The Correspondent

September 19, 2019

‘After nine months of intensive preparation, over 2,000 job applications and dozens of interviews, we’re thrilled to introduce The Correspondent’s first five full-time correspondents.

Starting on 30 September, you’ll be able to follow them on our English-language platform, where they’ll join forces with our 50,000 members to investigate some of the major themes of our time.

While The Correspondent is a relatively small start-up, we’ve done our absolute best to put together a diverse team — both in terms of the topics our correspondents will be covering and the locations they’ll be reporting from.

After launching, we’ll introduce you to some of our freelance correspondents, who will be helping us to cover an even greater variety of topics and perspectives. We’ll also be translating internationally relevant pieces by a number of our Dutch correspondents into English in order to share their work — and their unique insights — with the rest of the world.’

At 28, OluTimehin Adegbeye (1991) may be the youngest member of our team of correspondents, but her CV speaks for itself.

Timehin’s work on political power structures, gender, and social inequality has been published in multiple languages around the world. She has written for a variety of publications including This Is Africa, Africa is a Country, and BellaNaija, and her 2017 TED Talk on the future of urban development has garnered well over two million views (and counting) — it’s no wonder her Wikipedia bio describes her as “a prominent figure among Nigerian and African feminists of her generation”.

As our correspondent covering the topic of Othering, she’ll investigate the myriad ways in which people are forced into the role of “the other” — in the media, in politics, and in everyday life. Her mission: to understand what divides us, in order to discover what unites us.

Read OluTimehin Adegbeye in her own words: “We must tell more complex and inclusive stories about human experience”

 

Eric Holthaus (Minnesota, United States) If you’ve spent any time at all on Twitter, there’s a good chance you’ve encountered science journalist Eric Holthaus (1981) at some point. With nearly half a million followers, he’s one of the most influential voices in the debate surrounding one of the great challenges of our time: climate change. A trained meteorologist, Eric combines an impressive grasp of climate science with an insatiable desire to find solutions to this problem. His work has previously appeared in The Washington Post, Rolling Stone, Slate and Grist, to name just a few. As our Climate correspondent, Eric not only aims to shed light on the causes and consequences of climate change, but he also wants to enlist your help in answering the question: what needs to change between now and 2030 in order to avert a global climate crisis? Read Eric Holthaus in his own words: “For too long, our conversations about the climate have been filled with despair”   Irene Caselli (Trento, Italy) During our very first Skype meeting, Italian journalist Irene Caselli(1981) shared with us a startling insight: when it comes to who you are, who you’ll become, and the world you’ll grow up in, virtually nothing will have as great an impact as the first 1,000 days of your life. After spending over a decade in Ecuador, Venezuela and Argentina reporting for major news outlets like the BBC, Deutsche Welle and The Washington Post, Irene will be joining our dream team here at The Correspondent. On her beat, The First 1,000 Days, she’ll examine how our earliest years — a period that everyone experiences but no one remembers — have the power to shape not only the people we become, but also the societies we live in. From the influence of parental leave on economic inequality to the latest in brain development research to the long-term consequences of stress, Irene will explore issues that affect everyone, not just those of us with children. Read Irene Caselli in her own words: “The first 1,000 days of human life are both essential and underreported” Tanmoy Goswami (New Delhi, India) During a week-long introductory session at our headquarters in Amsterdam, we asked all five of our correspondents to bring along an object with sentimental value. When it was his turn, Indian journalist Tanmoy Goswami (1983) opened his bag and drew out a small medical booklet about his dealing with depression. This experience has proven to be an invaluable source of inspiration for his work as a journalist. Tanmoy, a self-described “mental-health nerd”, specializes in reporting on the science and economics of mental healthcare around the world. His career path has taken him from Fortune India and Times Internetto his new home here at The Correspondent. In his role as our Sanitycorrespondent, he’ll continue his transnational quest to explore the many facets of modern mental health. Read Tanmoy Goswami in his own words: “I hope to make mental illness less intimidating” Nesrine Malik (London, United Kingdom) As you might guess from the title of her new book, We Need New Stories, Nesrine Malik (1977) is a journalist on a mission: to seek out new ideas for a better world. Born in Sudan, based in London, and frequently spotted in Cairo, Nesrine has been shaped by a variety of cultures, and she’s eager to find out what we can learn from them. Nesrine made a name for herself as a writer and columnist for The Guardian (you can read her column here) and was awarded the 2019 Orwell Prize for her work on identity politics. As our Better Politics correspondent, she’ll embody one of The Correspondent’s core principles: we don’t just cover the problem, but also what can be done about it. So get ready to join Nesrine on her mission — we can’t wait to see what kinds of ideas our members come up with! Read Nesrine Malik in her own words: “Objectivity preserves the status quo. With better journalism we can have better politics” # More correspondents to come!   We hope you’ve enjoyed this sneak preview of our first five correspondents. If you’d like to follow them on our platform starting on 30 September, join The Correspondent today.  We’ll also be introducing a number of freelance correspondents and announcing which of our Dutch pieces will be made available in English soon, so stay tuned! Let the countdown to 30 September begin! Rob Wijnberg Founding Editor

Day of Peace

This Saturday, September 21st, is the International Day of Peace.

‘As the candidate for president described as a “peacemonger,” I want to make sure we participate in a worldwide embrace of the idea that peace is possible and war is not inevitable.

Please join me this Saturday live in Fairfield, Iowa, or via livestream, as we speak of, reflect on, and meditate for peace. The power of the United States of America is an awesome responsibility for all its citizens, and nowhere more so than in the area of war and peace.

Let’s join together and make it so. Please join us for the livestream on Saturday and spread the word to all your friends.

With love,
Marianne’

https://www.marianne2020.com/issues/us-department-of-peace-plan?emci=54c47e71-69da-e911-b5e9-2818784d6d68&emdi=100cb698-e0da-e911-b5e9-2818784d6d68&ceid=298046

 

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Her Humanity

Amy Walter, host of Politics w/Amy Walter on The Takeaway:

‘Dear young aspiring journalists, the reason for the outpouring of sadness and love for Cokie Roberts isn’t just b/c she was smart and really good at what she did. Her

humanity

set her apart. She didn’t sacrifice it for her job.’

The Fifth Congress had recessed in July 1798 without declaring war against France, but in the last days before adjourning it did approve other measures championed by Abigail Adams that aided in the undoing of her husband—the Alien and Sedition Acts. Worried about French agents in their midst, the lawmakers passed punitive measures changing the rules for naturalized citizenship and making it legal for the U.S. to round up and detain as “alien enemies” any men over the age of fourteen from an enemy nation after a declaration of war. Abigail heartily approved. But it was the Sedition Act that she especially cheered. It imposed fines and imprisonment for any person who “shall write, print, utter, or publish…any false, scandalous and malicious writing or writings against the government of the United States, or either house of the Congress of the United States, or the President of the United States” with the intent to defame them. Finally! The hated press would be punished. To Abigail’s way of thinking, the law was long overdue. (Of course she was ready to use the press when it served her purposes, regularly sending information to relatives and asking them to get it published in friendly gazettes.) Back in April she had predicted to her sister Mary that the journalists “will provoke measures that will silence them e’er long.” Abigail kept up her drumbeat against newspapers in letter after letter, grumbling, “Nothing will have an effect until Congress pass a Sedition Bill, which I presume they will do before they rise.” Congress could not act fast enough for the First Lady: “I wish the laws of our country were competent to punish the stirrer up of sedition, the writer and printer of base and unfounded calumny.” She accused Congress of “dilly dallying” about the Alien Acts as well. If she had had her way, every newspaperman who criticized her husband would be thrown in jail, so when the Alien and Sedition Acts were passed and signed, Abigail still wasn’t satisfied. Grumping that they “were shaved and pared to almost nothing,” she told John Quincy that “weak as they are” they were still better than nothing. They would prove to be a great deal worse than nothing for John Adams’s political future, but the damage was done. Congress went home. So did Abigail and John Adams.”
― Cokie Roberts, Ladies of Liberty