Joshua Sokol is a science writer in the Boston area. He studied astronomy and English literature in college, worked as a data analyst for the Hubble Space Telescope, and then attended MIT’s Graduate Program in Science Writing. Since 2016 he has been a freelancer covering space and other topics in natural history for publications like Quanta, Science, The New York Times, and whoever else will look at his pitches.
Although community engagement has emerged as a new buzzword in recent years, it’s been part of journalism for centuries, from letters to the editor to phone calls to the newsroom. That means reporters looking to build trust and relationships with new audiences don’t need to reinvent the wheel. They can learn from the successes and failures of the many who’ve tried before them.
Journalists who work for themselves and are planning on having a baby are on their own when it comes to budgeting for family leave, deciding when to disclose their plans to editors, and figuring out how much time they should take. But this also puts freelance reporters in a unique position to take advantage of all their job flexibility when transitioning into parenthood.
One typically thinks of Darwin’s theory of evolution playing out in natural habitats. Over time, random mutations that make a species more fit for its niche lead to the giraffe’s neck, the spider’s venom, the bees’ communicative dance. Journalist and genetics junkie Roxanne Khamsi was intrigued to learn of a theory that cancer cells are subject to similar evolutionary pressures. She spoke to TON about the challenges and pleasures of tackling a math-dense subject with implications for extending the lives of people with cancer.
Leprosy’s victims suffer visible pockmarks, deformed limbs, and a lifetime of social ostracism. Yet the microbe responsible for this suffering remains elusive. Last year, India’s Supreme Court ruled that the country’s government had shirked its responsibility to patients and that officials had failed to count the number of patients correctly. The news piqued Apoorva Mandavilli’s interest and led her to track down how clinics and patients cope with this ancient disease.
Interviews about traumatic experiences can be daunting for any journalist, and may risk distressing the source. Yet many science stories, from medical investigations to disaster reporting, require such testimonies—be it to show the human impact of an event or to resolve conflicting accounts. Learning to conduct these interviews ethically is an important skill for every science journalist, and can result in richer and more accurate stories.
Pitching Errors: How Not to Pitch
Tools: Planner Pad, the Funnel of Focus
Taking Good Notes: Tricks and Tools
How Rebecca Skloot Built The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Trading the Pipette for the Pen: Transitioning from Science to Science Writing
On Being a Science Writer and Managing a Mental Illness
Are You a Writer or an Editor? Part I: The Writers
The Science Byline Counting Project: Where Are the Women—and Where Are They Not?
Navigating Newsrooms as a Minority
How to Talk to Your Facebook Friends about Fake News
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