Each of our contributors passionately specialize in environmental, social justice and sustainability, and have worked hard for years to build hope for the future.
Lina Lecaro covers culture, nightlife, fashion, film and TV, music and more for the LA Weekly (where she is the Culture & Entertainment Editor), and other publications including The Village Voice, Playboy, Billboard, Variety, Consequence of Sound, Vice, Ranker, LA Times, Rolling Stone and the WOW Report. She has written two books, Los Angeles’ Best Dive Bars (IG Publishing) and Never Mind the Rules (Generation X Media), and is currently working on her third for Punk Hostage Press. Her radio show "Hot Licks with Lina" broadcasts every Tuesday from 7-9 pm on luxuriamusic.com. She recently won 2nd place “Journalist of the Year” and 2nd place for film criticism, as well as first place for “culture feature,” from the Los Angeles Press Club. She is a proud Latina, LA native, Liberal, feminist, and mother.
Follow @linalecaro
The Pacific Council on International Policy is committed to building the capacity of Los Angeles and California for impact on global issues, discourse, and policy. Its publication, the Pacific Council Magazine, is where you can find pieces written by its members on local-to-global topics, plus member spotlights and recaps and recordings from its events.
Follow @pacificcouncil
Douglas Manuel was born in Anderson, Indiana and now resides in Long Beach, California. He received a BA in Creative Writing from Arizona State University, an MFA in poetry from Butler University, and a PhD in English Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Southern California. His first collection of poems, Testify, won an IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award for poetry, and his poems and essays can be found in numerous literary journals, magazines, and websites, most recently Zyzzyva, Pleiades, and the New Orleans Review. He has traveled to Egypt and Eritrea with The University of Iowa's International Writing Program to teach poetry. A recipient of the Dana Gioia Poetry Award and a fellowship from the a Borchard Foundation Center on Literary Arts, he is a Bayard Rustin Fellow at Whittier College and teaches at Spalding University’s low-res MFA program.
J. Matt is a documentary photographer and feature-writer from, and based in, Honolulu whose work principally focuses on global warming and its intersections with place, ecology, and social, political, and economic histories. Represented by ZUMA Press, a member of the Society of Environmental Journalists and the National Press Photographers Association, their focus is on Hawai‘i and California as exemplary of what the nation faces in our new climate epoch.
Follow @tinyshocks
Michael Mechanic holds a master's degree in cellular and developmental biology from Harvard and a master's in journalism from UC Berkeley. He is a senior editor at Mother Jones magazine. He lives in Oakland, California, with his wife, two teenagers, and various animals. Jackpot is his first book.
Follow @mechanic
Judith Lewis Mernit has been reporting on environment, energy, politics and social justice since 2003, with a focus on solutions to the climate crisis. She has published work in Sierra Magazine, Yale e360, the Atlantic, Audubon, KCET, Mother Jones, High Country News and Capital & Main, where she wrote a column on climate and 2020 electoral politics. She was a 2018 recipient of the University of Southern California’s Center for Health Journalism Impact Grant, and has won four first-place awards from the Southern California Journalism Association.
Follow @judithlewismernit
Paige Meyer-Draffen is a writer and artist dedicated to expanding the public’s understanding of the world around it. Previously, she did so through independent environmental cartoons and led Whittier College’s The Quaker Campus as editor-in-chief.
Follow @paige-meyer-draffen-727a71234
Greg Blake Miller’s novel The Kuleshov Effect (Эффект Кулешова) was just released in Russian by Freedom Letters. Miller, a former staff writer for The Moscow Times, is also the author of the illustrated short-story collection Decemberlands. Honored as Nevada’s Outstanding Journalist, he lives, writes, and teaches in Las Vegas.
Follow @gregblakemiller
Matt Morris is the associate editor of AMC Outdoors and a recent graduate of the University of Montana’s master’s program in environmental journalism, where he was the 2025 Crown of the Continent reporting fellow. A selection of his work can be found here.
Nadine Murphy is a writer, mother and enthusiastic traveler. A British expatriate living in Kenya, she creates travel, lifestyle and marketing content from her sunbird-filled garden.
Follow @nisaac01
We publish deeply reported journalism focusing on environmental, sustainability and social justice issues. Our goal is to bring you difference-making work that provokes discussions, inspires reflection and speaks to the times with stories that prove timeless.
PUBLISHER
Tracy McCartney
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Joe Donnelly
MANAGING EDITOR
Phuong-Cac “PC” Nguyen
CONTENT CREATOR
Sam Slovick
ART DIRECTOR
Nancy Hope
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Erin Aubry Kaplan
Tony Barnstone
SOCIAL MEDIA INTERN
Paige Meyer-Draffen