People Not In News Commenting On The News: Meet Rob Shore

Meet Rob Shore. By day, he’s a mild-mannered creative director who specializes in the public presentation of research findings. Outside of work, he co-founded a coworking space and digital media collaborative, where he creates hilarious films and award-winning documentaries. He used to live in a yurt in Mongolia. He’s one of my favorite people to follow on Instagram, in part because he travels all over the world.

When Rob’s not traveling, he’s based in DC. I was extremely glad when Rob said he would answer these questions. He was extremely enthusiastic about his willingness to participate: “Loving what you’re doing. Send telegram, email, phone number, or chloroform soaked handkerchief.”

We emailed. Rob answered. Here are his answers. If you’d like to participate, let me know. If you want to read the rest of the series, click here.

1. How do you get your news?

I wake up and turn on WAMU 88.5. Jerry Edwards follows me into the bathroom and into the shower. It’s not as creepy as it sounds. Upon toweling, Rachel Maddow enters the picture. Just like she has every weekday morning for roughly six years. We have breakfast together. We cry, we learn. I think she thinks we laugh, but we don’t often. On the bus, it’s me and Terry. Sometimes the New Yorker if she’s had an off week. I no longer try to convince myself that the Economist is good for me. When I get to work I scan Facebook. I have a large and inaccurate number of friends, many of them who have been hidden because they have broken a complex and sacred set of rules that I have developed over the past decade. I have a perfectly curated little world: liberal, smoke, mirrors, memes, technology and cinephilia. Among all of my various feeds, services, readers, and aggregators (Zite is quite good), I actually have no better source for news that predictably entertains, educates, and delights me than my little self-selected group of 100 or so newsfeed fodder feeders. Call me old fashioned. Lunch is with Jon or, increasingly, with the newer, edgier John.

2. Please send me a gif or video that captures your attention span

**3. How do you take your coffee? **

Black, with cream.

4. Who’s doing it right in news?

Ezra Klein is doing it right and doing it early and doing it and doing and doing well. Plus he’s reppin’ Adams Morgan.

5. What’s the first news event that you remember?

I remember when the Challenger exploded. I guess I would have been four. I was at my friend Robert Reid’s house and my mother arrived to pick me up crying. Years later I went to the launch of the Columbia with my roommate Sumeet, whose aunt Kawlpana Chawla was on board. Needless to say, she never came back. It was a pretty devastating coda.

6. What do you absolutely hate about the news?

Nancy Grace.