IMAGE CREDIT: VICTORIA NORKIN
Hi. I'm JoAnna Klein. I'm a freelance science journalist currently based in Raleigh, North Carolina and previously in Brooklyn, New York.
I grew up in North Carolina digging up dinosaur bones that didn’t exist, prospecting for diamonds that were just quartz, and managing a secret garden that was really a briar patch at the end of the street.
As an adult my unbridled imagination found its home in the field of science. After receiving my master’s in experimental psychology, I went on to publish research about how the brain processes emotion in Joseph LeDoux's lab at NYU. Now I hold up a magnifying glass to the unexpected ways in which science intersects with our everyday lives. I love experimenting with form and finding new ways to tell stories in digital space.
I graduated with a Master of Arts in Journalism from NYU's Science, Health and Reporting Program. Right now, I "unearth fascinating morsels of science" for the Trilobites column at The New York Times Science Desk. I also collaborated on virtual reality stories for NYT’s The Daily 360. I freelance as a writer and fact checker at various other outlets too. My stories have appeared in The New York Times, Inverse.com, Newsweek, Motherboard and The Scientist among others.
My reporting has brought me hiking Appalachian mountain peaks to search for bioluminescent mushrooms on a moonless night. It’s taken me jumping and diving over rocks with a 81-year-old woman to count baby Little Penguins at a small beach in Australia. And it’s sent me plunging, in a submarine, 1,900 meters into the dark depths of the Pacific Ocean where I observed shimmering methane seeps and bushes of tube worms the size of a VW bus.
My current obsession is — kind of a secret. But generally, I'm into mushrooms, forestry, plant intelligence, symbionts, the deep sea and just about anything nature-related, alive, weirdly alive or super weird.
Beyond my writing, I also speak — like in public. At SXSW 2018, I moderated a panel on the award-winning documentary, "Chasing Coral" and the latest tech for imaging coral reefs. I’ve spoken to and with hundreds of scientists and student journalists about the industry and craft of science communication. I’ve been a guest speaker for for the UNC Chapel Hill Library, the Department of Mathematics at Appalachian State University, graduate journalism classes at NYU SHERP, continuing-ed multimedia journalism intensives and sci-comm groups at places like Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. I’ve also shared tips on pumping fun into seemingly boring topics with corporate communications crowds.
As I settle back into a slower life away from the city, I’m researching book ideas, pursuing feature stories about nature and fact checking for Noema Magazine. I also taught Feature Writing for a semester at Appalachian State University.
To learn more about me, check out my photos, other photos and tweets. Or, talk to me directly.