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A video tip from the field.

Fearless reporting, a behind-the-curtains look at how journalism is made — and an unabashed point of view. Welcome to Chills.

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You know how when you do something all the time you assume that everyone else knows how to do it too? I’ve had to break myself of that while writing this Substack.

Journalism is a skill, best learned by doing. But as someone who went to a journalism grad school and teaches at a journalism grad school, I also firmly believe that there are ways of doing this work that can be distilled easily and passed along, often saving years of fumbling in the field.

Unfortunately, most editors don’t have the time or the patience to bother to teach as they do. I was lucky enough to have had both a remarkable editor and experienced reporters take the time to work through their processes with me. So, new journalists, if you find a boss/mentor willing to take the time to explain their process, to have you sit beside them as they work on your stories, do it.

While in Ukraine over the summer, I took a series of videos for NYU’s American Journalism Online Master’s program — short tips from the field. Each video focuses on single thing that has been useful to me or improved my reporting over the years, whether that’s what kind of clothing to wear in a war zone, or how to deal with children listening in to your interviews with torture survivors.

Here is one that covers something I was taught in grad school, in my first class. To me, it is the skeleton key to getting started on any story. Thanks for watching.

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Chills is self-funded, without ads. If you want to be a part of this effort, of revealing how difficult reporting is made — of sending me to places like Ukraine to report for you — I hope you will consider subscribing for $50/year or $7/month.