ABOUT ME
I grew up 20 minutes south of downtown Kansas City with a family of history dorks, music lovers and stubborn-by-natures. Picture your classic, perfectly dysfunctional Kansas family — we have a special knack for inhabiting each other's pet peeves.
I spend the bulk of my time with family and friends, as well as writing and listening to music. I'm a Mizzou Tiger, but was raised a Kansas Jayhawk.
Building a story is a skill that I didn’t know I’d be capable of learning until I asked my first interview question. Those questions — the ones where you get a true snapshot of the subject, an amalgamation of the losses and struggles and triumphs — are what drive me forward.
The reporting process has built an ambition in me, which produced a means to examine problems that cause pain and loss, and pinpoint what went wrong for them. It’s caused a relentless drive in me to shed light on issues that deserve to be heard, discussed and dealt with — whether it's the deaths of dozens due to gun violence on an August weekend, the broken promises of a school district to families of students requiring special education or how heavy the dollar weighs in the college admissions process.
These stories led me to most directly aspire to a career in law — antitrust, human rights, or constitutional — where I can hopefully work to frame the law as a mechanism that can protect people before it harms them.
Beyond reporting on pressing social issues, I’m always interested in the stories behind a person’s way of life. I’ve worked to make sure that a variety of personal stories are told in ways that help you understand them — it’s a look at the people whose stories change your lens of the world forever, the ones with aching problems and bittersweet love. It's the trans boy's experience at a school that won't look at him normally. But it's also the six guys reviewing school lunch pizza each day at the middle table by the column.
Living as a high school journalist taught me the indispensable virtue of respecting others' realities with persistent empathy, no matter how fine they may seem on the surface. Now, in realms of law and strategic communication, I'm carrying on the same mission.
Click here to read some of my recently published work, and please feel free to browse my website for other content that might interest you.
Be well,
Ben
