Blog Posts

Back in the day (2010 or so), there were two reasons why I sought to be promoted to SVP at MTV News: Business Class Travel (back and forth to LA in one, comfortable day!), and Bill Flanagan. Bill was a celebrated contributor to Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair and Spy, before joining Musician, and ascending the…

If you’ve ever driven across America, then you probably know just how big it really is. The state of Kansas alone is well over 400 miles across. And while it’s not as flat as as reported, it is a whole lotta nondescript prairie: grass and dirt and sky for miles. It is a landscape made…

Were it not for Hint CEO, Kara Goldin, I might not be here today.  The year was 2013. And work was beginning to smell weird. I’d helped transform MTV News from a revenue-neutral, broadcaster to a 24/7, digital first newsroom. But short form was getting shorter, and memes were replacing headlines. Worse, media was riding/boom…

We are a Microwave Culture. We track time by weekends, holidays and life events. We love The Quick Fix, The Cliff Note, The New York Minute. We want immediate gratification, rapid appreciation, and hockey stick growth. Few things in the natural world, though, are actually immediate. Nature tends towards cycles (like tides), stalls and starts…

I first met Negin Farsad in the MTV Newsroom thirteen or so years ago. Negin was a writer on a wacky show called “Daily Detox” which, as I recall, was a bizarre daily news recap with a very healthy budget line for puppets and plush mascots. At the time, Chris and I were a bit…

Twenty years ago, I was lucky enough to spend an afternoon with America’s Favorite Neighbor, Fred Rogers. That day, Mister Rogers said something that changed my life: “Deep and simple is far more essential than shallow and complex.” In season two of our new podcast, “Friends & Neighbors,” my brother, Christopher, and I, continue the…