1994 ...is a Penn grad who moves to New York City for a fact-checking job at Rolling Stone. A famous musician throws a newspaper at him, proving to the rest of the staff that he does in fact exist.
1995 ...is doing whatever they’ll let him do at Vibe magazine, which is joyful chaos.
1996 ...is pretending he knows how to write and produce MTV News. He hits the Presidential campaign trail, reports on the East Coast/West Coast rap wars, and conducts the last interview with Tupac Shakur. He wishes Viacom would give him healthcare.
1998 ...is a grad student in Yale’s American Studies program. Duties include reading six books a week, playing lots of pickup basketball, and hoping no one asks him what 'epistemological' means.
1999 ...is the lowest ranking editorial employee at TIME magazine. He writes 50-word obits with no byline. Gradually he gets stories about the living, the music critic job, a posting in London, the Person of the Year assignment, the national editor job, runs digital, and is made the #2 guy at the whole place. Perks: corporate Amex, front row seat at the AOL/Hindenburg disaster, lifelong friends.
2009 ...is the editor of Bloomberg Businesweek. He gets too much credit for making it relevant and good and innovative and sometimes even funny. Bloomberg (the company/the guy) is grudgingly pleased and makes him chief content officer, overseeing digital, conferences, the investigative unit, radio, another magazine, and a TV network.
2016 ...is the EVP of news at Vice. This means building an original nightly news show for HBO, with no anchor, no studio, no staff, a colorfully supportive boss, and orders from the network to, ‘Not fuck one thing up.’ It’s a blur, but there are 41 Emmy nominations, 15 trophies, a Peabody, and some world-changing journalism. There’s also a prestigious weekly series, multiple feature docs, and the arrival of gray hairs.
2020 ...is COO of Kunhardt Films and executive producer of Eden Productions. He makes documentary films and series with great and talented people for Apple TV+.
2023 ...is CEO of Backstory Partners, a production company that makes all sorts of things, including TV specials with Oprah Winfrey. He also writes a column for the Washington Post about artificial intelligence. And sits on the board of his hometown Baltimore Banner.
Sometimes he writes book reviews. For the money.
Get in touch ->