Author

James Geary

@JamesGeary

James Geary was the deputy curator of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard, editor of Nieman Reports, and former editor of the European edition of Time magazine. He is the author of “Wit’s End: What Wit Is, How It Works, and Why We Need It,” “I Is an Other: The Secret Life of Metaphor and How It Shapes the Way We See the World,” “Geary’s Guide to the World’s Great Aphorists,” the New York Times bestseller “The World in a Phrase: A Brief History of the Aphorism,” and “The Body Electric: An Anatomy of The New Bionic Senses.”

A Farewell From the Editor

A Farewell From the Editor

From the June newsletter: As he steps down, editor James Geary reflects on his time at Nieman Reports
The Contradictions of Journalistic Objectivity

The Contradictions of Journalistic Objectivity

From the editor In Kansas City last month, the Kansas City Defender published a video of a Black local community leader warning that Black women seemed to be disappearing from…
It's Time for Newsrooms to Defend Democracy

It’s Time for Newsrooms to Defend Democracy

November 8 is the date of the midterm elections, but today — September 15 — is Democracy Day.  An initiative of news industry leaders at Hearken, the Center for Cooperative Media,…
Journalism across the globe is under threat

Journalism across the globe is under threat

From the editor Americans are just about a third of the way through political primary season and already, according to a Washington Post analysis, scores of Republican candidates have been nominated…

Political Polarization and the Press

Nieman Foundation deputy curator James Geary delivered this talk to the Samsung Press Foundation in Seoul earlier this summer.I would like to talk to you tonight about football, American football,…
1947: Nieman Reports

1947: Nieman Reports

James Geary, NF ’12, editor of Nieman Reports, on the magazine’s founding Nieman Reports, from the first issue to the most recent Nieman Reports, from the first issue to the…

Critical Condition

“If you are counting full-time critic jobs at newspapers, you may as well count tombstones.” That was the response of Johanna Keller, director of the Goldring Arts Journalism Program at…

Waving, Not Drowning

Thoughts on the future of the magazine