So Good? Ta-Nehisi Coates and “My President Was Black”
I was almost afraid to read “My President Was Black.” Ta-Nehisi Coates is such a tour de force, I was afraid that his words would wipe away my thoughts, his insights obliterate my voice as I try to...
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Annotation Tuesday! Kathy Sawyer and the execution of the “Death Row Granny”
The clipping is yellowed, a relic from 33 years ago when I was a journalism grad student and so wowed by a story that I cut it out of the newspaper for inspiration. The article chronicled the last...
View ArticleInaugurations of a different sort: the launch of two new features on Storyboard!
In this week of a new president being sworn in, how about a couple of other inaugurations? We at Storyboard are launching two new features this week: an emailed newsletter, and something we’re calling...
View ArticleFrank Sinatra, holding a glass of bourbon in one hand and a cigarette in the...
Why is it great? Yes, we deliberately launched this cool new feature with the first sentence of one of the most famous magazine articles of all time. Go big or go home. Fifty years later, this lede is...
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A time of endings: a presidency, and a tree that held lifetimes of memories
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, natch — and some of it on vinyl or actual...
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Annotation Tuesday! Chris Hamby and “The Court That Rules the World”
Chris Hamby’s recent investigative series for BuzzFeed reads like dystopian fiction. He tells us of a powerful “global super court” that companies use to sue sovereign nations for cutting into their...
View Article“A big pair of garden shears sat on the counter, as foreboding as Chekhov’s...
Why is it great? Even without context, this line is tremendous. Playfully riffing off Chekhov’s rule that if you introduce a gun in the first act, it absolutely must go off by the third, Solomon...
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5 Questions: Julie Beck and “When Are You Really an Adult?”
When I sat down to write this, I was a millennial about to tackle one of many adulthood markers – college graduation – and I struggled with the feeling of bouncing back and forth from being an adult...
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Lou: “You’ve got spunk.” (Mary beams.) Lou: “I hate spunk.” But her spunk...
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, natch — and some of it on vinyl or actual...
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Annotation Tuesday! Adrian Chen and “Unfollow”
So much of tech journalism today is antiseptic or fawning, with beat reporters chasing the latest product release or “exclusive” CEO interview. Adrian Chen, on the other hand, is a master at revealing...
View Article“What I can hear are occasional coyotes and a constant chorus of ‘Baby the...
Why is it great? This essay has a more famous line, which is being quoted a lot these days: “Then is when we join the fashionable madmen, and then is when the thin whine of hysteria is heard in the...
View Article“I’m here to remind you today that great journalism can also find ordinary,...
The focus of this week’s “The Future of News: Journalism in a Post-Truth Era” at Harvard was, understandably, the (pretty terrifying) landscape for journalists dealing with the new Trump administration...
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Trying to find the dividing line between “travel writing” and “writing about...
It all started with a dusty photo album and a torn children’s map of the world. After countless hours spent sitting cross-legged on the cold concrete floor of our unfinished basement, my 10-year-old...
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The future of journalism: amid all the fretting, having faith in the ability...
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, natch — and some of it on vinyl or actual...
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5(ish) Questions: Ted Conover and “Immersion: A Writer’s Guide to Going Deep”
One of the first works I read by Ted Conover, the country’s reigning master of immersion reporting, was “Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing,” his 2000 book chronicling 10 months he spent guarding a...
View ArticleGet 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 some of the winners:...
View Article“I think that the dying pray at the last not ‘please,’ but ‘thank you,’ as a...
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 for Editorial Writing in...
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