I'm Coming Home — And Taking A Break
Dear Reader,
Recently, I spoke at the ComSciCon-Flagship conference at Emerson College, co-leading a workshop on climate equity in storytelling and dishing career advice to those exploring a career in science writing.
This is my last professional event in Boston: As I wrap up my time at the MIT Graduate Program in Science Writing, I’m moving back to Atlanta in late August!
This will kick off an important time of transition in our newsroom:
I will take a sabbatical starting August 28th as I await my work permit and hopefully travel around Asia!
During my absence, our newly promoted Managing Editor Rhysea Agrawal will oversee the entire newsroom (you can learn more about the promotion here.) Hooray!
I will return on October 7th as The Xylom’s Publisher and Editor. The new role reflects a shift in my responsibilities from being a volunteer student editor over the last six-plus years (really!) to becoming a paid news executive in a fledging newsroom.
The moment I realized I needed help was when I was frantically filing a “Cop City” story using my parents’ crappy hotspot on a long-distance train in the middle of Wisconsin. This was not a sustainable model of journalism.
Rhysea was our perfect Employee #1: she brings together a geological sciences research background, an international outlook, and a journalistic flair. As our inaugural Newsroom Fellow, she explored everything from editing and fact-checking to grant applications, even pitching reporting projects.
Now, Rhysea is more than ready to take on more responsibilities. She’s already hard at work this week, representing us at #AAJA24 in Austin, Texas; she will be filing a dispatch shortly which you can read in this newsletter.
I will be rooting for Rhysea; please join me in welcoming her to her new role!
Yours sincerely,
Alex Ip
Editor-in-Chief
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THINGS YOU SHOULD READ
FAMILY NEWS!
Thank you to our new donors Tony, Sophie Hartley, Maeve, John Loftus, Bill, Anonymous, and new sustainer Ngai! Help us grow science with words by donating to the only Asian American science newsroom here.
Congratulations to our alumna Hanna Webster, winner of the 2024 Lenfest Institute Emerging Journalist Award, part of the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association’s Keystone Media Awards!
As Katrina Miller wraps up her New York Times Fellowship and returns as a staff reporter, hear in her own words her science reporting journey.
A SOUTHERN FLAIR
NEW ORLEANS — When Storm Prep Is Left up to Citizens (Sara Sneath, The Atlantic)
Over a supreme pizza and a bottle of wine, my girlfriend, our roommate, my best friend, and I discussed how we would evacuate together from New Orleans with our three dogs and three chickens.
ANDARKO, Oklahoma — Tribal lands in Oklahoma are 5 times more likely to flood than rest of state (Taylar Dawn Stagner, Grist)
“We get stuck in places where nobody else wants to live.”
— Theresa Tsoodle (Pawnee), University of OklahomaDURHAM, North Carolina — The Fifth Branch (A podcast series by Tradeoffs and The Marshall Project)
“Most people do not think that story can end with that person just walking out without any handcuffs on, with no use of force, and be transported to hospital because he has threatened to hurt officers and hurt himself. The idea that a different type of response might be successful there is hard to imagine.”
— Ryan Smith, Durham Director of Community SafetyST. ROSE, Louisiana — What happens when a so-called climate solution risks your community’s safety? (Yessenia Funes, Vox)
“The tank farm on the fence-line of Elkinsville-Freetown St. Rose came [50] years after the free men and women of color settled the community. And when they came, they never left.”
— Kimbrelle Eugene Kyereh, Founder, Refined Community Empowerment
WHAT ELSE WE'RE READING
FREETOWN, Sierra Leone — Sierra Leone not long ago still chained mental health patients. A transformation is underway (Kemo Cham, The Associated Press)
“We have been able to change the face of this infrastructure, from a place that people were ashamed to bring their family members, a place that even health workers were afraid to come and work ... to a place that the country is proud of.”
— Abdul Jalloh, at one point the only practicing psychiatrist in the countryMAE SOT, Thailand — Posing as ‘Alicia,’ This Man Scammed Hundreds Online. He Was Also a Victim. (Feliz Solomon and Rachel Liang, The Wall Street Journal)
One Pakistani man, who had a wife and four children, became obsessed with the woman Billy portrayed and wrote her long essays that read like desperate love poems. When Billy stopped responding, he said the man sent him a video of himself throwing acid on his face.
“Until I die I can’t forget it,” Billy said.who killed the world? (Alvin Chang, The Pudding)
But over the last few generations, it’s been harder for us to imagine this better world – and our sci-fi reflects that.
What Project 2025 Would Mean for Climate Change (Jason P. Dinh, Atmos)
“[Project 2025] envisions an administration that expands oil and gas, ends federal support for renewable energy, and strips federal agencies of their power to protect the environment.”
THE XYLOM’S RECENT STORIES
Who’s Taking A Million Gallons of Water from Memphis A Day? Elon Musk.
Elon Musk‘s plans for an energy- and water-intensive supercomputer have rattled Boxtown, Memphis. The historically Black neighborhood has dealt with toxic facility clusters upstream and recently warded off the Byhalia pipeline. Check out Alex Ip’s visual for the piece, first reported by Ashli Blow for MLK50!
This Barbie Is... A Dolled-Up Wax Cadaver?
When Ellie Rose Mattoon researched across Europe, she could never shake off the specter of the Anatomical Venus: a life-sized wax teaching model from the 1700s that soon took on a life of her own. Is there still something to learn from her and her sisters?
Aquafarmers are Fighting A Losing Battle to Keep Algae from Ruining Their Shellfish
Harmful algal blooms lead to biotoxins that can’t be removed by boiling or freezing. Aquafarmers, researchers, and regulators are doing their best to prevent them from entering our shellfish diet, but climate change and poor infrastructure are making their jobs more difficult than before.
In Rural Western Uganda, A Tree-Planting Initiative Shows Signs of Life
In rural Western Uganda, an ambitious collaboration between Ecosia, Jane Goodall Institute Uganda, and residents to grow 200,000 trees in the Budongo-Bugoma Corridor is reaping the rewards for people and wildlife. A solutions photo feature from Kang-Chun Cheng:
Perspective: Am I Invasive?
Check out an exclusive excerpt of Ayurella Horn-Muller's book, Devoured: The Extraordinary Story of Kudzu, the Vine That Ate the South, where she detangles the complicated stories of the South’s fickle relationship with kudzu, and hers with the South.