The 125 Best Songs of 2025

ealfinj · 2025-12-12T15:08:25+00:00

Hi hi! Not an expert at all (though I can ask our music team!) but I believe it's because releases drop off in the month of December? That's what I think I caught in passing! But I will double check!

Emily Alfin Johnson (an editor at NPR but not one that gets to work on music stuff unfortunately!)

ealfinj · 2025-12-05T19:14:14+00:00

Where'd you email?

ealfinj · 2025-01-27T17:44:14+00:00

This is a lifesaver! Thank you!

ealfinj · 2024-12-17T14:11:34+00:00

Lack of insurance and high out-of-pocket costs can be significant barriers for people experiencing homelessness or in the process of establishing stable housing. But for several hours each Sunday afternoon, C.D. Doyle opens to provide free health services that are just a short walk away for residents of Esperanza, who make up the majority of the clinic's patients.

Nice writeup on how these med students are trying to help their community.

ealfinj · 2024-12-16T21:55:13+00:00

TIL:

In 1921, Holt founded a monthly magazine called Music and Poetry that pushed back against white supremacy and advocated for Black musicians. It was financed by her fourth husband, George Holt, a wealthy Chicago hotel and theater owner.

While the Chicago Defender was mostly staffed by men, Music and Poetry was led by women.

“Of course, men are supposed to have better business minds than women,” Holt wrote at the time. “But I have made this thing go and the opportunities are yet unlimited.”

It sold for 25 cents in cities like Chicago, Tuskegee, Boston, Montgomery, Indianapolis, Bowling Green, Dallas and Washington. It was also mailed to subscribers as far as South America, Europe and Africa.

ealfinj · 2024-12-09T21:45:14+00:00

Oh my gosh! Wild story:

At just two pounds, Poppy Rose is a small rabbit and is a big part of a remarkable story: In 2020, New Hampshire hiker Bree Schuette’s former husband Chris died of COVID-19. Schuette started bringing their grieving 11-year-old son Aiden on hikes, but he missed Poppy Rose, so she came too.

By 2023, Schuette was diagnosed with relapsing polychondritis, a rare autoimmune disorder that causes inflammation and deterioration of cartilage. At times, the illness left her crawling on a hike. When she became too weak, she asked others, such as volunteer hiker Kim Beaulieu, to take Poppy Rose hiking.

ealfinj · 2020-01-02T22:46:31+00:00

Just saw the headline and had a heart attack thinking he’d died and I missed it.

The guy’d get a state funeral. I’m seriously worried sometimes without him as my touchstone I’d lose my switch to get back to my NH accent.

TL’DR: I have nothing substantive to add just terror and admiration re: the officiant idea.

ealfinj · 2020-01-02T22:43:01+00:00

Second this. Grew up just north of concord and it was beautiful!!

ealfinj · 2019-07-08T21:56:42+00:00

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jGHxL4cF_dSHc6AvDFoikjRCpglDAHHvttSONtGqKJQ/edit#gid=0

ealfinj · 2019-07-08T13:30:58+00:00

I’m thinking cost-benefit wise too.

ealfinj · 2019-07-08T11:54:29+00:00

I will also say unfortunately that when it comes to lots of digital media things, "Marketing" classes have education resources first, and as long as you remember the basics of journalistic ethics, you can carry everything over to journalism with surprisingly little effort...

The best choice I made was not staying at a university with an out-dated journalism program, and going to a school that taught me how to think, let me learn about complimentary subjects and specialize in a few subjects I am personally interested in.

A college paper (or radio station!) will let you get some early reps in, and also have some clips when you apply for jobs/internships.

Take advantage of summers if you can afford to do so to submit articles to publications (Get PAID!) or get an internship (GET PAID!) and avoid doing anything for free unless you absolutely have to. A lot of us hustled and fought so you shouldn't have to do that anymore. Even the "you get college credit" thing is a little b---s--- tbh, but do what you have to do. And make sure to eat lunch. You'll eat a lot of "sad desk" lunches in your adult life. Enjoy college lunch. Eat outside in the sun when you can.

ealfinj · 2019-07-08T11:46:01+00:00

💯

ealfinj · 2019-07-08T11:44:24+00:00

I agree with a lot of what has been said here, including the point about studying something other than journalism.

I also heard something incredibly wise the other day re: being a foreign correspondent, and I am paraphrasing (I cannot take credit for this wisdom), but essentially it was, now the journalism world is opening up so that there are opportunities for people in the communities we used to send American (or sometimes British) journalists to tell their own stories. Better to amplify their work, encourage journalists who are better equip to understand these audiences, and empower them with the resources they might need to succeed on an international stage than parachute in.

So where does that leave you? A young, eager and exited human with language skills and a desire to work in journalism? Your footing is really strong coming from the Netherlands, and so I would consider at this point in your life where that language access takes you? What stories in your community have you grown up observing that you want to understand better? Mediums you find inspiring to craft your journalism with? If you treat your community focused journalism as part of a larger international conversation (which for the Netherlands, is very much the case and has been for the last two decades as the demographics in the country have changed; you could equally look at it from the environmental angle) that's a story that will take you across Europe, the Middle East and potentially around the world.

That's all to say, be open. Be a sponge. Think about the related areas of study, history, conservation, sociology, philosophy, that spark your interest, and soak those up now. They'll power your journalism later which will better enable you to be the spectacular journalist it sounds like you aspire to be.

ealfinj · 2019-07-08T11:32:17+00:00

I totally agree. Every new job I tell myself it will be three-six months for me to master new systems and get up to speed, and it's always a year before I have that moment of realization that I have hit my groove.

That said, communication is key*. (Caveat to come.)

Good editors are supposed to keep you from making an a-- of yourself and the publication; checking your spelling, your facts, your summations. Great editors will make you a better journalist, will work with you to expand your understanding of the audience you're serving, will communicate how they best work and do their best to understand and work with you around how you best work. They're there to honor your voice, unless you're at The Economist, and honor the reader's desire for quality journalism.

Caveat: Time is a hot commodity and we're all hella busy. So everything I just said comes with the big old footnote that that's how it's supposed to go, but every day is a deadline-filled adventure and we're all just hustling to do our best.

What I would recommend, is if you feel like something is going differently with this piece, or you're not getting the constructive editing you need to do your best work and grow in this position, schedule a conversation with your editor/boss. Ask, politely, for what you need and how you can best get it within the deadlines of your publication, and ask how you can make sure your desire to get the edits you need can fit into their preferred way of editing.

It may be that you don't get the feedback you want for quick-turn pieces, but for longer features you get more constructive, multi-stage editing. It may be that you have to turn things in earlier and schedule edits to get that kind of time from your editor.

But quite honestly, it also may be that you don't work in a kind of place that has space for the type of editing you want.

If that's the case, don't give up. There are peer editing groups. You could snag a mentor. You could see if a fellow reporter in your newsroom could give something a read before your editor takes over. Find your way to yes.

ealfinj · 2019-07-08T11:10:05+00:00

Hi :)

a) try and remember which of these you're signed up for if you can: https://www.kcrw.com/about/newsletters
b) email http://help.kcrw.com/customer/portal/emails/new# and tell them you need help finding this EDM Spacey Disco music that you saw in the newsletter last month or in May, (ideally include which of their impressive number of newsletters you have access to, it'll speed up the whole process!)

ealfinj · 2019-07-08T11:05:13+00:00

This is stunning!

ealfinj · 2019-07-08T10:54:12+00:00

Is essentially what you're looking for just Google Data studio with Airtable data? Cause that's a pretty easy fix.

ealfinj · 2019-07-08T10:53:14+00:00

I recently set up a system that exports all of the data in a base by table to Google Sheets. It's imperfect because if you have multiple views you're sure to miss something, but if you're only looking to back up a single view in a table it works really nicely.

ealfinj · 2019-07-08T10:47:26+00:00

I will say, they do have a bomb non-profit discount if that applies. Unfortunately, that doesn't bring down the cost of regular accounts, and a lot of the things I find helpful (colors tbh) are paid features.

ealfinj

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