What was your first job as a journalist?
I covered professional surfing events in California
Have you ever used a typewriter?
Not for journalism work
How is social media changing news?
info must be conveyed in bite-sized chunks
What does it mean to be a journalist?
you must have incredible integrity, because most of the rules we follow we have to enforce them ourselves.
What's the funniest news-related #hashtag you've seen?
no answer
How do you prefer to be pitched on stories?
briefly and with links to relevant supporting information
What tools and software do you use to do your job?
Word, Scrivener, Temi, Olympus LS-P2, Sony A7 II
What's your favorite social network?
instagram
Who do you wish followed you?
Elizabeth Kolbert, Al Gore, Coral Davenport, and any other magazine journalist doing in-depth coverage of the impacts of climate change.
Why did you become a journalist?
I love story-telling
Did you work for your high school newspaper? If so, what did you do there?
No
What story are you most proud of writing or working on?
The book I'm currently writing. It's about a community destroyed by Hurricane Sandy and now facing relocation because of sea level rise.
What advice can you offer to aspiring journalists?
figure out your beat and put yourself in key locations. Don't expect to report from the safety of your desk. Get out there.
When's the best time to pitch you?
early morning
What's the worst pitch you ever got?
one that was clearly a boiler plate email from a pr company, pitching a product that in no way could be written about objectively
What's your favorite drink?
coffee
When you're not at a computer, where are you most likely to be?
In the field reporting
Aside from your own, what's your favorite publication to read?
New Yorker
What's the most common misperception about your beat?
that story's aren't fact-checked
