It’s easier for me to tell the story of my work history in a narrative than it is to narrow it down to a list of bullet points.
I got started as a journalist in high school, founding and editing a satirical monthly known as The Liberator. That experience propelled me toward college journalism. I worked as a writer, editor and editor in chief for The Daily Cardinal, one of the two independent student dailies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Editing a cash-strapped 10,000 circulation daily at the age of 21 was a bit intense, but I enjoyed the experience enough to seek further work in the field.
While at UW-Madison, I co-founded Flak Magazine, a daily web magazine published continuously for nearly 10 years. Flak has been an immensely interesting and useful lab for online journalism, and a method of staying in touch with talented writers and editors from all over the United States and beyond.
My first job was at The Christian Science Monitor in Boston, where I started as a Web producer — my experience with Flak was critical to landing the opportunity. Within a couple years, I had been promoted to online news editor. I was in the newsroom on Sept. 11, 2001, and got to experience the challenge of responding to a paradigm-shifting news event in real time.
Soon thereafter, I took on the portfolio of Middle East news editor for the print edition, a job I held throughout the run-up to and the actual invasion of Iraq. Covering breaking events (often tragic; suicide bombing stories made up a disturbingly large percentage of my workload) was a high-pressure experience that taught me a lot in a hurry. The opportunity to work with the Monitor’s incredibly talented and brave correspondents was truly thrilling, and something I look back upon with a great deal of pride.
My next job was an unusual shift. I joined The Al Franken Show, the flagship of the newly formed and turbulent Air America Radio network. The move meant packing up and heading to New York City and leaving the world of dispassionate, scrupulously balanced news for opinionated and high-octane talk news journalism. Again, lots of deadlines, and the additional pressure of reporting directly to a best-selling author who prided himself on using accurate and vigorously sourced research.
I took a seven-month hiatus from the show to move back to Boston and write a book entitled “Saving General Washington.” The thesis: America’s founding virtues — pragmatic fear of executive power, a basic respect for human rights, religious tolerance and judicious use of military power overseas — were in danger of being extinguished. The book did tolerably well (more than 8,000 copies sold nationwide) and received a number of positive reviews.
Upon hearing that Franken was moving the show to Minneapolis-St. Paul, I jumped at the opportunity to return to my Midwestern roots and take up the life of a full time radio booker. While working for Franken, I had the opportunity to book guests including military veterans and experts, columnists from publications such as The New York Times, Washington Post and Slate.com, leading academics from world-class universities and authors on all manner of topics, popular and specialized.
When Franken’s show ended in 2007 and turned into a Senate campaign, I found myself starting from scratch; participating in electoral politics has never been an interest of mine. Fortunately, work from CHOW.com was steady and engaging. I was also able to parlay a local blog (Metroblogging Minneapolis) into a regular restaurant review arrangement with Minnesota Monthly. When the lead food writer for City Pages left for Minnesota Monthly, I was able to jump over to City Pages, where I picked up a weekly gig writing about $20 and under restaurants.
At the end of 2008, budget cuts at City Pages led to layoffs, which included my position. I teamed up with a leading social media / online media expert and within 45 days, we’d launched a new daily online magazine about food and drink in the Upper Midwest called the Heavy Table. We publish original content twice daily, and constantly aggregate gastronomic news.
In the winter of 2007/2008, my wife and I researched an upcoming book entitled “The Master Cheesemakers of Wisconsin.” We visited nearly 35 different Wisconsin cheese plants and interviewed 43 certified master cheesemakers in pursuit of the book, driving more than 7,600 miles in the process. I conducted interviews and wrote biographical profiles based upon the transcripts; Becca took photos. The book is slated for publication by the University of Wisconsin Press in September 2009.
