Media in Minutes

Send us Fan Mail She didn’t even get a passport until 28, then built a career that took her from CNN to reporting travel stories around the world. I’m joined by Tomeka Jones, an Emmy Award-winning travel journalist, television host, executive producer and the founder of Travel in Style with Tomeka. We talk about what it really looks like to break into a major newsroom, learn the craft and keep mov...

Send us Fan Mail Someone once told Kaitlyn Rosati she shouldn’t travel to South America without a man. She went anyway, built No Man Nomad and turned solo travel into a full-time life across nearly 100 countries. We sit down with Kaitlyn to get past the highlight reel and into the real mechanics of fearless exploration: how a bartender in New York took one solo trip to Hawaii, then kept going unti...

Send us Fan Mail Indianapolis has secrets hiding in plain sight, and some of them involve thousands of hungry squirrels. Host Angela Tuell sits down with Indianapolis writer, editor and author Ashley Petry to unpack how she turns local history, culture, and curiosity into stories that make people see the Circle City with fresh eyes. Ashley shares how a lifelong love of writing and a deep backgroun...

Send us Fan Mail A naked dinner party assignment. An alligator living by a dollar store. A “be more efficient” book that actually teaches you to rest. Lifestyle and wellness reporter Madeleine Aggeler has made a career out of taking the internet’s strangest trends seriously enough to find the human truth inside them, and she joins us to explain how that work actually happens.  We start with Madele...

Send us Fan Mail When you hear “bioethics,” you might picture abstract debates and dense academic language, but that's not the case with today's guest. I’m joined by Dr. Elizabeth Yuko, an award-winning journalist, bioethicist and longtime Rolling Stone contributor, to talk about the real-world ethical choices hiding inside health headlines, medical research and public policy decisions t...

Send us Fan Mail She wanted to be home with her kids, but she also wanted an income and a career. That tension is where freelance writer Stephanie Mickelson built her business, starting with small Upwork jobs and steadily growing into bylines at major outlets like Real Simple and Popular Mechanics. We talk through the exact moments that made freelancing feel “real,” including the first $1,000 mont...

Send us Fan Mail A destination can look perfect on paper and still feel unreadable until you sit down, open the menu and watch what locals actually order. That’s the lens we bring to this conversation with Emily Capiello, a travel, food, and beverage journalist whose work spans Travel + Leisure, Forbes, VinePair and more. We talk about how she went from a start in literature to a career built on r...

Send us Fan Mail Seoul can look like one giant skyline from a distance, but up close it’s a patchwork of neighborhoods with their own rhythms, histories, and quiet surprises. I’m joined by writer, editor, and author Charlie Usher, whose work spans South Korea travel, cultural storytelling, and the kind of reporting that starts by simply choosing a subway stop and wandering until a place reveals it...

Send us Fan Mail The travel stories you love rarely come from “perfect” trips. They come from patience, ethics, and a lot of unseen work. We sit down with Rosie Bell, an award-winning travel writer, editor, and educator whose bylines span BBC Travel, National Geographic Traveler, Wired, Forbes Travel Guide, Lonely Planet, and more. Rosie shares how she stumbled into travel journalism after moving...

Send us Fan Mail A shy compliment at Art Basel turned into a passport to the world. We sit down with Miami native and freelance writer Amber Love Bond to unpack how she left corporate finance and built a career that spotlights chefs, bartenders and destinations through stories with heart. From the early days covering Miami’s cocktail scene to filing features from Hong Kong, New Orleans and the Car...

Send us Fan Mail Want to know how a journalist turns a region into a calling and a career? We sit down with bilingual writer and editor Carly Rojas Avila to unpack how she built a trusted niche in Latin American travel, food, and spirits—earning bylines with Forbes, Travel + Leisure, and hundreds of syndications—while keeping her work deeply human in a noisy media world. Carly traces her path from...

Send us Fan Mail Start with wonder, end with action. That’s the throughline of our conversation with travel and environmental writer Amy Brecount White, whose stories for National Geographic Traveler, Smithsonian, Sierra and more connect awe-filled journeys with the people and practices that keep wild places alive. We explore how she moved from early Washington Post essays to a career focused on r...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when a line cook falls in love with magazines—and refuses to choose between the stove and the story? We sit down with Chandra Ram, celebrated food writer, cookbook author and former editorial leader at Plate and Food & Wine, to chart a career built on craft, curiosity and a relentless commitment to serving readers as well as diners. We dig into the early days that...

Send us Fan Mail Step past the velvet ropes and into the rooms where power becomes personal. Angela sits with bestselling author and journalist Kate Andersen Brower to trace a path from midnight shifts at CBS to Bloomberg’s White House beat and the books that reveal the people who keep the presidency moving. From riding on Air Force One to riding a helicopter that touched down on the Buckingham Pa...

Send us Fan Mail A chance assignment after the Gulf War put Jamie McIntyre inside the Pentagon at the very moment history refused to slow down. From Somalia to Haiti to Kosovo and Iraq, he learned that the defense beat isn’t just policy on paper—it’s operations, people and real-world stakes. Jamie shares how that era’s open access let reporters roam the halls, build sources, and pressure-test offi...

Send us Fan Mail Start with a newsroom built from scratch in Belize. Add decades across TV, digital, teaching and public media. Now meet the throughline: a fierce commitment to service, collaboration and stories that help people live better where they are. Managing editor Holly Edgell of NPR’s Midwest Newsroom joins us to talk about leading a dispersed regional team covering Iowa, Kansas, Missouri...

Send us Fan Mail Want a front-row seat to how billion-dollar location decisions actually get made? We sit down with Ron Starner, executive vice president of Conway Data and a leading voice at Site Selection magazine, to unpack the data, discipline and real-world tradeoffs behind corporate expansion and economic development. Ron traces his path from a scrappy small-town newsroom to steering award-w...

Send us Fan Mail Stories change the way we work, but meetings change what we do next. That belief runs through our conversation with Sarah Braley (aka Sally), managing editor at Northstar Meetings Group and a veteran journalist whose passport and notebook have shaped how planners think about destinations, incentives and experience design. We trace Sally's path from early magazine days to beco...

Send us Fan Mail A single press call about the farm bill changed everything for our guest, Business Management Editor Cassidy Walter of Successful Farming. What started as a political beat in college became a career dedicated to helping producers make smart, profitable decisions in an unpredictable market. We explore how Cassidy translates corn, soybean, wheat and livestock price moves into plain-...

Send us Fan Mail Headlines are loud; useful reporting is quiet and sharp. We sit with senior reporter Andy Medici (American City Business Journals) to unpack how he turns federal policy, workplace shifts and emerging tech into stories that help entrepreneurs, executives and local leaders make better decisions. From remote work battles and labor rulings to AI’s promises and pitfalls, Andy shares ho...

Send us Fan Mail A rainy Boston morning set the scene, but the real weather shift happens in the story: an English major boards her first commercial flight to Alaska at 19, discovers how far a duffel and a daring heart can go, and eventually returns to writing through the heat of a private kitchen. We trace Melanie’s winding path from private chef to freelance food-and-travel journalist, and how c...

Send us Fan Mail Joe Sills never expected to become a travel writer. Growing up in a small town in West Tennessee surrounded by cotton fields and limited horizons, he couldn't imagine that the places he saw on Discovery Channel would one day become his workplace. After a winding path that included dropped college courses, pizza delivery and graphic design, a workplace shooting became the cata...

Send us Fan Mail Ever wondered what it takes to carve out a sustainable career in the ultra-competitive world of sports journalism? Yahoo Sports breaking news writer Ian Casselberry pulls back the curtain on his remarkable 15-year journey through some of sports media's biggest names. Casselberry's path defies conventional wisdom. Starting with a personal blog while at the University of I...

Send us Fan Mail The power of storytelling lies not just in whose stories are told, but in who gets to tell them. For Adria Walker, a seventh-generation Mississippian and race and equity journalist for The Guardian, this understanding forms the foundation of her approach to reporting on Indigenous communities across the Deep South. Walker's journey began with an unlikely childhood inspiration...

Send us Fan Mail Step into the world of global storytelling with Mark Johanson, an American journalist who's crafted a remarkable career from his base in Santiago, Chile. With bylines in National Geographic, Travel + Leisure, The Guardian and CNN, Mark takes us beyond the typical travel narrative to share how location, language and cultural immersion shape authentic storytelling. Mark reveals...