The Edit

On this special episode of The Edit, Pacific Standard associate editor Ben Rowen narrates Benjamin Rachlin's feature "Sailing Blind," a story about visually impaired sailors who find adventure and competition out on the water.

On this episode of The Edit, we speak with contributor Massoud Hayoun about his story about Vilma Carrillo, a migrant from Guatemala seeking asylum in the United States. Carrillo's daughter was born in the U.S. and has American citizenship, as a result she was taken from her mother, because immigration officials refused to detain a citizen with an asylum seeker.

During the conversation Hayoun discusses Carrillo's situation, the U.S.'s immense immigration backlog, and how the Trump administration has attempted to address this ongoing issue. 

On this episode of The Edit, Pacific Standard Engagement Fellow Alexa Lee speaks with staff writer Kate Wheeling about the United Nations' upcoming climate conference in Katowice, Poland. During the conversation Wheeling outlines the history of the climate conference, the future of the Paris Agreement, and the pitfalls of negotiating an international climate agreement. Wheeling be attending the conference in Poland and covering the events that take place before, during, and after the gathering.

On this episode of The Edit, Pacific Standard assistant editor Rebecca Worby talks with Jimmy Tobias about a recent investigation he conducted into the Ryan Zinke-led Department of the Interior. Tobias used a number Freedom of Information Act requests to uncover a trove of private calendars from top DOI officials. The documents revealed a pattern of corruption within the department that puts industry interests ahead of protecting the interests of the public.

On this episode of 'The Edit' host Ben Rowen speaks with Pacific Standard Editorial Fellow Jack Herrera about California State Senator Kevin De León who's taking on long-time incumbent Dianne Feinstein in California's mid-term election race for U.S. Senator. Herrera spent weeks speaking with De León and traveling to his campaign stops to get a sense of his prospective agenda, ambitions as a political figure, and what drove him to run for office.

On this episode of The Edit, we spoke with Pacific Standard contributing editor Peter C. Baker and documentary filmmaker Yu Gu. Gu and Baker both worked on projects about former Jeopardy! contestant and influential blogger Arthur Chu. Baker attended college with Chu, and in 2015 wrote a profile of Chu that covered his controversial run on the game show, and how his writing on the misogynistic elements of nerd culture came at a crucial time for the country, especially in the wake of the tragic Isla Vista killings carried out by a young man named Elliot Rodger.

While Baker was trailing Chu for his profile, Gu and her creative partner Scott Drucker were in the process of filming a documentary of Chu's life called Who Is Arthur Chu?, which investigates Chu's family life and struggles with Internet trolls that were a result of his public writing about Gamergate. In this episode, we talk to Baker about his profile, his relationship with Chu, and the fallout from the Isla Vista tragedy. We then speak with Gu about the process behind filming a documentary, Chu's family life, and smashing the model minority myth. 

Chu's documentary has been released across digital platforms, and you can find it here: http://bit.ly/Chudoc_trailer 

On this special episode of The Edit, staff writer Kate Wheeling reads her feature story "The Great, Chaotic Biochar Experiment" that was included in our May print issue. Wheeling traveled to Peru to meet with Australian plant ecologist Brenton Ladd. Ladd wants to reengineer the notoriously nutrient-poor soils in the Amazon, and, in the process, save the world's trees. But first, he has to convince Peruvian farmers and non-profits--and occasionally, his own research team--that he's not just another gringo with a strange idea.

On this episode of The Edit, we speak with Pacific Standard contributing columnist Sophie Yeo who has been covering how vulnerable communities are dealing with environmental justice issues in our New Landscapes series. During this conversation Yeo discusses a predominantly immigrant neighborhood in Chicago that has long dealt with harmful air pollutants, how litigation is being used to hold government's accountable for the affects of global warming, and the future of climate justice for vulnerable communities around the world. 

On this episode of The Edit we speak with Pacific Standard contributing writer Massoud Hayoun about immigration in the Trump era, a growing Vietnamese refugee crisis, and the geopolitical implications of the U.S. government enacting more isolationist polices. 

This week on The Edit, we spoke with Pacific Standard Editorial Assistant Jack Denton about his recent PSmag.com story "Hailu Mergia's Great Re-Appearing Act". The piece is about the life a legendary Ethiopian musician who left his country and celebrity for the U.S. in the early 80s and then made ends meet by driving a cab in Washington D.C. for 30 years.

Mergia was recently rediscovered by a record label and made his return to the music industry. During this episode Denton outlines a brief history of Ethiopian music, talks about what attracted him to this story in the first place, and describes the unique character of Hailu Mergia.