Comedian Chris Gethard on the power of listening
Chris Gethard’s career may be the most zigzag-filled in comedy. He’s the author of several books, including “Lose Well,” on the importance of failure; an actor who’s appeared in high-profile TV shows...
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How a reporter found the true story behind a false story of sex trafficking
These days, a conspiracy theory can burn through a population like a pathogen. And while these theories are built on top of untruths, the ripples they send out in the world can be very real. Jessica...
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Reporting trauma: Nathan Rott on the tragedy of the Granite Mountain Hotshots
“I was crying.” Nate Rott is a correspondent on NPR’s National Desk focused on environmental issues and the American West. In 2013, he was sent to report on the death of 19 firefighters killed in...
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What personal pain reminded two writers about the gift listening
The longer I dwell in the world, the more I believe our greatest values, as human beings and as journalists, come through empathy and listening. Also, alas, our greatest failures. Because the longer I...
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So you want to write a book? Part 1: Have a strong story and resilient ego
All the great writers have proffered wisdom on the craft, the best-in-show quote being Norman Mailer’s: “Writing books is the closest men come to childbearing.” But the literary sages have offered...
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So you want to write a book? Part 2: Agents, queries and timelines
You’ve written that gripping long-form story, and you’re champing at the bit to get a book deal. What do you do? My own journey started with a lot of wrong turns and even more learning, which I wrote...
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The pioneering narrative work of “girl stunt reporters”
A while ago, preparing to teach a literary nonfiction class, I reread Nellie Bly’s “Ten Days in a Mad House,” her account of going undercover in 1887 into Blackwell’s Insane Asylum for Women. Bly is...
View ArticleThe battle for Ukraine is also a battle for sustained attention
EDITOR’S NOTE: This essay is excerpted from a Storyboard newsletter originally published Friday, Feb. 25, 2022 Just one day into the madness being visited upon Ukraine, and already there is no end...
View ArticleReading fiction through the filter of current events
Who we are when we encounter a story can have a lot to do with how we engage with that story and what meaning we take from it. Our age, personal experience, cultural context, social morays, and even...
View ArticleA citizen-journalist’s effort to follow events in Ukraine
Time and attention in recent days have gone to friends and former students in Ukraine, asking what the rest of us, as journalists and citizens, should know, how best to help, how they can get accurate...
View ArticleNot your usual police report
Cop-shop PIOs typically don’t ruminate on life in a small city or make jokes at their own expense. At least, not on social media. But since 2014, Tim Cotton — a lieutenant with the police department in...
View ArticleWhen feedback is a drag, and when it’s path forward
For most of my life, feedback made me anxious. I was in third grade when my mom came home from a parent-teacher conference with this pronouncement. “Your teacher said your math skills need improvement,...
View ArticleThe education of a journalism contest judge
If you’ve never judged a journalism contest, I urge you to raise your hand. The work can be blistering: Dozens of stories to read, tight delivery deadlines, clumsy online access. But the profession...
View Article“… anything can happen in a war.”
It’s not fair — and perhaps dangerous — to watch the Hollywood version of war. The good guys always win — or at least used to until Hollywood got a little messier and the lines between good guy and bad...
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A successful investigative career and a vision led Jim Morris to take a risk
Jim Morris was four decades into a successful investigative journalism career spotlighting environmental and labor issues. His storytelling — in newspapers, magazines and broadcast — was intimate and...
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Happy memories from Ukraine haunt as a new and brutal story unfolds
Of the too-many horror stories coming out of Ukraine, I find myself stopped when I read yet another about a family that fled with nothing of their settled lives. Grab a jacket, the children, the dog,...
View ArticleWhat happens when fandom backfires in a culture of censorship
Each time I lived in China, for a stretch in 2008 and again in 2015, I felt alone and disconnected. I grew up in Boston, but am Chinese by blood. I shared the same skin, eyes and hair color as the...
View ArticlePre-reporting risk and consequence
My neighbors across the street always have a banner flying from their porch. Sometimes they are holiday related, but mostly the colors of various sports teams. Many are international, thanks to their...
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A view of Ukraine, from an America journalist who has made his life there
Veteran U.S. newspaper journalist Brian Bonner has given the last 14 years of his career to Ukraine. As the longtime editor of the Kyiv Post, an English-language newspaper in the country’s capital, he...
View ArticleBeware the seduction of story frames: A cautionary tale
No surprise that the infamous slap during the March 27 Oscars was the talk of the press the next day, and the day after, and so many of the days that followed. No real surprise that someone in he...
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