2019 Fellows & Editors
OSAYI ENDOLYN, New York, New York, @osayiendolyn
SONNER KEHRT, Berkeley, California, @etskehrt
Sonner is a freelance writer, her work has appeared in the New York Times, The Verge, Atlas Obscura, and other publications. She holds a masters in democracy studies from Georgetown University and a masters of journalism from UC Berkeley. In a prior life, she worked in the arctic as a Coast Guard officer. You can see more of her work at www.etskehrt.com
Sonner’s fellowship story about oysters is forthcoming.
EAMON WHALEN, Minneapolis, Minnesota, @EamonWhalen
ALESSANDRA BERGAMIN, Los Angeles, California , @AllyBergamin
Alessandra Bergamin is an Australian freelance journalist whose work focuses on immigration, public health, and environmental justice. She has been published in National Geographic, The New Yorker, Harper’s, and Literary Hub, among others. She also produces short documentaries and often photographs her stories. She is an alum of UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism.
Alessandra’s story on palm oil is forthcoming.
ANGELA JOHNSTON, San Francisco, California @ang_johnston
Angela Johnston is the deputy news director and environment reporter at KALW Public Radio. She edits and reports for KALW’s local news magazine Crosscurrents, where she’s covered everything from marijuana’s impact on water systems to a small buck-tooth rodent’s threat to the levees and farms across California. Angela won two awards from the Northern California Society for Professional Journalists with her colleague for a series on childhood lead poisoning. She also works with KALW’s program at San Quentin State Prison where incarcerated men record and edit interviews on the inside.
Angela’s series on pesticide exposure is now aired on KALW.
SONJA SWANSON, Las Vegas, Nevada, @sonjamswanson
Sonja is a Korean American freelance writer with bylines in T Magazine, The L.A. Times, Esquire and Eater. She co-hosts Spicy Eyes, a podcast about food and culture in Las Vegas, and co-founded Bburi Kitchen, a Korean food blog for which she and a chef traveled around the Korean countryside over the course of three years.
Sonja’s piece on dog meat is forthcoming.
ROSE EVELETH, Berkeley, California @roseveleth
Rose Eveleth is a writer and producer who explores how humans tangle with science and technology. She’s the creator and host Flash Forward, a podcast about possible (and not so possible) futures, and has covered everything from fake tumbleweed farms to million dollar baccarat heists. She helped launch ESPN’s 30 for 30 Podcast and her work has appeared in The Atlantic, Smithsonian Magazine, Nautilus Magazine, CBS, Racked, Scientific American, Eater, The New York Times, Fusion, VICE, Five Thirty Eight and more.
Rose’s fellowship story “How To Pick a Pepper” on mechanization in agriculture aired on 99 Percent Invisible in November 2019.
ALISSA ESCARCE, New York, New York , @AlissaEscarce
Alissa Escarce is a reporter and audio producer for Latino USA. She’s interested in agriculture, the environment, immigration, and Latin America. She’s a former producer at NPR’s Life Kit podcast and her reporting has appeared on Planet Money, Latino USA, KQED, and other outlets. In 2018 she was a Stabile Fellow in Investigative Reporting at Columbia Journalism School.
CLAIRE BROWN, Brooklyn, New York, @hclaire_brown
Claire Brown is a senior staff writer for The New Food Economy, a non-profit newsroom that covers the forces shaping how and what we eat. Her work has also been published in The Guardian, The Atlantic, and The Intercept. Claire’s story about why Japan’s most popular candy is manufactured in North Carolina won a first place award from the Association of Food Journalists in 2018.
Claire’s story on the future of pesticides is forthcoming.
JEFF WINKLER, Nashville, Tennessee @ThatWinkler
Jeff Winkler is a freelance writer based in the South. He was the 2017 recipient of NYU’s Matthew Power Literary Reporting Award. He worked previously as a video host and documentary producer, and before that as a writer-at-large for Texas Monthly. His work has appeared in Vice, The Outline, Oxford American, and elsewhere.
Jeff’s fellowship story on emergency kitchens “If You Can’t Stand the Heat” is now published by The Atlantic.
GUEST EDITORS
ROSS ANDERSEN
Ross Andersen is deputy editor for The Atlantic. Prior to that, Andersen oversaw The Atlantic’s science, technology and health sections. Andersen is also a writer. In recent years, he reported from Siberia on a radical scheme to address climate change by bringing back woolly mammoths, and from India for an expansive look at the science of animal consciousness. Before The Atlantic, he was deputy editor of Aeon Magazine.
SARA SARASOHN
In 25 years in public radio news, Sara was an intern, booker, producer, director, editor, mentor and managing director. Currently she’s an independent editor and podcast consultant, working for Gimlet Media, Built-It Productions and other companies. She’s a fourth generation Californian.
JACK HITT
Jack Hitt is the creator and co-host of the 2018 Peabody Award-winning podcast, Uncivil as well as a regular contributor to the New York Times Magazine and the public radio program This American Life. He is the author of several books most recently Bunch of Amateurs. His first book Off the Road: A Modern-Day Walk Down the Pilgrim’s Route into Spain was made into a motion picture “The Way” directed by Emilio Estévez and starring Martin Sheen. His Harper’s report on American anthropology was selected for a collection of the best science writing of the past 25 years The Best of the Best of American Science Writing. His one-man show “Making Up the Truth” is a series of his slightly incredible real-life stories woven in with the contemporary brain science that nearly answers the question “Is any of this true?”
MARIA STRESHINSKY
Maria Streshinsky is the executive editor at Wired, former deputy editor at Mother Jones, editor-in-chief at Pacific Standard and managing editor at The Atlantic.
FELLOWSHIP EDITORS
MICHAEL POLLAN
Michael Pollan is the author of seven books, including How to Change Your Mind, Cooked, Food Rules, In Defense of Food, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and The Botany of Desire, all New York Times bestsellers. A longtime contributor to the New York Times Magazine, he is also the Knight Professor of Journalism at UC Berkeley. In 2010, Time Magazine named Michael one of the 100 most influential people in the world. @michaelpollan
MALIA WOLLAN
Malia Wollan is a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine where she writes the weekly Tip column. Her work has also appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Harper’s, National Public Radio, New York Magazine, the Associated Press and PBS’s Frontline/World. She has lectured at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, is a former editor at Meatpaper magazine, and is the director of this fellowship. @mwollan
JENNIFER KAHN
Jennifer Kahn is a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, and has been a regular feature writer for The New Yorker and National Geographic, among others. Her work has been selected for the Best American Science Writing series four times, and has explored subjects ranging from the “rational self-help” movement in Silicon valley, to the challenge of identifying and treating child psychopaths. Since 2009, she has taught in the Magazine Program at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, and was a visiting Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton in 2015. Her 2016 TED talk on CRISPR and gene drives has been viewed more than 1.4 million times, and was named one of the top TED talks of 2016 by conference organizers.