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I’m celebrating my 49th birthday on April 7 by reflecting on a two-week vacation to Spain that concluded yesterday and preparing for a new journalism job with USA Today that begins tomorrow.

What a way to kickstart my next spin around the sun as I make the final turn toward the big 5-0.

Our trip was relaxing and exciting and a wonderful way to close out a year packed with accomplishments and adversity. My wife and I consumed our share of ham, cheese and wine. We burned many of those calories aimlessly wandering on the cobblestone streets of Madrid, Salamanca, Cáceres, Seville, Arcos de la Frontera, Ronda, Granada, Toledo and many other places both big and small.

I love how soaking up ancient history in a foreign land helps to put the news cycle into perspective.

The voyage has me energized for the next chapter of my journalism career.

At USA Today, I’ll be the Congress & Campaigns editor during another important election season in America.

I couldn’t be more excited to be back in the news business after a brief bit of downtime following The Messenger’s demise. It had been a stressful period looking for work at a time when so many skilled reporters and editors are in the same situation.

I’m lucky to have this opportunity to get to work in a newsroom full of talented journalists and with the critical assignment of telling stories that matter to all Americans.

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Stay tuned to love, journalism and The love, journalism Show as I share more as my journey continues.

I can’t quite promise a regular stream of posts. The news cycle can be a beast, and I also generally try to let my team’s work speak for itself.

At the same time, my Substack has always been aimed at humanizing what journalists do by showing what goes into being a journalist. I’ll do my best to keep that up.

#30#

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Mitch McConnell’s decision earlier this week to step down from Senate GOP leadership in November sets the stage for a potential generational change in one important seat of American power.

But the possible replacements for the 82-year old Kentucky Republican aren’t exactly Gen X or Millennial. The youngest of the recent names bandied about — Sen. Steve Daines, a Donald Trump favorite from Montana — was born in 1962.

By all accounts, America remains a gerontocracy, a phenomenon that my former team of journalists at Insider gave the deep-dive treatment a few years ago in a 30-plus part project we titled ‘Red, White and Gray.’

Our series started publishing in the late summer of 2022 and continued into the early fall. I’m proud of our epic effort, led by then-deputy editor Dave Levinthal, which involved the work of 40 different people.

If you never read our articles and explored all the stunning visuals, please do.

You’ll find investigations, explanatory reporting, historic interviews, polling, data, science and for the nerds amongst us there’s even a Dungeons & Dragons-style game that demonstrates how the American system favors seniority, incumbency, age, and on occasion, a bit of wisdom.

The work is just as relevant now as it was when we reported and then released it, maybe even more so given the 2024 election looks like it’ll be a rematch between America’s two oldest presidents at the time of their inaugurations.

Joining the latest episode of The love, journalism Show to talk about the project is an all-star cast of my former colleagues.

Levinthal, now the editor-in-chief of Raw Story, discussed how our work was a bit “before its time.” When we published, not long before the 2022 midterms, he noted Biden and Trump were not quite going at it the way they do now in criticizing and ridiculing the other for being something less than a spring chicken.

Nancy Pelosi, now 83, had not yet stepped aside as House Democratic leader and been replaced by Hakeem Jeffries, who is now 53.

“And then finally it was Mitch McConnell,” Levinthal said, “who took until today to say that he was stepping down from leadership. So in a way, this is a moment to…we can pat ourselves on the back at least a little bit to say that many of them were prescient and ended up predicting kind of the state of play in politics that we're seeing.”

Also on the show: Walt Hickey, a Pulitzer Prize winner and now executive editor of the media startup Sherwood. He helped pull and then analyze the data that showed both Congress and the federal judiciary have been getting older and at a much faster rate than at any time since our country’s founding in the late 18th century.

Hickey - who is also behind the D&D game — talked on the podcast about how his efforts ultimately helped convince Dave and me to pull the trigger on going big with the entire Insider project.

A show about America’s gerontocracy wouldn’t be complete without discussing the incumbent, 81-year old president of the United States.

Nicole Gaudiano, most recently my colleague at The Messenger and a veteran of the Biden beat going back to his Senate days, unpacked her in-depth look into why “Scranton Joe” thinks he’s never too old to be president.

Kimberly Leonard, now a Politico politics reporter, shared more about her examination into how the mind of an aging president is so much different than a younger president. Now the author of Florida Playbook, Kimberly also made the point that Sunshine State Gov. Ron DeSantis, at 45, could run for president for the next 30 years and still be younger than Trump or Biden is now.

C. Ryan Barber, now a Wall Street Journal reporter covering the Justice Department and courts, talked about his story written with Camila DeChalus (now at CNN) that delved into how lifetime appointments have made the federal judiciary older than ever.

And Warren Rojas , most recently a Capitol Hill reporter for The Messenger, makes his second appearance on The love, journalism Show, this time to talk about his story that put the spotlight on Congress and what it's like working for lawmakers “whose golden years are clouded by power struggles, rumors of senility, and constant second-guessing.”

“It was a good time,” Rojas said, “and a lot of people got mad at us for writing about it.”

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Perhaps what I loved most about the series from a journalism standpoint is how everyone on the politics team got a swing at contributing.

I admit this podcast would have lasted two hours if we brought everyone in all at once, so please let me give all a shout out here for all of their efforts.

Here we go: C. Ryan Barber, Camila DeChalus, John L. Dorman, Kayla Gallagher, Nicole Gaudiano, Brent D. Griffiths, Madison Hall, Hanna King, Jake Lahut, Kimberly Leonard, Bryan Metzger, Grace Panetta, Eliza Relman, Warren Rojas, Oma Seddiq, Dave Levinthal, Walt Hickey, Rhea Mahbubani, Elvina Nawaguna, Taylor Berman, Rebecca Harrington, Sam Fellman, Skye Gould, Jenny Chang-Rodriguez, Taylor Tyson, Annie Fu, Kazi Awal, Shayanne Gal, Tien Le, Vicky Leta, Rebecca Zisser, Rachel Mendelson, Marianne Ayala, Tyle Le, Anna Kim, Havovi Cooper, Simi Sadykhov, Tanita Gaither, Amanda Howard, Victoria Gracie, Tyler Murphy, Rachel Lupton, Jensen Rubinstein, Grace Lett, Hannah Williams, Kevin Kaplan, Nick Siwek, Emma LeGault and Jonann Brady.

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My former Messenger colleagues have banded together since we all lost our jobs.

On any given day we’re sharing lengthy and encouraging text chains about someone finding work or a job interview. A Slack channel shares tips on mental health and getting a good night’s sleep.

We’ve created a new sense of community that didn’t exist when we were all busy writing and editing an endless stream of stories. It’s been a big help after the sudden end to our digital media company that had been the focus of so much intense media scrutiny.

Here on this sixth installment on The Messenger’s end, I gathered together former politics breaking news editor Geoff Rowland and three of our top reporters: Lindsey McPherson covered Congress; James LaPorta wrote about national security and defense; and Ben White, the chief Wall Street correspondent.

It’s a pretty fascinating conversation about our failed digital startup where we discuss our roles at the company, its startup culture, management issues, plus the media coverage and criticism that swirled during our company's collapse.

One more thing: Please consider donating to this GoFundMe page organized for and by ex-employees of The Messenger to help my fellow former colleagues during this uncertain period.

Our company’s nearly 300-person staff was let go on Jan. 31 without severance or healthcare of any kind.

All the funds collected from this campaign will go to help former employees cover bills, living expenses, medicine, groceries, childcare, and health insurance costs, among others.

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Rebecca Morin covered President Joe Biden’s White House for The Messenger. Lauren Morgan oversaw the photographs and other visuals that illustrated our work.

Both veteran journalists played key roles in helping build the digital news publication from scratch but after 10 months of work are now back on the job market after the company shuttered.

We talked in this episode about the many challenges in getting a media outlet started, from obtaining White House press passes to putting together an image library on everything from war to Congress and Taylor Swift/Travis Kelce.

Our journalism conversation got personal too. Rebecca offered insights on what it meant to her to cover the politics and policy of immigration as a native of a Texas border town. Lauren shared tough-love wisdom about what it takes to make it in the business, as handed down from her mother, a barrier-breaking ex-copy editor at the Philadelphia Inquirer.

We met to talk about our experiences with The Messenger and the future of our industry on Feb. 8, less than a week after losing our jobs. It’s a bittersweet, raw chat among recently laid-off journalists looking for their next opportunities to keep covering the news.

One more thing: Please consider donating to this GoFundMe page organized for and by ex-employees of The Messenger to help my fellow former colleagues during this uncertain period.

Our company’s nearly 300-person staff was let go on Jan. 31 without severance or healthcare of any kind.

All the funds collected from this campaign will go to help former employees cover bills, living expenses, medicine, groceries, childcare, and health insurance costs, among others.

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Editor Mary Papenfuss and reporter Warren Rojas had long journalism careers before The Messenger.

That’s one of the many reasons why I so enjoyed my recent conversation with them about the news outlet where we all just worked until the publication died in a very public way to begin 2024.

Leaning into their past experiences everywhere from the AP to HuffPost, Bloomberg and Insider, Mary and Warren were full of perspective on this raw moment where so many are still asking WTF just happened at our previous place of employment that had once promised to “break the news.”

We talked about the allure of joining a startup, the challenges faced in cranking out so much copy and the empty feeling that has followed knowing our publication is no longer available on the World Wide Web.

“I mean, to spend nine months creating that and getting it off the ground and where it was actually starting to coalesce into something I think pretty powerful, and then just to shut it down, to lose all of that work and money and such a shame,” Mary said.

I promise this isn’t a total downer of a show too.

Both journalist veterans shared their thoughts on the future of the media industry and dished advice to future editors and reporters who may be wondering if they’re better off getting a law degree. #30#

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We are back for another dip into what happened at The Messenger with two journalists who know what it takes to get you to click on a story.

Until last week, Neetzan Zimmerman was the company’s chief growth officer and the behind-the-scenes guru doing his thing trying to pull the strings on the internet.

Ben Smith is editor-in-chief and founder of Semafor, as well as a former New York Times media columnist and author of the book ‘Traffic: Genius, Rivalry and Delusion in the Billion-Dollar Race to Go Viral.’

On today’s episode of The love, journalism Show, these two former colleagues of mine (Ben and I crossed paths back at Politico) got into a lively exchange on The Messenger’s ambitious rollout, plus its wins and its losses.

Tune in as Neetzan pulls back the curtain on some of the reader metrics that the news site was generating even as the business model ultimately sank the ship. And both journalists talk at length about their views on the future of journalism and what needs to happen for the news industry to survive into the 21st century.

Enjoy.

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I spent the last nine-plus months at The Messenger leading a small crew of beat reporters chronicling the first time in American history a former president of the United States has faced criminal prosecution.

That’s a difficult story to cover, especially for a brand new publication facing all manner of internal and external challenges.

But we did it — and I’m thankful that some of our peers in the journalism business have recognized our body of work for its speed, scoops and storytelling.

“There’s been plenty of snark about clickbait heds and upcycled local news, but the work done by The Messenger’s legal team was second to none,” Liz Dye wrote last week in Above the Law’s obituary about our publication.

Singling out several members of my team, she added: “Everyone in this business relied on articles from amazing journalists like Adam Klasfeld, Steve Reilly, and Maggie Severns. And if it happened on the ground in Fulton County, Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon let us know about it.”

There have been other kudos too, including from MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell, who trumpeted live on air back in October during the early goings of the former president’s civil fraud proceedings in New York: “If you’re not following Adam Klasfeld’s live tweeting of the trial or reading his reports of the trial in The Messenger, then you are missing the best writing from inside the courtroom about that trial.”

For today’s episode of The love, journalism Show, I caught up with Klasfeld, NOTUS reporter Severns and Ben Feuerherd to reflect on the whirlwind journey we all have been on. Enjoy.

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I’m talking about The Messenger, my place of employment for these last nine months — until Wednesday.

We all saw it coming.

There’d been a steady stream of articles over the last few weeks in other publications narrating our impending demise. The stories highlighted our business model built for yesterday’s internet, bad budgeting and a foundational belief that we could find ginormous numbers of readers who wanted stories right down the middle of the plate during a political era when so many get their information from partisan bubbles.

Despite those headwinds, we were really just starting to hit our stride. The teams were gelling. Our journalists were getting prime time TV props. We were scoring big scoops. Readers were clicking. The news we covered was only getting more intense.

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Now, our website is gone.

So are our paychecks, health care, benefits and the sense of security that comes with full-time work. My colleagues and I now join loads of other excellent journalists looking for our next opportunities in an industry that’s imploding and in desperate need of fresh ideas.

Which brings me back to love, journalism. I stated this Substack nearly a year ago on Valentine’s Day 2023 with a mission to humanize journalists like yours truly who keep getting entangled in their own complicated love/hate relationships with this thing called journalism.

I’ve kept the site dormant for these last many months to put my all into nurturing a new relationship with The Messenger. Then came yesterday’s break up.

Today, I bring you a new episode of The Love, Journalism Show, featuring my now-former colleagues Marty Kady, Mary Ann Akers, Marc Caputo and Kayla Gallagher.

We talk about our fun, crazy, sad and emotional journey together, driven by a love for journalism. #30#

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I am lucky to have called Josh Gerstein a colleague for nearly a decade. His reporting chops are unparalleled. His legal beat expertise is unrivaled.

He’s also one half of the reporting duo with Alexander Ward that broke one of the biggest stories of 2022 by obtaining a leaked copy of the draft Supreme Court opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade. You probably heard about it at the time.

Josh shared a good bit with me about that journalism experience of a lifetime in this episode of The love, journalism Show. He talked about what it’s been like to have everyone trying to figure out where their scoop came from, including the Supreme Court itself. He explained how there’s more suspicion among justices and their staffs since Politico published its story. And he walked me through the feelings that came with his team being named a Pulitzer Prize finalist.

We covered plenty more ground too, including what Josh is prepping for around the potential for more criminal charges against former President Donald Trump — plus his journalism origin story and his advice for people just getting started in the business.

“I'm a big fan of doing — more than studying,” he said before explaining how he may give off serious law school vibes but he’s managed just fine with only a bachelor’s degree.

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Josh and I were in the trenches together at Politico. We were fact checking presidents before fact checking was a media thing. He showed me the ropes at the Supreme Court for a couple of momentous decisions. We also were partners on the Mueller investigation beat, a period when everything was moving all at once, and then some.

It was a delight to reconnect with Josh and ask him about his journalism career. I hope you enjoy our conversation.

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One of the many cool things about putting in a decade of work at Politico is getting to know many talented colleagues who have since gone on to do great things at other news outlets.

Eliana Johnson is one of those people.

We were reporters together on the Trump White House beat and on a couple of occasions even co-bylined articles capturing a few moments from that crazy period of recent US history.

She left Politico in the fall of 2019 for a job with all kinds of new responsibilities as the editor-in-chief of the Washington Free Beacon, a conservative and still relatively new for its time digital news outlet.

Eliana’s still leading her team, which is now keeping tabs on the White House and closely tracking things like the House Select Committee on China. It’s even up to volume 39 of its presidential “Senior Moment of the Week” for Biden, age 80.

She’s also now a fellow podcaster who on a weekly basis co-hosts Ink Stained Wretches with Chris Stirewalt. This may sound familiar for the love, journalism audience: They explore their mutual love-hate relationships with the news business.

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In my recent conversation with Eliana, she shared her takeaways on jumping from reporting into being a first-time manager at the Free Beacon and what it’s been like leading a team of right-leaning journalists trying to skill up in the tools of traditional journalism.

She also talked about the upsides of working at a news outlet that doesn’t get anywhere near the level of access and cooperation from sources on the political left compared with her mainstream media competitors.

“I like to be the underdog and punch above my weight,” she said.

Eliana tried to land a job with her Yale degree writing speeches for the US government before catching the journalism bug. Then came stops at the New York Sun, the Council on Foreign Relations, Sean Hannity and Fox News Channel, National Review, CNN and as my fellow crew mate on the Politico pirate ship.

Now captain of the Free Beacon, she espouses to her charges how a good journalist doesn’t need a fancy college degree but really just an insatiable curiosity and writing chops: “This is not rocket science.”

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There was a bunch more from my interview with author David Allen that didn’t make it into last week’s episode of The love, journalism Show.

So here it is.

The author of Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity shared more about the techniques that journalists (or anyone for that matter) can use to help get into their zone for creative projects and then what to do to stay there.

Allen also unpacked the benefits of rest and relaxation and shared his rationale for reaching Inbox Zero for email.

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“How important to you is emptying your garbage?” he said. “That’s how important it is to me.”

Also in our conversation, I stumped him on a question about the most unusual place where he’s ever stopped to jot down a note. But the conversation did take an interesting turn when he shared a suggestion for what he does to capture good ideas when he doesn’t have a pen and paper nearby.

Calling it “California whoo-whoo stuff,” Allen’s approach is designed for the moments that inspiration strikes and you’re, say, going au naturel in a sauna.

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I wrote this essay earlier this year while trying to figure out what I wanted to do next after my last journalism job came to an end.

I’d been struggling with a question I kept getting from potential employers and even as I contemplated launching this Substack: Did I want to be a reporter or editor?

It’s a common enough dilemma for journalists, and one where I could make a pretty strong case either way. I also wondered how I could do both. The following vignette is what ended up in my notebook

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“Help! I’m a writer trapped inside an editor who’s trapped inside a writer!,” Darren, the writer, complained to himself. “Seriously, help me!  The editor in me won’t publish the writer in me and it’s plainly unfair.”

“Well, finish something,” snapped Darren the editor, talking to himself. 

Darren the writer glared at Darren the editor, in as much as this all is happening inside Darren’s head. 

“I am finished,” replied Darren the writer, looking over at a spiral notebook sitting on his desk, the sixth one he’d filled since Halloween. “What on Earth are you waiting for?”

Editor Darren paused for a moment.

He didn’t want to upset Darren the writer, who like all writers needs a good bit of encouragement.

He also wanted to remind Darren the writer that it was Darren the editor who for the last few years had been the one pulling most of the weight, earning the salary and doing the work.

“We're going to need a green light from the publisher,” Darren the editor finally said, looking for an easy way out of this conversation. 

Writer Darren again glared at Darren the editor.

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He knew a lame excuse when he heard one. Before editor Darren got a job editing, it had been writer Darren who had done all the work there for a good 20 years. There had been entire presidential administrations where Darren the writer had been the one writing, three or four times a day.

Writer Darren told editor Darren how he’d been talking with other writers who were using this thing called Substack. They’d made a pretty compelling argument about how editors and publishers didn’t have anywhere near the control they once did over their writers. 

“It’s 2023,” Darren the writer said to Darren the editor. “Go tell that to ‘your publisher’.”

Darren the editor considered taking a swing at Darren the writer.

He was trying to help Darren the writer. It still wasn’t clear if and when either one would get a job where one or the other would be the one responsible for most of the work. Both possibilities were possible, and for the most part the people hiring for those jobs wanted one or the other. Not both.

Darren the editor worried about what Darren the writer would write, and what that could do for Darren the editor’s job prospects.

Darren the editor also didn’t want to make Darren the writer so upset that they’d stop talking. Writers are sensitive and anything, anything, ANYTHING, could send a writer off into a sad lonely self-deprecating place. 

Technically, they also were the same Darren. They were eventually going to have to work together and reach a decision.

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Both were good at what they did and maybe at this stage of life and career it was possible to be both.

Darren the editor trusted Darren the writer. He also knew he’d get a crack at reviewing, editing and revising Darren the writer.

Darren the editor wanted to be a writer too. And Darren the editor knew that for Darren the writer to have any success he’d need some room. So Darren the editor picked up the phone and made some calls to people who knew a thing or two about Substack. He studied the links Darren the writer shared. Soon Darren the editor had too many tabs open. 

“Go! 500 words,” Darren the editor relented to Darren the writer. “Make it good.”

Darren, the writer, filed a story with 579 words. 

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I first learned about the author and executive life coach David Allen in the early aughts while visiting the campus bookstore at my alma mater, the University of Missouri.

I’m a nerd and like to see what the kids are learning about. That’s when I came across Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity on the shelf for a journalism undergraduate class that I’d taken just a few years earlier.

On a whim, I bought a paperback copy. I was struggling at the time to stay afloat with constant deadlines while covering energy and environmental policy in the early George W. Bush era

Allen’s book taught me tons, including the importance of getting all of the ideas floating around in my head into my notebooks and journals. I learned how to prioritize and what it takes to get moving one step at a time to accomplish the things I wanted to accomplish.

As a journalist, Allen’s book delivered some much needed manna in the form of how much easier it got to juggle reporting and writing assignments of the short, medium and long-term variety.

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I started building spreadsheets. I even got a little bit better on getting where I needed to be on time.

Allen has been one of my go-to guides ever since.

He was also immediately atop my list of potential guests for The love, journalism Show when we launched a few months ago.

Introducing David Allen.

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I can’t believe it’s only been two months since launching love, journalism. Time flies.

More than 24 posts covering a wide range of topics have gone live dating back to Valentine’s Day. I have had a blast. I’m also interested in trying to grow my audience and reach more of you.

At this inflection point, I’m curious what it’s been like from the reader’s perspective? Feedback to date has come in bursts. Social media has limited reach and in some cases can be outright antagonistic to spreading work published via Substack.

So it’s time for a quick check-in: Please if you have a few moments answer the three questions below. Also, feel free to hit ‘reply’ to this email in your inbox and share any general or specific thoughts the old-fashioned way by typing them out. They come directly to me, and I promise I do read every one. I’m also happy to engage in a sidebar conversation.

As you also read here last week, I just started a new full-time job on Monday as a senior editor for The Messenger. We’re a digital startup covering politics, business, entertainment and sports. We launch in May.

My plan is to indeed keep on publishing love, journalism, and air new episodes of The love, journalism Show. I have one already taped for this Saturday, and there are a number of additional interviews lined up for the coming weeks.

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But how often I post is an open question, and I’d welcome any insights you’re willing to share about the tempo of my posts so far. Keep in mind this has always been a passion project, and my original aim had been to post a weekly original love, journalism item on Tuesdays, followed by The love, journalism Show podcast on Saturdays.

One more question, specific to The love, journalism Show. I love talking to people, and I love sharing what they have to say. But I’m curious what you all think about how everything has been packaged and presented.

So far, I’ve done really short episodes that run under 5 or so minutes; medium length ones that last around 30 minutes; and entire interviews that run 45 minutes or longer.

What else am I missing? What have you enjoyed? What can be discarded? What would you like to see more or less of? Please respond to this email with any additional thoughts. I would love to hear from you.

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The love, journalism Show hit the road to Cincinnati for this week’s interview, where we caught up with MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian to talk about his sportswriting career and plenty more.

Bastian is in his 18th season on the professional baseball beat and to be quite honest he has one of the many journalism jobs I wanted when I was a kid, covering the Chicago Cubs.

It’s his “dream job” too.

We recorded at a downtown bar in early April during opening week of the brand new 2023 regular season and just a few hours following the postponement of a Cubs-Reds game due to rain. Bastian shared the story of his own path from playing youth baseball to becoming a baseball writer who chronicles one of the sport’s most popular franchises.

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In our conversation, Bastian talked about what it’s like to spend an entire year reporting and writing on a single team, from spring training through 162 regular season games and a potentially tense series of post-season playoffs. That’s followed by the winter offseason when players and coaches frequently change cities. Then the whole cycle repeats itself.

Sportswriting has changed a bunch in the digital media age compared to when I was just breaking into the business in the late 90s, at the very end of the print era. Bastian explained how writing about a specific game’s outcome is no longer a top priority for the job. Instead, he often focuses on putting a game, a player, a coach or a moment into context via features and a newsletter.

Bastian described how he balances family life and stays healthy while spending so much time on the road with the Cubs. And he shared some of the advice he gives journalists getting started in their careers: seek criticism, read everything, say yes to assignments others turn down, show initiative and don’t be shy reaching out to people you want to meet.

The Michigan State University graduate watches lots of baseball and revealed a bit about what a beat writer sees on the field as a play develops that the casual fan may miss. Bastian also gave his early take on this season’s new rules, including the pitch clock and runner-on-base to start extra innings.

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I have some exciting news to share today that coincides with my 48th birthday celebration: I’m starting a new full-time job on Monday as a senior editor for The Messenger.

We’re a brand new digital-first media outlet that is launching in May and will be covering politics, business, entertainment and sports. You can read about our plans here.

I’m really excited to be part of the team and eager to get to work. This is my first time in my 30+ year journalism career working for a media startup at the launch. I can already feel the energy! 

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In other news, I’ll be keeping my Substack going — both love, journalism and The love, journalism Show.

Please stay tuned as I make a few adjustments to both the tempo of my publishing and as the topics I cover evolve to include a few niche areas I’m particularly passionate about in the journalism world: mental health, work-life balance and career development. 

To everyone reading here, thank you for signing up! To anyone who is just coming aboard, welcome! It’s an honor to have you as an audience and I’m looking forward to being in your inbox far into the future.

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I’m a sucker for Italian food, and the restaurants of Bologna and Florence recently delivered.

How could they not? Both cities are legendary for their cooking, and my wife and I did our part to sample as much as we could without our stomachs exploding.

Below you’ll find a rundown of several places we visited that are worthy of a visit the next time you’re in either of these great cities of Italy. Buon appetito!

Sfoglia Rina, Bologna

Don’t be turned off by the line outside the door. It moves moderately fast. It’s also a good sign that it’ll be well worth the wait.

The menu is simple enough, and I chose right by ordering the tagliatelle with ragu. My wife picked one of the special dishes featuring fried artichokes and triangle pastas stuffed with mushroom and potato. While it was a heavy lunch, we more than justified it with all the walking we did that day on our trip.

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Osteria dell’Orsa, Bologna

We got in without a wait or reservation by arriving at the very American eating hour of 6:30 pm, local time. Our main mission: No pasta after all the carbs we’d had for lunch.

I ventured outside my comfort zone by ordering the Cotoletta alla Bolognese, a traditional dish that basically was a breaded veal cutlet smothered with ham, Parmesan cheese and a rich and creamy white sauce on top, with a side of roasted potatoes. So much for avoiding carbs. Dinner stuck to my ribs, and it’s still there. My wife went with a meatball plate touted on the menu for being someone’s grandma’s recipe. My wife is smart.

La Prosciutteria, Bologna

This casual walk-up spot (there’s also one in Florence) caught our eye several times while strolling the busy Oberdan thoroughfare. I’m glad we stopped. We let the people working behind the counter advise on the ordering, and they guided me to a flatbread sandwich full of local meats and cheeses. It satisfied. My wife went for the “healthier” option: a salad covered in meats and cheeses that came with a bread basket on the side.

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Da Nello al Montegrappa, Bologna

We were stuffed to the brim upon exiting this iconic place decorated with photos of celebrity diners. We’d tested the limits of what it means to order one thing from each part of the menu.

My advice: You can’t go wrong with the pear and cheese (hard and soft!) appetizer and I was happy to try another restaurant’s version of tagliatelle with bolognese sauce. But if I had a do-over, I’d have skipped the grilled fillet steak and split another pasta dish. Don’t skimp on the Zuppa inglese sponge cake. Someone’s grandma said so.

La pizza in teglia, Florence

Get this pizza. Just do it. Trust me.

It’s on the second floor of the Mercato Centrale, a great big food court that will tempt you in every direction with its various meats and cow innards on bread, gelatos, wines, pastas, and barbecue. Yes, barbecue. Don’t be fooled by those options. Instead, get this pizza. Any toppings will suffice. Let them heat it up first too. Just do it. Trust me.

Mister Pizza, Florence

I’m a glutton. Somehow, the pizza from the market got me in a pizza mood. And so after a visit to a special exhibit of M.C. Escher artwork we found ourselves sitting inside Mister Pizza overlooking the Piazza del Duomo for a second lunch. I heeded my waiter’s advice and agreed to put the extra dollop of Burrata cheese atop my pepperoni pizza. Italian waiters are always right. My wife is still mad I wouldn’t share and made her get her own pizza.

Sabatini, Florence

I picked this place for a reservation via the Italian version of Open Table because of its name. It sounded close enough to Sabatino’s, a recently-shuttered Chicago joint that my family had been going to for decades.

Sabatini rocks. We decided to go simple and picked the special Chianina Beef Menu. It started with a plate of homemade cappellacci with meat sauce, porcini mushrooms and peas that I want to go back to Florence to eat again and again. Next came the grilled T-bone steak that somehow got better when we sprinkled on the little specks of salt that came on the side. Mixed salad meant dinner was healthy. And then came the Torta della nonna, which means Grandma’s custard pie.

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Il Latini, Florence

My dad sent us here about a decade ago the first time we visited Florence. I’ve sent dozens of people back ever since.

We finally returned in late March after emailing the restaurant the moment our tickets were booked to ensure a reservation. As you can see by the pics above, people line up in a big bunch at the door when it’s their time to eat. And while things may seem a bit disorderly, everyone gets food here. Lots of it.

On this occasion, we went with the price fixed family menu for two and regretted it if only for the fact there’s so much food. And that’s just talking about the bread basket, the appetizer plate of sliced meats and crostinis with spreads, the two pastas and two bowls of soup — all of which arrive before the giant Florentine steak and side of potatoes. Hands down my favorite dish of all the above was the tomato bread soup. I also managed to finish the tiramisu, somehow.

I’ Girone de Ghiotti, Florence

Long lines spilling outside the door. Warm flat breads arriving every few minutes. A man slicing meat after meat after meat. Not much more needs to be said about this gem of a lunch spot except that the Suicide sandwich at the very top of the menu should be your first, second, and third choice. The warm bread crackles with each bite, and somehow that makes it an even better delivery mechanism for the roasted pork, the spicy sauce, the sun dried tomatoes and the arugula.

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We’re taking on a serious topic in the latest edition of The love, journalism Show: The threats journalists face in the US and around the world when trying to do their jobs.

My guest is Frank Smyth, an investigative journalist, author and global authority on press freedom who runs a US-based training firm that assists media members going into hostile environments.

We taped our conversation in early March and begin with a look into why there are more journalists currently in jail than ever before. It’s a jarring fact driven home again this past week when Russian authorities detained an American reporter for the Wall Street Journal on charges of espionage.

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In the interview, Smyth highlights what he says has been a slight improvement in the impunity rate for murdering journalists worldwide and he unpacks some of the heightened risks faced by correspondents covering wars in Syria and the Ukraine.

We go through the reasons it is so dangerous to be a reporter in China, Turkey, Belarus and throughout Latin America.

And in the US, we discussed the challenges and risks journalists face doing their jobs. Smyth offers advice for journalists working in the field to travel in pairs if possible and maintain situational awareness. A diverse range of opinions and perspectives can also be a healthy way to foster dialogue and maybe improve the safety of all journalists.

“Criticize me, sure,” Smyth says, “but don't throw rocks or fire guns.”

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I’m a lover of global travel and a believer that there’s nothing quite like experiencing new people, culture and scenery — embracing the unexpected and returning home with fresh appreciation for the familiar.

That’s been among my favorite working thesis for more than 25 years, and I’m happy to report it still has some juice after journeying across the Atlantic Ocean this month to Europe.

My wife and I spent a little more than a week navigating Switzerland, a speck of France, central Italy and concluding with an overnight layover in the UK that allowed for exploring around Windsor Castle. In the spirit of sharing some of my travelogue, I’ll focus here solely on Switzerland and perhaps inspire your own adventure with this tale of three perfect days spent around Lake Geneva, traveling via cars, trains and our own two feet in the shadow of snow-covered mountains.

There will be fondue.

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The first new thing I learned on this trip: There’s nothing quite like arriving in a foreign country where a friendly face greets you at the airport. That somehow had never happened to me until Geneva, where longtime DC neighbors now live and welcomed us with a ride back to their home for breakfast and showers.

Jet lagged but dedicated to overcoming the urge to nap, we soon set out for a day of sightseeing via a commuter train that passed the headquarters for several United Nations agencies, the Red Cross and the World Trade Organization. Hopping off at a park just downhill from the oldest part of town, we heard the story of how, with the help of some scalding hot soup dumped onto the heads of enemy soldiers, Geneva gained its independence by successfully defending itself from the Duke of Savoy in 1602.

After huffing up more than 150 stairs to the towers atop Cathédrale Saint-Pierre de Genève, we took in the city surrounded by ginormous peaks, and with Lake Geneva and its famous Jet d'Eau. I also saw one of the greatest bathroom views ever.

Did I mention fondue? Pretty much every restaurant in town had some. It was hard to pick. But our hosts insisted on a visit to the Bains des Pâquis, a popular lake swimming spot with a busy walk-up window restaurant featuring oysters, daily specials and pots full of the renown melted cheese accompanied by a basket of crunchy bread for dipping. Yum.

Early spring in Geneva felt special, and a couple of lunchtime bottles of white wine helped to lubricate those feelings. We kept the party going with a stroll along the lake into the Parc Mon Repos, repeatedly questioning our host on whether we were looking at the Alps (to the east) or the Jura mountains (to the west). That’s about the time we found an outdoor cafe for an Aperol Spritz chased with a cafe espresso.

The caffeine-alcohol mix did wonders for our jet lagged bodies. They also made the train ride especially fun back to the Geneva suburbs, where we capped off our first full day of vacation with take-out pizzas and another bottle of red wine.

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Day two in Switzerland started with a hangover.

Our hosts took us on a short car trip across the border into France and the town of Ferney-Voltaire, the home in the middle of the 18th century to the writer and philosopher.

Our visit on an early Saturday afternoon coincided with market day. Thankfully, I listened to my nose and my gut, which said I should brave waiting in line for the rotisserie chicken accompanied by onions and potatoes packed into a paper bag after sitting beneath the dripping fat of the aforementioned skewered chickens.

The market had so many other delicacies, and sadly a human stomach is only so big. But the record can show our small group of four adults and two children consumed oysters, flat breads, pastries, fruit and many free samples before kicking around a football in the park and then heading back into Switzerland.

Capping off the Geneva portion of our stay, our hosts took us on a 20-minute drive north along the lake to Nyon. We snapped some more mountain pics and lingered at a packed cafe nursing a final round of Aperol Spritz. Then came goodbyes at the train station as my wife and I continued our journey.

Another one of the things I love most about travel is visiting important places I’d never heard of but that have been on the map for eons.

That’s the case with Montreux, where we arrived after about an hour-long ride from Nyon just as the sun was beginning to go down. We checked into the Grand Hotel Suisse directly across from the train station and with a balcony overlooking Lake Geneva. And then we followed Google’s dinner advice to take the short strenuous walk uphill into the older, historic part of town. A reservation-only cafe with stellar reviews turned us away but nearby was Restaurant du Pont, a tiny bistro that served up fresh local lake trout.

We woke up Sunday without a hangover and no real game plan.

Originally, Montreux had drawn us in because of something called the “chocolate train.” It is really a thing. But the logistics of a day-long excursion seemed a bit too challenging given we had just the single full day scheduled to be in town, plus rain and overcast skies meant likely obscured views of the mountain terrain.

That’s how we found our way to Queen.

The famous British rock band came to Montreux in 1978, attracted to the Mountain Studios housed inside of a small casino overlooking the lake. The place was already famous among their fellow countrymen musicians because of Switzerland’s more lenient tax laws and for inspiring the Deep Purple song “Smoke on the Water”. Queen bought the recording studio, and it’s where they made much of their music all the way through lead signer Freddy Mercury’s death in 1991. The site is now a small free museum, and we spent more than an hour inside reading song lyrics scribbled on hotel stationary, admiring the band’s costumes on display in glass cases and fiddling with an experimental sound board in the same studio where they made their magic.

Bohemian Rhapsody conveniently stuck in my head, we strolled along a lakeside path toward the Chillon Castle. But first, lunch: Le Cabanon de Mam’s, a small hut of a cafe perched on the side of Lake Geneva, enticed up for a pitstop with its chalkboard sign advertising fresh soup.

Then to the castle, where we absorbed more than 1,000 years of history in a couple hours. That meant contemplating the imprisonment of the monk François Bonivard down in the building’s bowels during the early 16th century and agreeing the place would definitely be worth returning in the event of a zombie apocalypse.

Back in Montreux for our final dinner in Switzerland, Google steered us right again, this time to Restaurant le Museum. Meat eaters like us rejoiced at the house specialities: a do-it-yourself filet medallion grilling experience and a side of scalloped potatoes that were the perfect marriage of sliced potato and fondue.

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A quick programming note: love, journalism and The love, journalism Show is going on break through March 28 for some rest and relaxation.

Thank you all so much for reading, listening and the support. It’s been a blast so far. See you in the spring!

Ciao,

Darren