Cynthia Barnes
Verified
(She/Her)
As seen in:
MSN Singapore,
Yahoo Life,
Aol,
Slate,
The Toronto Star,
Flipboard,
Salon,
The Boston Globe,
The Denver Post,
Food & Wine
and
Covers:
Travel, food, lifestyle, arts and culture, hospitality, health, tech
Doesn't Cover:
Religion, parenting, anything based on those AI-generated "polls" and "studies" that people spam me with.
Interview
What was your first job as a journalist?
Travel features for Missouri Life Magazine.
Have you ever used a typewriter?
A what? j/k Yes, but I've tried to block the experience out of my mind. Wite-Out, ugh.
How is social media changing news?
For the worse.
Who's your favorite fictional journalist?
Brenda Starr
What does it mean to be a journalist?
Speak truth to power.
What's the funniest news-related #hashtag you've seen?
How do you prefer to be pitched on stories?
Email, always.
Who do you wish followed you?
Barack Obama and Margaret Cho are following me, so I can die happy.
Why did you become a journalist?
For the fame, fortune, and job security. Naturally.
What story are you most proud of writing or working on?
I did a "Well-Traveled" series for Slate on the matriarchal Mosuo people in Yunnan Province, China. It's still my favorite.
What advice can you offer to aspiring journalists?
You really have to want it.
What's the best pitch you ever got?
"Would you like to go yachting in the Aeolian Islands and write about them?" Best email on a Monday morning ever.
What's the worst pitch you ever got?
I get a lot of "mommy pitches" that assume a: every woman is a "mommy" and b: only women are interested in parenting products.
What's your favorite drink?
Colorado IPAs
When you're not at a computer, where are you most likely to be?
In the kitchen cooking for friends, planning a dive trip, catching a baseball game or hanging at my local dive bar.
Aside from your own, what's your favorite publication to read?
You can't go wrong with The New Yorker.
What's the most common misperception about your beat?
That travel writers are actually on vacation, instead of frantically writing alone in a romantic hotel room at 2 a.m.
Would you like to take the Muck Rack Interview?
Create a Muck Rack profile.