After 12½ years at Mother Jones, this is finally it: my last blog post. This has, literally, been a dream job, getting paid to do something I’d be happy to do for free. (Which I’m about to prove by continuing to do it for free now that I can afford to.) It’s been a blast the whole time and it’s lasted far longer than I ever had any right to expect.
In addition to everything else, I especially want to thank my two main editors. Monika Bauerlein was my primary editor for the first seven years, always providing light but sneakily incisive suggestions for my magazine pieces. I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned this, but I especially want to thank her for her editing of my piece on lead and crime. It’s the most important piece I ever wrote for MoJo and her edits were instrumental in improving a number of weak spots in my initial draft.
After Monika was named CEO in 2015, Clara Jeffery took over primary editing duties on my magazine pieces. To this day I don’t know for sure how much difference that made, since Clara and Monika seem to be joined at the hip, but Clara pushed me to write several of my best pieces. I think I argued with Clara more than I did with Monika, but her edits and questions always forced me to think about what I really wanted to say and whether there was a better way to say it.
I hope everyone sticks around and continues reading Mother Jones, which is not just a great magazine but also a different kind of magazine that covers more than just the usual turf of political reporting. Of course, I also hope you’ll continue reading me. Starting on Monday morning, you can find me here.
