This is Mark. Thanks to our intern Luke DiStefano for his help. I’m back to writing this newsletter again. This one’s a little longer than usual but I wanted to give you a full picture of this week’s guest.
On this week's episode I was joined by Jules Roscoe. Jules is a full-time legal proofreader who is also a freelance journalist who covers labor and technology from a national perspective and politics from a local perspective.
Jules is a recent college grad (NYU '24) who has written for (among other places), 404 Media, The Boston Guardian, Vice, Wired, and Matter News and whose coverage has included:
Among the topics we touched on:
- The value of the ‘stupid’ question
- The importance of reading stories aloud
- Taking care of the rat in your head (yep!)
Here's a sampling from the interview. If you want to hear Jules talk about some of the specifics related to reporting, listen to the podcast.
What are the things that most appeal to you storywise?
I really like stories where I get to expose something and I get to be the first person to tell people about something that's going on. I really like that kind of exclusivity. I think it's exciting. I also really like stories where it's kind of the individual versus like a greater force, like a government or a corporation or like someone who has more money or something like that. I really like stories that have that kind of power dynamic.
Also, I'm very interested in international stories generally. My mom is from Eastern Europe. She grew up in Bulgaria during the Cold War, so that has certainly flavored the things that I'm interested in.
Is there advice that you have or something that you would offer to someone who says 'I'd like to do what she does, but I'm not sure I have the nerve to do it?'
This is actually something that I learned in high school. I was in a Latin class and classics is generally male-dominated with people who go far in the field.
And I had a professor who took me aside after class one day, and she said to me, 'You have really good ideas, but you're very quiet in class because you are scared of being wrong out loud, but all of the other boys in your class are being wrong out loud. So don't be afraid to be loud and wrong because they're also doing it and they're getting benefits from it.'
And I've kind of taken that and morphed it into 'don't be afraid to ask stupid questions.' I ask so many stupid questions in all my interviews. I love to be ditzy in my interviews and kind of almost dumb myself down to a degree. I think it helps build rapport because I'm not drilling people from the beginning, but also that way I can get a really good baseline of what the story is and I can make sure I don't miss any details.
And also it helps you build connections with people if you're not trying to prove that you're smarter than them. So don't be afraid to ask stupid questions. Ask more stupid questions than you think you need to because sometimes those are the details that are the most important.
What is your writing process like?
I sit on things a lot. I talk to myself. I jot down notes in an empty Googledoc until I feel like it's time for me to sit down and sit down and write it.
And usually I'll write something in one sitting after I've done this back burner brainstorming for a day or so. First, I'll write an outline. That's kind of where do I want all of the pieces in the story? What are all of the elements that I want to include? Write them in, one phrase each, one phrase per paragraph. Get everything in there, cut and paste, and move things around until when I read it out loud to myself, this story flows and there aren't obvious gaps that I don't immediately fill with supplementary information.
Is the timing right? Is the process right? Then I'll start actually adding the words and pulling in quotes from interviews that I have transcribed.
And that keeps going until I have a draft that I'm happy with. It's a draft that I can read out loud fully, and it sounds smooth. That's one of the most important things for me in writing, is that it has to sound good when it's read out loud. It can't just look good on paper.
That must be an intense process.
It takes a lot of time, yes. But I feel like once you can get yourself into a flow state with it, it's actually quite satisfying to be able to pull something together like that.
What are the other journalism issues that you're passionate about?
Local news is one. The other main one is accessibility, which is really, really difficult when you're trying to also have a journalism business that makes enough money to pay its journalists. But having news be kind free flowing, so to speak, so that everyone has access to reliable news.
I think journalism is a public service and I think my job as a journalist is to disseminate information accurately and reliably and in the most accessible way possible for people to be able to read it and then make their own decisions based off of the accurate information that I've given them.
I think just generally how people can get access to news without having to pay millions of subscriptions is another thing that I don't know if there's really a good solution for that yet that I've seen.
How do you how do you manage your mental health?
This was my favorite answer of the interview, so it’s blockquoted for emphasis.
This is gonna sound insane. I have a little vision in my head of a tiny rat. I love rats. I had rats as pets when I was in high school. If I get to a point where I'm really stressed out, I'm not taking care of the rat in the brain. And so he will start going through all of the files that I have in my brain and chewing holes through them, and I'll start forgetting stuff and I will lose track of things. I'll lose track of projects.
So whenever I start feeling stressed out, I think about, okay, the rat needs some enrichment time. This is the most absurd thing that I've said in such a long time … but sometimes I'll sit down and I'll say, okay, the rat needs to have some time to go read a good book.
So I'll sit down and I'll read a book and I'll say we're doing it together. And that kind of helps me slow down and it also helps me externalize it so that I'm not rationalizing that oh, I'm so stressed out, but I really need to get this project done right now. It's not me. I have someone I need to take care of and that helps me separate myself from the whirlwind of stuff that I do and do some things that I find enjoyable.
Take care of the rat in your brain and listen to this episode. Back with another next week!
A reminder to professors and teachers
You can find episode guides that you can use if you wish to integrate the podcast within your classroom. There are more than 50 available. Each one has suggested questions for discussion and activities a class can do.
I’m also happy to help you find an episode that would be appropriate for what you’re teaching. Reach out to me at [email protected].
Additionally, I’ve curated some of the 2025 episodes into groups. If you’re teaching a class or unit in any of these subjects:
- Investigative Journalism
- Feature Writing
- Covering government policy
- Social justice, immigration, and identity
- Local News
Check out the sets of episode guides that would be useful to you. I don’t have a good term for them, so I’m borrowing from Bluesky and calling them “Starter Packs” - sets of 5-8 episodes in each category that may be useful in your classroom.