May 2013
3 posts
2 tags
Elizabeth Kolbert: Obama’s Keystone Decision →
Elizabeth Kolbert with a strikingly elegant op-ed on what’s at stake with the Keystone pipeline.
Can Vice Get 20-Somethings to Watch the News? →
This Brooklyn-based hipster outlet has exploded over the last decade.
Oldie but goody - I’m a big fan of the show!
March 2013
3 posts
19 Ways To Love Yourself →
February 2013
2 posts
3 tags
Excerpt: Joseph Mitchell's "Street Life"
In my time, I have visited and poked around in every one of the hundreds of neighborhoods of which this city is made up, and by the city I mean the whole city – Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, and Richmond. I have gone to some of these neighborhoods only once or twice, but I have gone to others – or to certain streets in them – over and over and over again, sometimes for reasons that I...
Champion Email Writer
One thing I know I’m good at is writing great emails. Personally, professionally.
December 2012
1 post
June 2012
3 posts
Back in Action
Ok. Finals are over, my sister graduated college, I moved, and then had the pleasure of working with the Clinton Global Initiative. The past few weeks have been crazy, but I’m back in BK and ready to hit up Code Academy in my spare time.
The Jeanne Marie Laskas Archive on Longform →
longformblog:
From Joe Paterno to coal miners, the rodeo to fruit pickers, our story picks by theGQ correspondent.
May 2012
7 posts
Business Plan (Part 2)
So, I spent the semester thinking about what I was going to do for my business. I couldn’t get away from the idea of doing a blog on social good, social change. But what was my angle? That was the missing link.
Meanwhile, I’ve been job hunting and thinking about what conversations and job posts made me really excited. And it turns out, women’s rights resonated with me quite...
The Best Political Tumblrs (Chris Cillizza) →
Tumblr gets political.
Q and A with Bryan Farrell of "Waging...
Below is a Q and A that I conducted with Bryan Farrell, one of the founders of “Waging Non-Violence”: a blog that focuses on grassroots environmental movements. Their tagline? People-powered news and analysis. Check it out below!
Tell me about your publication
Well…we’re coming up on our third year this May, and we started it three years ago. Me, my friend Eric and my other friend Nathan had all...
By the Book, Madeleine Albright Style →
What does the former SoS read?
April 2012
9 posts
Code Academy →
This is sweet - learn to code with easy tutorials. A must for any media junkie (include me). Soon I will be able to create new webpages and speak html and css among other languages…let’s hope.
AMNY - Pols Looking to Make Big Apple Greener →
Great news to start off the week - NYC’s politicians are getting excited about the possibilities of urban greening.
Patriotism and Cosmopolitanism →
Martha Nussbaum’s essay on why we should all adopt a cosmopolitan view of the world - the view posits that we are citizens of the world, first and foremost, and then citizens of our respective communities. It is wonderful.
2 tags
Nieman Lab: Google's Head of News Products... →
Ethics for a New Millennium
My professor suggested I look into the Dalai Lama’s book, Ethics for a New Millennium, as part of my research. (Study guide from the Dalai Lama Foundation here.)
I’m very interested in reading this book because it takes Buddhist concepts (such as interdependence of all living things) and applies them to current events. As a practicing Buddhist, I think that this will provide a...
“At the age of six I wanted to be a cook. At seven I wanted to be Napoleon. And...”
Happiness Report
The Earth Institute just published the world’s first Happiness Report (Fast Company summary here)– yes. It was commissioned by United Nations Conference on Happiness, and used a series of qualitative indicators to measure a number of factors that determine happiness.
I saw Jeffrey Sachs speak a few weeks ago, and apparently he has been getting inspired by both Buddhism and Bhutan’s ‘Gross National...
March 2012
25 posts
4 tags
CGIU, Networks and Youth
After the vast success of CGI, President Clinton decided to open CGIU: same commitment model, same incredible conference-style led by world changing speakers, but this time for university students only. The first CGIU was in 2008, and this weekend will see the emergence of the 5th conference at GW University.
I’m really excited to see what ideas come out of this weekend. Students come from all...
2 tags
My Business
So the whole point of the class (the one that I’m writing this blog for) is to come up with a business plan. My professor, Adam Penenberg (good writer, check him out) says that we should do something we love.
Last week the founder of MediaBistro came to speak to our class. Laurel Touby’s story was beautiful because the tale of media bistro was so organic - she started throwing...
“Guard your light and protect it. Move it forward into the world and be fully...”
5 tags
Books I want to Check Out (From the Library)
A few books have been getting buzz lately: below are all on my reading list and in some way all attempt to create sense out of our current global structure.
Power Inc. – David Rothkopf, now Editor at Large for Foreign Policy magazine, has also written Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They are Making and Running the World: The Inside Story of the National Security Council and the...
Cherry Blossoms
Early spring this year: “weather” (pun!) this is a result of global warming or just mother nature smiling down on east coasters, I am not sure. Let’s not try and look a gift horse in the mouth. However, this does mean that the cherry blossoms will be blooming soon at Brooklyn Botanical Garden (earlier than their usual april). Check out BBG’s interactive map of the trees so...
Underground Greenery? In NYC? Yes please →
tumblrbot asked: WHERE WOULD YOU MOST LIKE TO VISIT ON YOUR PLANET?
1 tag
Joseph Kony
This article on Joseph Kony poses the perfect questions: can we use numbers and internet technology to affect justice?
2 tags
Being Good to Others Means Being Good to Us
In the kind of Buddhism I practice, Nichiren Buddhism, its founder (13th Century Japanese monk Nichiren) has a quote: “if you light a lamp for another, your own way will be lit.” This is a statement by which I try to live my life, and living this way has shown me time and time again that when I extend myself for others my own life is more full than it would have ever been otherwise. It also keeps...
1 tag
Content Marketing
Below we’ve got the 10 Commandments for Content Marketing (as it applies to Brand Journalism) put together by Shane Snow. You can check them out yourself, but there were a few things that stuck out to me in relation to the blog. Namely: Content has to be intellectually stimulating, original, and transparent. It has to be geared to its audience and to its medium (twitter, blog or print). It’s gotta...
1 tag
Urban Agriculture: What Makes Our Cities Green?
Cities have SO much potential for innovation, and I’ve had this fact come at me again and again in my reading this week.
First, I was reading “Common Wealth” by Jeffrey Sachs, which is a manual for “economics on a crowded planet.” As we now have more people in cities than we have in rural areas it means that we will have to invest more resources into the burgeoning field of “urban ecology”. This...
What Drives Social Change?
Good question. I’ve been working on this as a part of my thesis. How do ideas move from scholarship to policy? What creates the intellectual mood of a time? I came across this interesting article from the Columbia Journalism Review that talked about driving forces behind public opinion on climate change.
From my thesis I am interested in looking at the ideas of sustainability promoted by...
The Future of Journalism
My research over the past week has got me thinking about the future of journalism and possibilities. I rounded up a few articles from the past year that I thought did a good job of poking around the media field – just a look for you all!
A recap of a TIME Magazine panel on the future of journalism (Oct 2011)
The NextWeb has a nice little recap of London’s Social Media Week: what happens when...
Purpose
My Q&A with ProPublica got me thinking about new models of journalism, or emerging forms of new media. While I will publish a more collected post tomorrow, I wanted to bring your attention to an organization that I think is doing interesting work: Purpose.
Purpose creates “21st Century Movements.” Their aim is to use the power of an engaged people to create massive social change through...
1 tag
Q and A of Minhee Cho from ProPublica
Editor’s note: We have to conduct two Q and As with media startups and publish them on our blogs. I got in touch with ProPublica, and luckily their Communications Manager, Minhee Cho, was kind enough to take the time to answer my long list of questions. If you don’t know ProPublica yet, you need to. They’re “an independent, non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public...
Elevator Pitch
Ideas for my business. I’m bouncing these off you guys! I want to do a non-profit news aggregation site. A bit like Dowser in that it promotes “solution journalism.” Below is my elevator pitch, what do you all think?
I’m starting a blog that provides rich, short sharp snippets on theories and projects that make the world better. It will distinguish itself from the pack as a blog that is...
2 tags
Innovation Management
I had a conversation with a friend the other day and we discussed the most effective ways that people can make change. One of the questions I ask myself is: what sector? Non-profit, government or private?
Buddhism cites that you can create value absolutely any place that you are, since your behavior matters more than anything else. Constructivist International Relations claims that “significant...
2 tags
Social Good, Social Media
Been thinking about what social media could mean to create social good. A few different ideas have come swimming this way lately.
1) There is a great Q and A between Nick Kristof and Fast Company published in January where Kristof discusses the role of new media in journalism. He talks about his readers’ role in his work, how social media helps him find stories, and the line between journalism...
