A Message from Our Newsroom Fellow
Dear Reader,
Hello! I am very honored to be writing to you as the first newsroom fellow at The Xylom.
Since childhood, I have two major passions: words and our planet. I have always been deeply concerned about our impact on our planet, but for the longest time, I didn't really know how I could help make a difference with my words. So, when I came to the University of Southern California (USC) as an undergraduate, I decided to study both earth sciences and English, hoping to find a confluence between the two. Thanks to some incredible people at USC, who helped me find my voice, I finally found a common ground between my two passions: science journalism.
Since then, I have never looked back. I decided to get a master's degree in journalism from USC, where I specialized in environmental reporting. I was the inaugural editor of the USC Annenberg Media Earth Desk, where I worked with other reporters to expand climate reporting at USC. I also wrote stories about earthquake awareness and research for the Southern California Earthquake Center during my time at USC.
After I graduated this May, I reported climate stories for the Malheur Enterprise in southeastern Oregon as the first Rural Climate Reporting Fellow for the USC Annenberg Center for Climate Journalism and Communication. All of these experiences really taught me the importance of connecting with one's community and reporting stories that matter to all of us.
I have always admired The Xylom for producing factual, quality journalism, especially since the newsroom consists solely of early-career journalists and student contributors. And so, dear reader, my main goal for this year-long fellowship is to expand our coverage so we can share more science stories that you can connect and resonate with. With your support, we will continue to produce excellent science coverage and hope to expand our newsroom even more.
Please feel free to reach out to me at shreya.agrawal@thexylom.com with tips, pitches, or feedback!
Best regards,
Shreya Agrawal,
Newsroom Fellow
Thanks to our generous reader Reid Davis, we are giving out Bluesky invite codes for the first five (5) people who reply with screenshots of any donation towards The Xylom!
TEN-ISH WORD STORIES, SUBMITTED BY OUR READERS
- After about 2 hours of climbing uphill, the village of Barpak was in front of my eyes, which was shaken by the earthquake. When I went there 8 years after the earthquake, I thought that the people here have forgotten everything, but no, the horror of it is still alive in their minds.
— Pradip Devokta, Master's Student, Tribhuvan University, Nepal
- "I have three clients on death row right now."
— Maria Bolevich, Freelance Journalist, Croatia
TODAY IN THINGS YOU MUST READ
FAMILY NEWS SUPER EDITION!
- Alumna Claudia López-Lloreda will be attending ScienceWriters23 as a CASW New Horizons in Science travel fellow! Editor-in-Chief Alex Ip will be joining her through an NASW Travel Grant, and so will our Advisory Board member Betsy Ladyzhets, who's organizing the "Data, FOIAs, tips: pursuing investigative stories as a science writer" session.
- Purple Romero is selected for the CCCL Film Grants Program. She will be one of ten filmmakers from Southeast Asia shedding a light on how climate change affects marginalized sectors across the region.
- Alums Nicole Félix Vélez and Saren Seeley are getting recognition for their research! Nicole received a GEMINI Diversity Fellowship Award from UC San Diego Institute of Engineering in Medicine, while Saren was selected for a BBR Foundation NARSAD Young Investigator Award to examine learning in grief adaptation and prolonged grief.
- On the move: Kwasi Wrensford is joining the Biodiversity Research Centre at the University of British Columbia as an NSF Postdoctoral Fellow, while Gina Errico also moved halfway across the Pacific, but to become a Biology Lecturer at Hawaii Pacific University!
A SOUTHERN FLAIR
- Dr. Katharine Wilkinson, the former Editor-in-Chief of Project Drawdown, formally announces her opposition to "Cop City" in a CNN op-ed:
I also count myself among the collection of people that want to see Cop City stopped — not only because I treasure Atlanta’s trees and waterways, and because I loathe the growing militarization of police and its implications for my neighbors of color and for activists on the frontlines. I am also deeply concerned as a climate expert in an already hot city.[...]
So here I sit in the snarl of people and place, past and present, family and forest. I worry that rather than the “city in the forest,” known for exporting sparkly sugar water, hip-hop and civil rights, our city will become known for ripping down forest and muscling up the long arm of the law, as police descend from around the country and the world to train here.
- Some of our favorite Southern environmental journalists are featured on Season Six of the SELC's Broken Ground podcast. Take a listen:
- Along Coastal Georgia, at least 100 million square feet of warehouse space has been built in Chatham, Bryan, Effingham, Liberty and Jasper counties, and another 16 million square feet are expected to be finished this year to support the Port of Savannah’s booming business. The Current speaks to local residents and experts about how this is affecting daily life and the ecology of the region.
- From Friend of The Xylom Martha Pskowski for Inside Climate News: Texas regulators are encouraging more discharges of oil field wastewater into bodies of water, and nowhere does this happen more often than in the Permian Basin in southwestern Texas. However, researchers have found that the water contains various "forever" chemicals and radioactive materials. Worse yet, regulators lack toxicity data to evaluate potential health risks to humans or standard methods to detect them.
WHAT ELSE WE'RE READING
- For Hong Kong Free Press, Nithin Coca takes a stab at one of the world's most invisible environmental borders:
"An analysis of 50 major Europe- and North America-based global non-profit organisations – focused on issues ranging from the environment, human rights, press freedom, poverty, and health – showed that environmental and climate groups were the most likely to include Taiwan as part of China, or exclude it altogether, in maps and reports." [...]
"The argument seems to be that the benefits to environmental protection and climate action of collaborating with Beijing are worth it. This is a choice that does not exist for human rights, civic, and press freedom groups, which have never been able to operate in mainland China and were the most likely to include Taiwan in their reports."
- Hmong patients are twice as likely to suffer strokes than their white counterparts, according to a first-of-its-kind study published recently by the University of Minnesota. Sahan Journal reports that they are on average 11 years younger, twice more likely to suffer hemorrhagic strokes, and typically arrived at the hospital later — often more than four hours after their stroke symptoms began. Related: There is no word in the Hmong language to describe stroke symptoms.
- There is "Trouble in Wyoming", a Columbia Journalism Review headline declares. Right-wing megadonor Foster Friess, unhappy with the coverage of Wyofile, has funded a right-wing challenger that predominantly sources from organizations questioning the science behind climate change and uses language that "perpetuates harmful cliches and stereotypes" of transgender Wyomingites. (Disclaimer: The Xylom, like Wyofile, is a member of the INN Network).
- As climate change hits the Arctic, Nunatsiavut is partnering with the Canadian government to co-develop the world’s first Inuit protected area. The Guardian's Ossie Michelin and Eldred Allen head north to understand why this time, it will be different.
THE XYLOM'S RECENT STORIES
A Journey Through My Microbiome: An Immigrant’s Perspective on a Changing Gut
- When Manasvi Verma moved over 8,000 miles from New Delhi, India to St. Louis, she ate less of her Dadi's kadhi, but more of her roommate's mom's chicken noodle casserole. How has that changed her from the inside out and the outside in?
If Phylogenetic Sense Be Something Biologists Wish
- Nearly two decades in, researchers are still debating which creature is the closest living relative to all animals. Are new methods getting them any closer? Rohini Subrahmanyam asks.
In the Shadow of Mumbai’s Coastal Road, Fishermen Ponder Their Future — If Any
- Mumbai's Coastal Road, a $1.5B superhighway built on reclaimed land along the Arabian Coast, is set to open next year. Kang-Chun Cheng heads to Lotus Jetty to see how the megaproject has devastated Indigenous Koli fishers — and how they are fighting back.
Hyena Helpers for Human-predator Harmony
- For Pride Month, Navya Pothamsetty spoke to Christine Wilkinson, Ph.D. about her work: why humans run into conflict with hyenas and coyotes, how lived experiences and values shape these interactions, and what we can do to live with mesopredators in harmony.
Toxic Nuclear Waste is Piling up in the U.S. Where’s the Deposit?
- Decades on end and after spending billions, the U.S. still has no strategy to permanently deposit its highly radioactive nuclear waste, writes Bárbara Pinho.