Off the Cuff – The Oberlin Review

College fourth-years Editor-in-Chief Nathan Carpenter and Managing Editor Ananya Gupta.

OTC: Review Editor-in-Chief Nathan Carpenter and Managing Editor Ananya Gupta

May 25, 2020

College fourth-years Ananya Gupta and Nathan Carpenter have served as the respective managing editor and editor-in-chief of The Oberlin Review for the past two years. As the first members of the Review staff to remain in these senior roles for two consecutive terms, they have taken special initiative in shaping the direction and community of the paper. From instituting a paperless production process and an annual staff retreat, to hosting a journalism symposium and creating a special environmental iss...

OTC: Alex Blumberg, OC ’89, Audio Journalist & Entrepreneur

Johan Cavert, Sarah Dalgleish, Anisa Curry Vietze, and Molly Bryson

May 8, 2020

Alex Blumberg, OC ’89, is an award-winning audio journalist and co-founder of the podcasting company Gimlet Media, which was recently acquired by Spotify for $230 million. Before starting Gimlet, Blumberg worked as a producer for the narrative-based NPR program This American Life and co-founded the show Planet Money. Blumberg came to campus last Thursday, March 5, to talk about how to tell a great audio story, as well as his experience as an entrepreneur and journalist. What was your time at Oberlin like, and what were you involved in while you were here? During my time at Oberlin I was a very unremarkable student. I lived in Tank Hall; I drank beer and ate pizza. I went to the disco a lot. And then I gradua...

Dave Covell, Lorain County Health Commissioner

Katie Lucey and Zoë Martin del Campo

April 9, 2020

Dave Covell is the Lorain County health commissioner and is at the forefront of monitoring cases of COVID-19 in Lorain County, working to prevent further spread. Previously, he worked as deputy director for the Cuyahoga County Board of Health and earned his Masters in Public Health from The Ohio State University. Due to recent events, Covell has collaborated with specialized teams focusing on topics like epidemiology and public information to ensure that residents are aware of how best to protect themselves and others during this pandemic. He has also worked closely with Oberlin College and the City of Oberlin to take proactive measures to protect and educate the community. He urges residents to continue practicing standa...

Off the Cuff with David Kris, Security & Surveillance Expert

March 6, 2020

David Kris held a session titled “Surveillance and Hate” in Hallock Auditorium this past Tuesday. Kris is the founder of Culper Partners, LLC. He was the Head of the Department of Justice’s National Security Division under the Obama administration. He has also served as senior advisor to the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General, and he worked as a federal prosecutor for eight years. Since 2011, he has worked as the general counsel of Intellectual Ventures and later became the deput...

OTC: Aaron Zitner, OC ’84, News Editor, The Wall Street Journal

February 28, 2020

Aaron Zitner, OC ’84, is a news editor at the Wall Street Journal whose work focuses on using data to tell stories about politics and trends in America. He uses mediums such as video and interactive graphics to translate quantitative data into engaging and accessible stories. While at Oberlin, Zitner was News Editor of the Review and majored in English. Zitner is visiting campus as part of A Disrupted Media Landscape: Skills, Perspectives, Solutions, a journalism and media symposium co-hosted ...

Rani Molla, OC ’08, Vox and Recode Data Journalist

February 21, 2020

Rani Molla, OC ’08, is senior data reporter for Vox and Recode. Her work involves using data, charts, and figures to explain complex tech stories in simple terms. Next week, Molla will visit campus as part of “A Disrupted Media Landscape: Skills, Perspectives, Solutions,” a journalism and media symposium co-hosted by the Review and The Grape. Alongside Aaron Zitner, OC ’84, and news editor for The Wall Street Journal, Molla will present a collaborative data journalism workshop entitled “...

Off the Cuff with Tamara Wittes, OC ’91

February 14, 2020

Tamara Wittes, OC ’91, is an author, a senior fellow in the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, and a former State Department government official under the Obama administration.She is also co-host of Rational Security, a podcast about foreign policy and national security. She visited campus on Wednesday to give a talk titled “Scholarship and Service: Reconsidering the Arab Uprisings,” where she discussed her experience studying Middle East policies in academic settings an...

OTC: Jad Abumrad, OC ’95, Creator of Radiolab, Dolly Parton’s America

December 13, 2019

Jad Abumrad, OC ’95, is the creator and producer of some of the most popular public radio programs and podcasts, including Radiolab, More Perfect, and Dolly Parton’s America. Abumrad’s show Radiolab — previously co-hosted by Robert Krulwich, OC ’69 — airs on over 500 stations in the United States and is downloaded over 9 million times a month as a podcast. Radiolab was awarded a Peabody Award in 2011 and 2015, and Abumrad was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2011. While at Oberlin, Abumrad st...

OTC: Tom Rosenstiel, OC ’78, Journalist and Fiction Writer

December 6, 2019

Tom Rosenstiel held a convocation speech titled “Objectivity, Facts, Fiction, and the Future of Journalism” at Oberlin this past Thursday. Rosenstiel is nationally recognized for his work as an author, journalist, researcher, and media critic. He founded the Project for Excellence in Journalism at the Pew Research Center and directed the program for 16 years. He has written seven books on journalism, politics, and ethics, including The Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know and the P...

Sam Bailey, OC ’19, Sustained Dialogue Coordinator

November 22, 2019

What does your work as Dialogue Coordinator entail? Mainly, I coordinate a program called Barefoot Dialogue, which I was involved in when I was a first-year as a participant, and then a facilitator and researcher. And now — having graduated last year — I’ve stepped into a coordinator position, which is a staff position on campus. It’s a crazy job because the range of duties is wild. I host some dialogues — we believe in home-cooked food for dialogue and we’re a vulnerability-based mode...

OTC: Sebastiaan Faber, Professor and Chair of Hispanic Studies

November 15, 2019

Professor and Chair of Hispanic Studies Sebastiaan Faber has taught at Oberlin since 1999 and is fluent in English, Spanish, and Dutch. Recently, he coordinated with other faculty members to propose an integrative journalism concentration, which the College Faculty Committee passed with 49 out of 51 members’ approval on Nov. 6, 2019. In addition to writing for a variety of English and Spanish publications, Faber regularly contributes articles to The Nation, covering topics such as Catalan indepen...

Off The Cuff: Jen Deerwater, Indigenous Activist and Journalist

November 8, 2019

Jen Deerinwater is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, bisexual, Two Spirit, multiply-disabled journalist, and organizer. Deerinwater writes on a variety of topics, including national politics, reproductive justice, ableism, resource extraction, and justice for indigenous communities. Deerinwater is a contributor at Truthout, a Freedomways and New Economies Reporting Project fellow, and the Founder and Executive Director of Crushing Colonialism, an international, Indigenous multi-media collec...