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Your project focuses on how U.S. car dependence is impacting lithium-rich communities in South America as we move towards electric vehicles. Can you tell me what led you to pursue this topic?

In my role at The Boston Globe, I cover transportation, so transportation policy in the U.S.—how car focused it is—is a really big component of the transportation beat. If you're covering the sector in the U.S., you inevitably end up realizing just how car-heavy our investments have been. They’ve brought us to this point where we're kind of stuck in a situation where most of our urban areas are made for cars and not for people. A lot of the mining for minerals for electric vehicle batteries occur in communities that have contributed least to climate change and are having to bear the brunt of that extraction and the environmental damage that comes with it, especially in South America. I'm really interested in looking at other pathways and more just pathways for how we can do this.

How is the fellowship helping you put together this particular story?

I'm taking a law class with Kristen Carpenter, called Indigenous Peoples in International Law, where we're focused on some cases of mining. It’s exactly what I'm interested in, where indigenous peoples are trying to defend their rights to religion, to culture, to resources, up against some really challenging odds when it comes to states and corporations who have interests in extraction. Looking at ways that indigenous peoples are using mostly U.N. mechanisms and different legal forms there to assert their rights and push back and come together globally has been super interesting to learn about.

And then the other class that has been really helpful is my Spanish Literature class. We've read a lot of books focused exclusively on gothic literature from the 21st century, from Argentina and almost exclusively women authors. Two, maybe three, of the books that we've read are what is called “eco-terror” or “eco-horror,” having to do with extraction, climate change, things like that. Just thinking about challenges we're facing, creative ways to deal with them, and showing that other ways are possible, has been really eye-opening and interesting.

What is your favorite part of the fellowship so far?

My favorite part of the fellowship is getting the much-needed time to step away from daily deadlines. I've been in daily journalism for 12 years without a break, and so this opportunity to really just pause and read books, several a week, and spend time with these other journalists who are in different fields and focus on different things and learn from them. The camaraderie with other fellows and a break for my brain to be curious and learn, just for learning’s sake, is really unique and special.

What do you do for fun in Boulder, outside the fellowship?

Boulder is such a unique place. I feel so lucky to live somewhere where I can walk out my front door and go and hike. My class schedule definitely allows me to spend a morning climbing up a mountain, which is such a such a joy, and something I never thought I'd be able to do. That's a really special part of living here. I went to more films than I can even keep straight at the Denver Film Festival, that was really fun. The fellowship has allowed me to have the time to be able to do things like that, where, if I'm at my job, I can't really do as much.

How have the other fellows impacted your experience and even your project?

I think the other fellows really are the best part of this experience. It would be so different to do something like this alone. They come from very different backgrounds from me, and also very different journalism mediums than I do, so their perspective is so, so, so valuable. I'm still defining what my end product is going to be, and they've all been so helpful in trying to help me figure that out. And they are always there to bounce ideas around with me, and they're super supportive.