It was all a dream. I used to read Word Up! Magazine. And The Source, Vibe, and XXL. Nieman 80 More Nieman Fellows on exemplary journalism that influenced them I hung pictures on my wall, tearing … Read more
The America’s Cup in the summer of 1983 was not only the longest and most intensive assignment of my career—one that went on day and night for four months—but it entailed total immersion in a sporting, social, historical, and political … Read more
Nieman 80 More Nieman Fellows on exemplary journalism that influenced them Growing up, I craved a more significant existence than seemed available in rural Kentucky. Climbing the ladder as a journalist, working far from home, I longed … Read more
Sometime around the point when “Saturday Night Live” did a parody of “Serial,” a joke passed among audio producers that “Serial” invented podcasts. It didn’t, of course, but in a lot of ways, it may as well … Read more
Some stories endure, not simply because of the subject matter but for the depth of reporting and quality of writing. Sonia Nazario’s masterpiece “Enrique’s Journey” is without a question one of those stories. Nieman 80 More … Read more
In her illustrious, richly crafted book “The Warmth of Other Suns,” Isabel Wilkerson brilliantly shows the journey that many African-Americans embarked on during the Great Migration. But it’s another Wilkerson work that I return to, over and over, as a … Read more
I had never heard of the musician Sixto Rodriguez before watching “Searching for Sugar Man,” the recipient of both the American Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and the British Academy of Film and Television … Read more
In an investigation published in 1972, the Omaha Sun, a weekly newspaper with not much money or staff, ferreted out the huge amounts of money Boys Town, a nonprofit to help at-risk boys, was collecting with its “he ain’t heavy, … Read more
I grew up seeing Tony Namate’s cartoons, and when, around 1991, he started doing independent political cartoons and then joined the Daily News, his work took on a major significance—not just on how I viewed the corruption and impunity of … Read more
By the time I read “No Logo” in 2005 I had been working in advertising for five years, and came to question what my brain power was being used for. At the time I worked in a … Read more
