Meet Ashe Dryden. She’s a computer programmer from Oregon who frequently consults with organizations on diversity issues. Outside of work, she knits. “I wanted to pick up a hobby that got me away from my computer,” she says. “I’m a programmer by trade and much of the socializing I was doing at the time was over the internet, mostly with men. Knitting was something creative I could do with my hands while hanging out in a woman-dominated space.”
I asked Ashe a series of questions about how she gets her news. If you’d like to participate, let me know. (Previous interviews here.)
1. How do you get your news? This is open-ended on purpose.
Through twitter mostly. I also read the news mostly-daily on Colorlines and Al Jazeera English.
2. Please send me a gif or video or poem that captures your attention span.
3. How do you take your coffee?
A glass of almond milk with a splash of coffee in it.
4. Who’s doing it right in news?
I honestly have been enjoying much more investigative journalism and in-depth pieces than I have outright news. I love the work of Shaun King, who has been writing a lot about civil rights violations and the embedded racism surrounding the murder of Mike Brown in Ferguson, MO.
5. What’s the first news event that you remember?
The LA riots.
6. What do you absolutely hate about the news?
There is no major effort to educate people to understand the context behind world events, if anything there is an intentional effort to mislead people to align with their worldview.
7. What’s the best podcast or audio to listen to while doing chores?
I listen to This American Life, RadioLab, and NPR’s Planet Money.
8. How do you get your news when you travel around the world?
Same ways. Everything is digital these days, so I can read whatever wherever, even translating things into English if I need to.
