Where'd she go?
Reporting on an uncertain future
Hello all,
Even my “this is going to be a more irregular newsletter” newsletter couldn’t have prepared this list for what is effectively a one-two punch: I took an extended vacation, and then days after getting back, I applied to cover a materity leave at ProPublica writing — what else — newsletters.
For the past five months I’ve been in the lucky position of getting to read stories before they’re published on Propublica.org, interviewing some of the best journalists in the country about their stories for the Dispatches newsletter.
In one newsletter, Emily Schwing was eager to tell me about two kids who gave her a tour of their decaying school in rural Alaska. She’d been reporting on how Alaska has ignored repeated repair requests for schools for years, but meeting Edward and Loretta, who were “just trying to be fourth-grade kids” made the story very real.
I also interviewed my friend and once-again colleague Jessica Lussenhop about how a true crime reality show you’ve probably watched has created problems over and over again for police, crime victims and the wrongly accussed.
It’s a dramatic and upending time I’ve been inspired by the work of my colleagues at ProPublica and others covering it all. Scoops like the potential end of collecting most greenhouse gas emissions data, how a NOAA budget hits everything from climate change predictionsto protecting against algae blooms in the water supply of millions of Americans and many many other stories.
The fundamental facts on the ground have changed. My assumptions and my priorities for stories have been blown up. The reason shouldn’t be surprising, but let’s state it plainly: the second Trump administration. Federal policy has always been a help or hindrance to state and local climate efforts, but the effort to slash funding, fire key staff, attempt to claw back already awarded grant money, and executive orders that directly attack state climate policy by this administration means a new level of uncertainty and difficulty.
But the future is never decided ahead of time, and there is plenty to write about, so I’m returning to reporting anew. I’m especially interested in talking to:
- people involved in gas well cleanup and leak monitoring,
- local and state officials, community groups and businesses dealing with the fallout of firings and cut funding
- people who are thinking about how to finance renewable energy and other climate efforts.
You can respond to this email directly or find me on Signal at taylorkatebrown.98
Inspired by the process and “what I’m doing/consuming/considering/thinking about” newsletters from writers like Reo Eveleth and Ed Yong, as well as my friend Door, this newsletter is going to be slightly broader and more in support of my work than a direct version of it: what I’m reading, listening to, thinking about, etc; where I’m at in various stories and the questions I’m looking to answer; short stories of climate action that catch my eye but may or may not be part of a larger project.
elsewhere:
- My story about the taste and carbon emissions of fake meats for Heatmap News is part of service journalism package (How to Decarbonize Your Life that won a National Magazine Award. I’m delighted for myself and the folks at Heatmap that built this helpful series on individual action that doesn’t shy away from systemic questions.
- I took control of the WeThePeopleDC Instagram account several weeks ago. The handle is passed off to a new Washingtonian each day. I spent my day eating around DC’s wonderful food scene, walking through a new park and building development, and of course, stumbling upon the city’s new central composting stops.
What I’ve been reading:
- The Golden Compass, graphic novel adapation: (Library!) A key story of my childhood and it’s exceptional weirdness is heightened in graphic novel form. (I have truly mixed feelings about the recent HBO adaptation) The beginning’s pacing didn’t really work in this format and I think you lose some of the claustrophobia of novel’s most tense parts, but it improved over the course of the book.
- “The Pitt is a Show About” (Anne Helen Petersen, Culture Study): I haven’t watched The Pitt, but I read this take on it in one go. “And how do you deal with ceaselessness? Triage. Technically, triage is a medical sorting procedure, but it is also a mechanism for responding to trauma. It is about adapting to a system under strain and doing one’s best when the circumstances are shitty. Sound familiar?”
- “Why Car YouTuber Matt Farah Is Fighting for Walkable Cities (David Zipper, CityLab/Bloomberg): I’m a sucker for counterinuitive people in climate/urbanism advocacy — so much so I’ve tried to avoiding pitching those stories myself to avoid falling in the trap of making more out of the counterintuitive than actually exists. But story is a good look at a corner of the internet (car culture YouTube) that usually doesn’t touch climate-related concerns, even when they should. Farah’s origin story on these issues is a consquential but not widely known zoning law (parking minimums!). "I started thinking about racial hierarchies and redlining, and — what’s his name? That f---ing guy in New York. Robert Moses.” (Gift link)
- “Our Own Devices” (Charlotte Shane, Meant For You): Perspective, the middle distance of our phones and social media and what it means to see and take action up close.
- “The New Shell Collectors” (Karen Fischer, Ambrook Research): “After oysters are consumed, there are countless uses for their sturdy shells — including shoreline reparation. Why is it so hard for restaurants keep them out of the trash?”