Just Asking

John Swansburg. (Photo: Slate).

Slate’s John Swansburg Likes Good Cover Letters, Doesn’t Like Zombies

Slate’s editorial director John Swansburg was on Reddit today, answering readers’ questions, which the counterintuitive webmag handily made into an easily digestible post.

What did we learn? Good question! Well, if given the choice between fighting one panda-sized David Plotz and 100 David Plotz-sized pandas, Mr. Swansburg would choose the latter. In the event of a Zombie attack, Mr. Swansburg “would surrender immediately and throw [himself] on the mercy of the undead,” he wrote. But then again, he is “not a zombie guy, never have been.” Sometimes, his own writing can be a powerful tool for social change. For example, ever since he wrote about how much he hates birthday dinners in 2008, Mr. Swansburg hasn’t been invited to a single one. He views this accomplishment as a direct result of his seminal piece.  Read More

Stunts

Slate Logo. (Credit: Slate).

Slate Pitches

Slate readers can now assign Slate writers stories. How’s that for counterintuitive?

In a stunt reminiscent of a Slate explainer, the website is turning assumptions slightly askew and then making a case for that assumption. For the next week, that assumption is the editorial process whereby an editor assigns a writer a story, a writer writes it and then a reader Read More