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How to detect exaggerations and lies
A journalist pulled out a notebook in a bar in a tiny town in Alaska and started to write down the stories the bullshitter on the next stool was feeding ...
Hopeful shoots grow amid the stumps of dead newspapers
Michael Armstrong. Photo by Janet Shook Michael Armstrong dedicated 22 years to the small-town weekly Homer News before he retired. When it blew up over a Charlie Kirk article last ...
Throw away your list of questions
Studs Terkel was one of the great interviewers of all time. Kathleen Ballard, Los Angeles Times. https://digital.library.ucla.edu/catalog/ark:/21198/zz0002w418 Here are some of the rules I’ve learned from doing thousands of interviews ...
One Jersey Shore weatherman’s fight for integrity
The cheerful weather forecaster in front of a green screen—if you can’t trust that guy, who can you trust? But the temptation to seek clicks has infected even the weather ...
What I learned about myself from ghostwriting
Jose Ferrer and Mala Powers in Cyrano de Bergerac I never intended to be a ghostwriter, but the job made me a better writer and a better person, despite the ...
How guardians of history are funding my history of Alaska
Today, the vast majority of books are paid for by those who want a book to exist, not by readers’ purchases. Sales rarely compensate for writers’ years of labor. Fortunately, ...
Why paper is here to stay
As I mailed my last Christmas card of the season, I basked in a treasured emotion: feeling virtuous about something I actually enjoy doing. With each friendly message scribbled on ...
Can democracy survive the cacophony of the internet?
The chaos and fakery of social media are stress-testing democracy and its most important component, free speech. So far, the test isn't going well, but I don’t think technology is ...
Charles Wohlforth has written many of his own books, has ghost-written others, and helps many writers find their own way into print. Learn how to work with Charles.
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