Author

Benjamin has been writing since his first gig as a fifteen-year-old stringer for the local Suburban & Wayne Times. He was managing editor of The Conestoga Spoke, and contributor to The Syracuse Daily Orange.

Since graduating from Syracuse University with dual degrees in Journalism and Creative Writing (Tobias Wolff led his Senior Workshop), Benjamin has been published in Rolling Stone, Men's Journal, MTV News, Mental Floss and Swing Magazine on topics ranging from politics to pop culture.

He has interviewed Bono, The Edge, Neil Young, Michael Stipe, Reed Hastings, Shepard Fairey, Douglas Coupland, Cameron Crowe, Aimee Mann and Paul Thomas Anderson, amongst others.

Benjamin contributed to the collection, "2 Do Before I Die," and wrote the award-winning 2012 PBS documentary, "Mister Rogers & Me."

Benjamin began blogging in 2000, and continues regular weekly updates via his newsletter.

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May 10 2022

Kim Thai: Get Free

The last time I remember really talking with my friend and former MTV colleague, Kim Thai, we were sitting in a nondescript production trailer outside of the Barclay Center at the 2014 Video Music Awards. Kim, who, at the time, managed social media for the channel’s biggest shows, and I, who ran MTV News, often…

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Apr 27 2022

Kelli Rae Powell: Hope & The High Road

I left Facebook one year ago, and have spent the better part of my time since trying to figure out what the fuck just happened. Pre-pandemic, I worked at a high-stakes, high-pressure job at a company under scrutiny, in an industry under duress, on a planet on fire. I was on the road and in…

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Apr 21 2022

Jeff Domanski: It Gets Easier

In 2014, during a window between my high-pressure MTV News job and higher-pressure Facebook one, I visited my dear friend, Jeff Domanski, in his Hudson Highlands, home some 75 miles of New York City. We kayaked and swam in the river, and watched a bald eagle devour its catch from just a few boat lengths away. The…

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