———————– ** Fresh Green Beans ** ———————– Grown in Kansas. Eaten Worldwide.

If you are interested in hearing more Ira Glass on storytelling:

John K

From Bryan Welch:

In this presentation, Malcolm Gladwell answers an important question that came up during my talk with your class. I’d love for you guys to see it!

Bryan Welch opened his presentation last Thursday with a reiteration of a well-known journalistic truth: fair-and-balanced sucks. Instead, he proposed a more palatable idea: the journalist’s duty is to present his or her best crack at The Truth.However, Mr. Welch’s reply to a question addressing hot-button green issues pointed in an entirely different direction: “Well, for example, Utne readers like to be challenged.” This statement’s unspoken half, unfortunately, is that the readers of Motorcycle Classics DON’T like to be challenged. From presenting The Truth (sorry about the caps, I just can’t help it!), we’ve suddenly shifted gears to “creating communities of readers”. Is this Facebook or the news? When coupled with the intense user-feedback mechanisms he described, this means people will never have to read anything that upsets or challenges them.

The upshot: Do informed niche-media journalists have a duty to present green material in publications with anti-green readership? If so, how should they go about it?

(Next time: Natural Home AND Motorcycle Classics?!: Media Diversification Makes John Uncomfortable)

John Kuhn

I’m originally from a pumpkin and melon farm in rural northern Kansas (Willa Cather country, right on the Nebraska border). As a result, my childhood was drenched in hardcore manual labor and equally intense conservative Catholicism(think picketing-abortion-clinics style). In my spare time I swim endless laps and read for pleasure, as well as occasionally cookin’ a pretty mean meal. My interest in green issues is in large part due to my agricultural background(though it also dovetails nicely with the fact that I’m a total cheapskate).

I was a pre-med/biochemistry major for my first three undergraduate years- I finally ditched it after realizing that being good at something isn’t necessarily the same as enjoying it. I’ll graduate in May with an English major; I’m still trying to figure out where I’m headed from here.

A picture even sillier than Travis’s:

-John Kuhn

If everyone lived like me, we’d need another 1 ½ planets to sustain our lifestyles.
My ecological footprint is huge.