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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Jul 13 2021

Roger Clark: Perfectly Good Stranger

So many cool things have happened in my life when I’ve quieted the worried voices in my head, stuck out my hand, and introduced myself to a perfectly good stranger. Roger Clark was one of those perfectly good strangers. It was the fourth year of our annual Holiday Benefit in New York City, somewhere in…

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Jul 6 2021

Megan Watkins: She Sells Sanctuary

Even as a kid from Iowa, I imagined farms as bucolic, self-sustaining places: silos full of corn to feed cute, muddy pigs; fresh milk from a well-loved heifer; eggs from the family hen. But of course, farming hasn’t been a ma ‘n pop operation for years. It’s big, big business: pesticides, fertilizers, antibiotics, growth hormones.…

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Jun 25 2021

Tim Madigan: Essential Invisible

When Christofer and I began imagining our PBS Documentary, Mister Rogers & Me, remembrances of Fred Rogers were not yet a cottage industry. It was surprising, then, in the earliest days of my research, to discover Tim Madigan’s just-published memoir, “I’m Proud of You: My Friendship With Fred Rogers.” More surprising still, Tim and my…

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