Journalism
NPR Features
I love radio — both as a producer and as a consumer. It triggers internal imaging because, I think, the mind is trying to fill up the space lacking without video. So when I introduce the “ambient” sound into a feature, say, about paddling beside a humpback whale in Alaska, I know that splash, or that blowhole exhalation, is what’s going to bring a listener to Alaska from, say, Des Moines.
I’ll start with a recent story:
Doug Fine, Astronaut? An NPR investigation.
The links at the bottom of this page have good links to my features from New Mexico:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5279315
The links at the bottom of this page give a good sample of my Alaska stories. It starts with a link to the interview on NPR about Not Really An Alaskan Mountain Man, but if you scroll down it includes links to many of my Alaskan features:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=3934125
But that list misses three of my favorites, surrounding the aforementioned kayaking with a humpback whale, running in a team wilderness marathon a week after an appendectomy, and a Canada to Alaska international bike relay. Those are at:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=3807436
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1407440
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1314053
And, if you’ve ever been a Dead Head or just worn the t-shirt, I’m kind of fond of this piece, which examines whether the Dead social phenomenon continues in the scene surrounding an ostensible “cover band” called Dark Star Orchestra: http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2007/05/28/show-rundown-for-5282007
(Scroll Down to the Dark Star Orchestra Story)
Print Journalism From Five Continents
Starting when I was in my 20s, a time when most everyone was telling me to get a real job, I called myself a journalist and set sail for places that interested me, usually for cultural reasons. It’s a small planet, I reasoned, and one can get anywhere from anywhere with one plane ticket and a forged press pass or two. Here are a few of the resulting pieces, some from back in “International Couch Surfing” phase, and some from more recent incarnations.
ATTACK OF THE TOMATO KILLERS — Essay In the New York Times Magazine
Never one to let a Biblical Hailstorm go un-tax-deducted, my essay about the (as of publication time) latest Climate Change-induced carnage on the Funky Butte Ranch appeared in the New York Times Magazine. Meanwhile, Farewell, My Subaru is continuing to fuel the worldwide theft of waste vegetable oil from behind the planet’s Chinese restaurants. Thanks to everyone for their support of the book.
IN THE YEAR 2049: WOULD I SURVIVE A WORST-CASE SCENARIO? A Former Suburbanite Plans For Post-Globalization — Essay in The Washington Post
Ever wonder what would happen if you popped into the Quickie Mart for a quart of juice and some batteries and found the shelves were empty…permanently? I do. An essay I wrote on this issue, which I’ve thought about for several years and which partly explains the Digital Age Carbon-Neutral life I’m attempting here on the Funky Butte Ranch, ran in the Washington Post’s Sunday Outlook section.
BABY ON BOARD…THE KAYAK — Essay in Sierra Magazine
Has this ever happened to you? You’re lost in heart-stopping wilderness beauty. Unsure of water supply. Temperatures are approaching those on Planet Mercury. It’s all part of the fun of a week-long river trip in Utah’s Canyonlands, right? What about when your (then) three-month-old son is along? My recent adventure along these lines is documented in the current edition of Sierra Magazine
RWANDA
The Misty Future of Rwanda’s Mountain Gorillas
BURMA
Burmese Opposition Leader Snubs Junta’s Constitution Talks
LAOS
UZBEKISTAN
Uzbekistan Airways Flight 207, Somewhere Over the Atlantic Ocean
TAJIKISTAN
GUATEMALA
More recently, I’ve focused my shorter journalistic endeavors in the radio medium and in monthly magazine columns that are one part Outdoor Adventure and five parts The Kind of Things That Occur to One Philosophically On Outdoor Adventures. Every day, I’m also working longer projects like books (fiction and non-, grown-up and children’s), poems, song and screenplays (and, of course, these Dispatches From the Funky Butte Ranch).
Doug’s Essay in the New York Times Magazine:
Never one to let a Biblical Hailstorm go un-tax-deducted, my essay about the (as of publication time) latest Climate Change-induced carnage on the Funky Butte Ranch appeared in the New York Times Magazine. Meanwhile, Farewell, My Subaru is continuing to fuel the worldwide theft of waste vegetable oil from behind the planet’s Chinese restaurants. Thanks to everyone for their support of the book.