Some good news: as of this week, @thexylom.com's 2026 digital readership has already surpassed all of 2025. To be able to achieve this result, despite an industry-wide slump in web traffic due to Generative AI enshittifying search engines and vertical video, shows that we're doing something right:

Show Post

Therefore, if you're doubting the future of journalism (*cough* AI slop and fascism and union-busting *cough*), I encourage you to get off TikTok, broaden your media consumption diet, make a friend with your neighborhood reporter, and subscribe to/support tiny news outlets making a difference.

Show Post

Sometimes, truly exceptional reporting not only changes policy and the lives of the subjects, it empowers (aspiring) reporters to dream bigger and push the boundaries of journalism. I wouldn't have switched careers had Lisa, Max, and others not shown what I could've done with my engineering degree.

Show Post

And when my thesis advisor @tomlevenson.bsky.social asked me, "if there was one story you would model your reporting after, what would it be? Without hesitation, I offered @maxblau.bsky.social's The Tragedy of North Birmingham, which recontextualized ToxMap data with heartbreaking narratives.

Show Post

A post-script on winning the OJA Excellence in Science Reporting Award: This is what I wrote in my application to @mitsciwrite.bsky.social in January 2023. Lisa (who is an alum of the program) was one of the bylined reporters of ProPublica's ToxMap series: www.propublica.org/article/toxm...

Show Post