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The Rough Draft
The Rough Draft episodes
- Alain Stephens’ “heavy metal beat” takes him on serious investigations into America’s gun industry
Episode Summary
Alain Stephens started his career in the military and later as a police officer in North Texas. But then he found himself in the world of journalism and realized this was the perfect avenue for his investigative skills.
In this episode Alain talks about his path to journalism, the challenges of being an investigative reporter in the current media landscape, and tells us about one of his investigations that led him to suing the Department of Justice.
Guest Bio
Alain Stephens is a staff writer at The Trace covering developments in firearms technology and the ATF. His investigations into auto sears, toy guns, and ghost guns for The Trace have led to congressional action. A military veteran and gun owner, Alain worked at inewsource and Texas Standard, where his work led to important public safety, civil rights, and criminal justice reforms.
Social Media
Alain on X
Alain on Instagram
Listen to Alain’s podcast, The Gun Machine
Rate and Subscribe
Be sure to subscribe to The Rough Draft on Spotify, Apple, or anywhere you get your podcasts in order to stay up to date with the latest episodes.
Follow Rev and The Rough Draft on Instagram, LinkedIn and X
The Rough Draft is produced by Rev, and releases a new episode every Tuesday & Thursday.
Mentioned in this episode:
Rev.com
32 min - How many former police guns were involved in crimes? Alain Stephens sued the government to find out
Episode Summary
Investigative reporter Alain Stephens shares the process of reporting out one of his most impactful investigations: the discovery that 52,000 former police guns were sold to the public and later used in crimes.
This investigation resulted in multiple stories including an episode of Reveal and a collaboration with CBS News.
Guest Bio
Alain Stephens is a staff writer at The Trace covering developments in firearms technology and the ATF. His investigations into auto sears, toy guns, and ghost guns for The Trace have led to congressional action. A military veteran and gun owner, Alain worked at inewsource and Texas Standard, where his work led to important public safety, civil rights, and criminal justice reforms.
Social Media
Alain on X
Alain on Instagram
Listen to Alain’s podcast, The Gun Machine
Rate and Subscribe
Be sure to subscribe to The Rough Draft on Spotify, Apple, or anywhere you get your podcasts in order to stay up to date with the latest episodes.
Follow Rev and The Rough Draft on Instagram, LinkedIn and X
The Rough Draft is produced by Rev, and releases a new episode every Tuesday & Thursday.
Mentioned in this episode:
Rev.com
14 min - Investigative reporter Alain Stephens thinks the 24 Hour news cycle hinders quality journalism
Episode Summary
Investigative reporter Alain Stephens spends years trying to get the right data for a story. This kind of reporting takes patience, problem solving and time- something the 24-hour news cycle is not always willing to give.
Guest Bio
Alain Stephens is a staff writer at The Trace covering developments in firearms technology and the ATF. His investigations into auto sears, toy guns, and ghost guns for The Trace have led to congressional action. A military veteran and gun owner, Alain worked at inewsource and Texas Standard, where his work led to important public safety, civil rights, and criminal justice reforms.
Social Media
Alain on X
Alain on Instagram
Listen to Alain’s podcast, The Gun Machine
Rate and Subscribe
Be sure to subscribe to The Rough Draft on Spotify, Apple, or anywhere you get your podcasts in order to stay up to date with the latest episodes.
Follow Rev and The Rough Draft on Instagram, LinkedIn and X
The Rough Draft is produced by Rev, and releases a new episode every Tuesday & Thursday.
Mentioned in this episode:
Rev.com
10 min - Alain Stephens’ started his career in the military. Now he’s an investigative reporter covering guns
Episode Summary
Investigative reporter Alain Stephens started his career in the military and later as a police officer in North Texas. But then he found himself in the world of journalism and realized this was the perfect avenue for his investigative skills. In this episode Alain talks about his path to journalism and why his background makes him a great reporter.
Guest Bio
Alain Stephens is a staff writer at The Trace covering developments in firearms technology and the ATF. His investigations into auto sears, toy guns, and ghost guns for The Trace have led to congressional action. A military veteran and gun owner, Alain worked at inewsource and Texas Standard, where his work led to important public safety, civil rights, and criminal justice reforms.
Social Media
Alain on X
Alain on Instagram
Listen to Alain’s podcast, The Gun Machine
Rate and Subscribe
Be sure to subscribe to The Rough Draft on Spotify, Apple, or anywhere you get your podcasts in order to stay up to date with the latest episodes.
Follow Rev and The Rough Draft on Instagram, LinkedIn and X
The Rough Draft is produced by Rev, and releases a new episode every Tuesday & Thursday.
Mentioned in this episode:
Rev.com
12 min - Daniel Parris uses his data science skills to answer pop culture questions you’ve probably asked yourself.
Episode Summary
Daniel Parris is creator of the Stat Significant newsletter, where each week he uses data analytics to answer pop culture questions. In this episode he talks about creating his newsletter, the tools he uses to compile data sets and write essays, and a behind the scenes look at how he created one of his most popular essays: ‘Why Do People Hate Nickelback So Much? A Statistical Analysis’.
Guest Bio
Daniel Parris is a California-based data scientist, journalist, and consultant who writes about the intersection of statistics and popular culture. He was one of DoorDash's first 150 employees and data science hires. Since leaving DoorDash, Daniel has been dedicating his time to strategy and analytics consulting, as well as data writing. His weekly newsletter Stat Significant has over 13,000 subscribers and features data-centric essays about movies, music, TV, and more. His work has been featured by The Financial Times, Semafor, 1440, and Morning Brew.
Social Media
Read ‘Stat Significant’ here
Daniel on LinkedIn
Rate and Subscribe
Be sure to subscribe to The Rough Draft on Spotify, Apple, or anywhere you get your podcasts in order to stay up to date with the latest episodes.
Follow Rev and The Rough Draft on Instagram, LinkedIn and X
The Rough Draft is produced by Rev, and releases a new episode every Tuesday & Thursday.
Mentioned in this episode:
Rev.com
28 min - Why do people hate Nickelback so much? Substacker Daniel Parris has the data to answer that question.
Episode Summary
Daniel Parris is creator of the Stat Significant newsletter, where each week he uses data analytics to answer pop culture questions. In this episode he talks about creating one of his most popular essays, ‘Why Do People Hate Nickelback So Much? A Statistical Analysis’.
Guest Bio
Daniel Parris is a California-based data scientist, journalist, and consultant who writes about the intersection of statistics and popular culture. He was one of DoorDash's first 150 employees and data science hires. Since leaving DoorDash, Daniel has been dedicating his time to strategy and analytics consulting, as well as data writing. His weekly newsletter Stat Significant has over 13,000 subscribers and features data-centric essays about movies, music, TV, and more. His work has been featured by The Financial Times, Semafor, 1440, and Morning Brew.
Social Media
Read ‘Stat Significant’ here
Daniel on LinkedIn
Rate and Subscribe
Be sure to subscribe to The Rough Draft on Spotify, Apple, or anywhere you get your podcasts in order to stay up to date with the latest episodes.
Follow Rev and The Rough Draft on Instagram, LinkedIn and X
The Rough Draft is produced by Rev, and releases a new episode every Tuesday & Thursday.
Mentioned in this episode:
Rev.com
12 min - Daniel Parris uses Notion and a voice recorder to write his essays for ‘Stat Significant’
Episode Summary
Daniel Parris is creator of the Stat Significant newsletter, where each week he uses data analytics to answer pop culture questions. In this episode he talks about the tools he uses to compile data sets and write essays for his Substack.
Guest Bio
Daniel Parris is a California-based data scientist, journalist, and consultant who writes about the intersection of statistics and popular culture. He was one of DoorDash's first 150 employees and data science hires. Since leaving DoorDash, Daniel has been dedicating his time to strategy and analytics consulting, as well as data writing. His weekly newsletter Stat Significant has over 13,000 subscribers and features data-centric essays about movies, music, TV, and more. His work has been featured by The Financial Times, Semafor, 1440, and Morning Brew.
Social Media
Read ‘Stat Significant’ here
Daniel on LinkedIn
Rate and Subscribe
Be sure to subscribe to The Rough Draft on Spotify, Apple, or anywhere you get your podcasts in order to stay up to date with the latest episodes.
Follow Rev and The Rough Draft on Instagram, LinkedIn and X
The Rough Draft is produced by Rev, and releases a new episode every Tuesday & Thursday.
Mentioned in this episode:
Rev.com
10 min - Daniel Parris combined his love for pop culture with data science to create the Substack ‘Stat Significant’
Episode Summary
Daniel Parris is creator of the Stat Significant newsletter, where each week he uses data analytics to answer pop culture questions. On this episode, Daniel talks about his career journey that started as a production assistant in Hollywood, to working as a data scientist at DoorDash and eventually creating Stat Significant.
Guest Bio
Daniel Parris is a California-based data scientist, journalist, and consultant who writes about the intersection of statistics and popular culture. He was one of DoorDash's first 150 employees and data science hires. Since leaving DoorDash, Daniel has been dedicating his time to strategy and analytics consulting, as well as data writing. His weekly newsletter Stat Significant has over 13,000 subscribers and features data-centric essays about movies, music, TV, and more. His work has been featured by The Financial Times, Semafor, 1440, and Morning Brew.
Social Media
Read ‘Stat Significant’ here
Daniel on LinkedIn
Rate and Subscribe
Be sure to subscribe to The Rough Draft on Spotify, Apple, or anywhere you get your podcasts in order to stay up to date with the latest episodes.
Follow Rev and The Rough Draft on Instagram, LinkedIn and X. The Rough Draft is produced by Rev, and releases a new episode every Tuesday & Thursday.
Mentioned in this episode:
Rev.com
11 min - Sky Dylan Robbins longed for a creative community- so she created The Video Consortium
Episode Summary
Today we’re joined by Sky Dylan-Robbins, founder of the Video Consortium. In this full interview with Sky, she talks about why she created a community of creatives and why a community is important in today’s market. She also talks about her decade-long process of making ‘On Our Own Island’, her documentary that chronicles her parents’ marriage from its romantic beginnings to her father’s death.
Guest Bio
Sky Dylan-Robbins is an award-winning producer, filmmaker, and media entrepreneur. After producing documentaries at NBC News and The New Yorker, she founded The Video Consortium, a global nonprofit supporting nonfiction storytellers. Named Forbes "30 under 30" in media, her work has earned multiple industry honors and her feature documentary "On Our Own Island" captivates audiences worldwide.
Additional Resources:
Sky’s website
The Video Consortium website
The Video Consortium on Instagram
Check out Sky’s feature length documentary “On Our Own Island”
Rate and Subscribe
Be sure to subscribe to The Rough Draft on Spotify, Apple, or anywhere you get your podcasts in order to stay up to date with the latest episodes.
Follow Rev and The Rough Draft on Instagram, LinkedIn and X
The Rough Draft is produced by Rev, and releases a new episode every Tuesday & Thursday.
Mentioned in this episode:
Rev.com
31 min - In “On Our Island”, filmmaker Sky Dylan-Robbins tells her parents’ love story and chronicles her father’s illness and death
Episode Summary
Today we’re joined by Sky Dylan-Robbins, founder of the Video Consortium. Today, Sky talks about the decade long process of making ‘On Our Own Island’, her first feature length documentary that chronicles her parents’ marriage from its romantic beginnings through life’s final moments.
Guest Bio
Sky Dylan-Robbins is an award-winning producer, filmmaker, and media entrepreneur. After producing documentaries at NBC News and The New Yorker, she founded The Video Consortium, a global nonprofit supporting nonfiction storytellers. Named Forbes "30 under 30" in media, her work has earned multiple industry honors and her feature documentary "On Our Own Island" captivates audiences worldwide.
Additional Resources:
Sky’s website
The Video Consortium website
The Video Consortium on Instagram
Check out Sky’s feature length documentary “On Our Own Island”
Rate and Subscribe
Be sure to subscribe to The Rough Draft on Spotify, Apple, or anywhere you get your podcasts in order to stay up to date with the latest episodes.
Follow Rev and The Rough Draft on Instagram, LinkedIn and X
The Rough Draft is produced by Rev, and releases a new episode every Tuesday & Thursday.
Mentioned in this episode:
Rev.com
11 min
About The Rough Draft
From the publisher's feed
Featuring honest conversations with folks from across the creative industry, Season 2 of The Rough Draft explores the creative process, tools, and resources used by some of the best in the business. From journalists to content creators and business leaders, we shed light on what it looks like to break into the industry, make mistakes, collaborate with others, and the essential tools that help us along the way.
Mini episodes released every Tuesday and Thursday. Full interviews with guests published every other Thursday.