About Uningrained

There’s nothing quite like narrative journalism. The best examples are an invitation to explore, discover and be inspired, and the act of reading or listening can make us more discerning, empathetic and wise. Best of all, it all happens in the context of a story that’s so fun, you forget you’re learning.

Those are the pieces I love the most—both to experience and to tell. They’re what’s inspired my 20-year career as a reporter.

But these 20 years have also been an odd time to be a reporter. Journalism has been in constant decline. There far fewer media outlets, and those that remain are far smaller: smaller teams, smaller budgets, smaller stories, smaller ambitions.

Despite all that, I’ve still gotten a career’s worth of opportunities to tell those important, fulfilling long-form stories. I got to write a book about Street Fighter. I authored a series about the peculiar structure of Chicago’s city government that helped inspire a political action committee devoted to making changes. I’ve been honored with awards for reporting on topics ranging from business and technology to homelessness and gun violence.

But for the last few years I’ve dreamed of something more than just taking the last remaining scraps from the old model’s table.

Uningrained is my counterintuitive answer to what ails media. In an industry that’s all about clicks, serving the algorithm and churning out underbaked content, we want to do the opposite. Our vision is obsessively crafted, small-batch journalism that’s allowed the time and resources needed to deliver immersive, insightful and impactful stories. We want Uningrained to operate like a small business, delivering a carefully crafted product to an audience that values and supports it.

We need an audience, of course—we need you—but the point is excellence and sustainability, not speed or scale.

I invite you to join us in this journey, to support this mission and to enjoy the show we’re creating.

Thank you for checking out Uningrained.