February 2012
15 posts
“People who can code in the world of technology companies are a dime a dozen and...”
– Zed Shaw on using programming skills as a “secret weapon.” Quoted in this great post by Dan Nguyen about why journalists should have programming skills.
“I don’t know what to tell my daughter. She’s seven and we haven’t talked about...”
– Jonpaul Barrabee, 35, works as a criminal defense attorney in Detroit. I interviewed Barrabee about his work and the view that work provides him of life in America now. This quote sticks with me. Lots of people have said this to me in lots of different ways, and Barrabbe captures the essence of the...
“The pitcher cries for water to carry
and a person for work that is real.”
– Marge Piercy, from her poem, “To Be of Use“
(I’ve been reading and thinking a bunch on work, which is how I came upon this gem.)
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You do what now? An attempt to explain the Public...
My cube at American Public Media is situated on the shoulder of a major thoroughfare that stretches from the studios where national programming is recorded all the way to the bustle of the Minnesota Public Radio newsroom.
Tour groups often pause in front of my cube, which is also where a bunch of my fellow Public Insight Networkers reside, so that the tour guide can attempt to explain what it is...
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You do what now? An attempt to explain the Public...
Read the introductory post here. In a nutshell, I’m new to the work of a Public Insight Network reporter, and this is my attempt to explain what I do, even as I learn how to do it.
Most of my reporting at the Public Insight Network begins with a query — a questionnaire posted online or sent to our network of sources (I’ll say more about them in the next post, but there are lots...
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“As a journalist in the Middle East, as an Arab-American, I am struck time and...”
– Anthony Shadid, who died in Syria on Thursday, writing on nostalgia and loss in a 2008 essay about his efforts to restore his grandmother’s home in Lebanon. A great loss.
The Knight-Mozilla Partnership Evolves →
Ten tons of awesome…
sinker:
Change is awesome—it’s a necessary component to anything remaining vital and a required ingredient to facilitate organic growth. And so it’s with real excitement that today I’m announcing changes to the Knight-Mozilla News Technology Partnership.
Before we get to the changes, some quick…
“So, I listen. I try not to dwell on my inadequacies as an adviser. Instead, I...”
– Jeffrey Zaslow, writing about being an advice columnist. Zaslow died in a car accident last week, he was just 53. Read more about his work.
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"The comfort of the rich depends upon an abundant...
Later next week I’ll be turning the Susette Carroll interview into a podcast. For now, here’s this, posted at our Dispatches from the American Now Tumblr project…
theamericannow:
By Jeff Severns Guntzel (2.8.2012)
This post is not about the servant staff at “Downton Abbey” (pictured above). But bear with me, it’s apropos.
Susette Carroll, 32, is a single mother, part-time...
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“It’s the life you can’t escape that gives you the knowledge you need...”
– Norman Mailer, in an interview with Steven Marcus
(Might this also be true for reporters?)
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“I hate writing about anyone who is familiar with the press or has a...”
– Adrien Nicole LeBlanc, author of “Random Family,” being interviewed by Robert S. Boyton for his book, “The New New Journalism”
"I love my job": A Storify joint →
theamericannow:
Today I’m reading through the more than 200 responses (more coming in as I type) to my Public Insight Network query on hard work. I took a break and went searching in Twitter for people talking about their jobs. I searched “I hate my job” and wanted to share what I found, but I don’t want to get anybody fired for my curiosity, so I flipped “hate” to “love” and got lost in the...
“This book, being about work, is, by its very nature, about violence — to the...”
– Studs Terkel, from the introduction to Working, his oral history, where “people talk about what they do all day and how they feel about what they do.” Hear audio of some of the 130 interviews Terkel conducted for the book. It was published in 1974, during another time of great economic upheaval in...
January 2012
4 posts
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“In memory, we find the most complete release from the narrowness of presented...”
– F.C. Bartlett, Remembering
“Copy out things that you really love. Any book. Put the quotation marks around...”
– Nicholson Baker on copying out passages of your favorite books by hand (via austinkleon)
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Tools: What a forensic anthropologist packs to a...
I’ve always been obsessed with tools. Whenever I can get an inventory of tools into a story, I do it. It can add levity or gravity or something else altogether. It was pure gravity when, in 2004, I asked forensic anthropologist Clyde Snow to show me what he brings to an exhumation or wherever else he might encounter human remains:
Asked what he takes with him to an exhumation, he leaves...
December 2011
15 posts
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“It is not necessary to remind you that the fact that your voice is amplified to...”
– Edward R. Murrow
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Tip sheet: Talking politics with your family
A recent headline in the satirical weekly The Onion declared, “95 Percent Of Opinions Withheld On Visit To Family.” You know it’s true. We all have techniques for surviving political conversations at family gatherings (or avoiding that minefield altogether). We’ve been asking Public Insight Network sources for their tips. The response has been pretty good — sometimes...
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What Paula Merns left behind in Iraq, and what she...
The Public Insight Network is asking vets about their time in Iraq. Specifically, we are asking vets about what they left behind in Iraq. This could be a physical object or something less tangible. We are also asking about anything they have kept — something from their time there that is particularly meaningful.
If you are a vet, or if you know a vet who might be interested in joining the...
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What Douglas Johnson left behind in Iraq, and what...
The Public Insight Network is asking vets about their time in Iraq. Specifically, we are asking vets about what they left behind in Iraq. This could be a physical object or something less tangible. We are also asking about anything they have kept — something from their time there that is particularly meaningful.
If you are a vet, or if you know a vet who might be interested in joining...
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What Jay Ferguson left behind in Iraq, and what he...
The Public Insight Network is asking vets about their time in Iraq. Specifically, we are asking vets about what they left behind in Iraq. This could be a physical object or something less tangible. We are also asking about anything they have kept — something from their time there that is particularly meaningful.
If you are a vet, or if you know a vet who might be interested in joining the...
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Back in August, the Public Insight Network partnered with the conservative blog Power Line in an effort to bring more conservatives into the network. I’ve read through most of the hundreds of responses.
I’ve been particularly drawn to the answers people gave to this question: “When did you first know you leaned conservative? If you have a story about a specific event,...
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“So now we come to the questioning. The first thing I’d say to any...”
– Studs Terkel
I love this quote. There is an overstatement or two in there (Studs would not have been Studs without them), but the message is solid. He was talking about interviewing what he called “the uncelebrated person.” That is exactly what we’re doing at the Public Insight...