Chief Technology Correspondent at Axios
What or who inspired you to become a journalist?
I’ve wanted to be a journalist ever since I was a kid actor and the kids on the show I was on — a short lived ABC drama called Two Marriages — created a neighborhood newspaper as a subplot in one episode. From there I started a newspaper on the set, then did others in elementary and high school and it’s the only career I have ever had.
What is your favorite story that you have written?
It’s hard to pick a favorite. I’ve been fortunate to have so many amazing experiences as a journalist, from covering the Olympics to flying in a NASA zero gravity jet to interviewing the Sesame Street Muppets to traveling to Lego HQ in Denmark for “Axios on HBO” to see firsthand their efforts to create more sustainable plastic bricks.
Do you feel like you have a dual responsibility for being queer and a journalist?
I feel a huge responsibility as a transgender person with an audience and a platform at this incredibly difficult and perilous time for so many in my community. It was a huge motivation for launching the Letters for Trans Kids project. I knew as a journalist I couldn’t stop all the legislative hate being directed at trans people, particularly trans youth. But I also couldn’t sit back and let the next generation go on thinking there weren’t lots of people who wanted to see them thrive.
Do you believe you have a role to play in helping preserve LGBTQ+ history and culture in your work?
Having spent nearly my entire career covering technology, I feel it is important to highlight the role that technology has played — both good and bad — in the lives of LGBTQ people and highlighting the risks and opportunities presented by new developments, especially AI.
What keeps you passionate about journalism?
I firmly believe in the role that journalists have in helping maintain an informed public and to shine a light on actions by businesses and governments that might otherwise go unnoticed. What advice would you have for those wanting to become a journalist? You have to love it. It’s a career that I have enjoyed greatly, but I’ve also spent that career seeing the industry contract, trust in media diminish and so many talented colleagues leave the profession. That said, we need journalists more than ever to help shine a light on the goings-on of the most powerful forces in business and government.
