91��ý

The Ted Scripps Fellowships have been bringing award-winning environmental journalists to 91��ý for 29 years. Fellows embark on a year of courses, projects, field trips, seminars and more— taking advantage of everything university life has to offer. This series is a chance to get to know this year’s cohort of talented journalists beyond what a typical bio page will tell you.

Prior to the fellowship, you were working at 5280 magazine, and you did podcasting. How has the transition been to becoming a fellow?

I left 5280 in 2024, so it's been a period of being on my own. And even in that short period, I missed the camaraderie of being in a newsroom and being around other people and bouncing ideas off each other. So being part of a fellowship cohort and really bonding with the other fellows and CEJ staff, talking about journalism, talking about environmental reporting, and being part of the bigger CU campus community has been a huge injection of energy, inspiration, and ideas. All of that has been really great in contrast with the lonely existence of being a solo freelancer.

Can you talk a little bit about your fellowship project and how it has changed or progressed over the past six months?

I initially got the idea in 2021, when I had an assignment at Colorado's annual oil and gas summit. I heard some surprising things, including the sense that fossil fuel companies were feeling real pressure from their investors to pursue climate goals like reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Fast forward to 2025, and there's been a complete reversal. Many of those same companies refuse to entertain even basic climate-related proposals by their shareholders, which is a huge shift in power.

I'm glad that I came into the fellowship without having a really specific story angle, because I was taking a class last semester and very briefly the professor mentioned a unique case going on where Exxon was suing its own shareholders for filing a climate resolution. That became an angle that I felt like I could attach to this longer investigation.

How many classes have you audited, and which one has been your favorite or the most impactful?

I audited four classes in the fall semester, and I'm auditing three classes right now. A lot of those have been climate- or environment-related, but I've also taken the advice of the advisors to take some fun classes. I would have to say that “Neurohacking,” with Annie Margaret, was probably the most impactful for me. It was all about how our nervous system works and different theories about how human consciousness works. And when it came down to practice, it was about how to control your waking experience, through meditation, through breathing, and through exposure to stress to build resilience. I did not expect, when I began the Scripps fellowship, that I would be practicing breathing and meditation techniques, but I found them very useful.

One of the memorable experiences for class was a field trip to do a cold plunge in Boulder Creek. I lasted two minutes, which I was proud of.

Many of the fellows talk about being able to read more during the fellowship. What is a book that you've picked up this semester that you've really enjoyed and recommend to others?

I've been taking the bus to and from Denver, and I'm fortunately one of those people who are able to read in a moving vehicle. That's two hours of reading time on days that I'm coming up to Boulder. And that's been another really unexpected, wonderful benefit of the fellowship—just having time to crush books. Right now, I'm rereading “East of Eden” by John Steinbeck, which I hadn't read in 15 years, and just am really inspired by the gorgeous writing. I also read Viktor Frankl's “Man's Search for Meaning,” about surviving the holocaust, which is really intense, really moving, and topical.

The other fellows are incredible. Starting just in a professional sense, I've learned so much from them, everything on tips on how to pitch stories and book suggestions that they have. I've gotten way more out of the sense of camaraderie and friendship. It can be a lonely road working as a freelancer, so being able to regularly meet up with the other fellows—for dinners we've organized, going on hikes, slinging pizza together on our retreat in Grand Lake, commiserating as we watch CU’s football team get absolutely demolished at Folsom field, and our field trip to Casa Bonita—has been profoundly meaningful to me in a social sense, because journalism isn't just about the work. It's also about keeping each other pumped and inspired.