Our first-birthday binge continues today, with a third episode of Ask TON. (What is this all about? See here and here.) Today’s question: I’ve heard people say it’s important not to be afraid to ask “dumb” questions. What is your favorite “dumb” interview question when interviewing scientists? What has gotten you the most useful results? [...]
The Open Notebook is doing something new. Since we launched last fall, we have focused on deconstructing the process that goes into individual stories that possess the quality of awesomeness. We love doing these story-behind-the-story interviews and have plenty more in the hopper. But, thanks to a very generous grant from the National Association of [...]
Posted in Elements of Craft 
Tags: Aschwanden, Elements-of-Craft, Guest Contributor, Longform, Narrative, Structure 
3 Comments »In 2010, Slate national correspondent William Saletan wrote an eight-part series about experimental psychologist Elizabeth Loftus and her work on false memories. He began the series by inviting readers to take part in an interactive online experiment designed to illustrate how easily memories can be manipulated. (Try Slate’s experiment yourself here.) Readers were presented with [...]
Posted in Behind-the-Story Interviews Tags: Aschwanden, Guest Contributor, Profile, Psychology, Saletan, Slate, Writer Interview No Comments »Christie Aschwanden shows that when it comes to selling evidence-based health care reforms, hammering people with the facts won’t change entrenched beliefs—in fact, it may only strengthen them. For evidence-based reforms to succeed, Aschwanden writes, they must put in place a narrative that patients, doctors, and health policy makers can accept and even embrace. [Convincing [...]
Posted in Behind-the-Story Interviews Tags: Aschwanden, Carpenter, Drafts, Health, Medicine, Miller-McCune, Pitches, Writer Interview No Comments »