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Biography

I’ve been a journalist focused on the public interest for 30 years. Right now, I’m the editor in chief of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, where I’m lucky enough to edit the world’s leading experts on nuclear weapons and energy, climate change and biological threats to humanity. I’ve also been a correspondent for the Columbia Journalism Review. In my last full-time gig, I was the head editor of Miller-McCune, a nonprofit national public affairs magazine (now known as Pacific Standard). In previous journalistic incarnations I was the editor of High Country News, a nationally acclaimed and genuinely wonderful little magazine that reports on the politics, environment and culture of the American West; the editor of SF Weekly and Phoenix New Times, so-called alternative newsweeklies that were really weekly magazines specializing in narrative journalism; and an investigative reporter at the Houston Post, for which I also covered the Persian Gulf War from Saudi Arabia and Iraq. I have a master’s from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, if you’re the kind of person who puts stock in Ivy League degrees. Not that there’s anything wrong with those kind of people. Oh yeah, awards. Have we got awards. My writing has won an Investigative Reporters and Editors certificate and the John Bartlow Martin Awards for Public Interest Magazine Journalism (Northwestern/Medill), among many others. Writers working under my direction have been honored in the George Polk Awards; the IRE Awards; the John Bartlow Martin Awards; the Scripps Howard National Journalism Awards (investigative category); the University of Missouri Lifestyle Journalism Awards; the National Society of Newspaper Columnists Awards; the Gerald Loeb Awards (business journalism; Anderson School/UCLA); the Gavel Award (legal affairs; ABA); the Livingston Awards (for young journalists); the Casey Journalism Center Awards (children and family issues); and the Benjamin Fine Award (education reporting). If I live another decade, I am almost certain to win the National Journalism Award for Excellence in National Journalism Awards.

Content

Total articles 531

• Available on paid plans

  The 15-minute interview: Sen. Ben Ray Luján on the Radiation Exposure Compensation Reauthorization Act

  By John Mecklin Verified

  Mar. 10, 2025

• Available on paid plans

  The 15-minute interview: Sen. Ben Ray Luján on the Radiation Exposure Compensation Reauthorization Act

  By John Mecklin Verified

  Mar. 10, 2025

• Available on paid plans

  The spies Musk sent into the cold are a counterintelligence disaster in the making

  By John Mecklin Verified

  Mar. 04, 2025

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Company Info

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is a nonprofit media organization founded in 1945 by scientists from the Manhattan Project, including notable figures like Albert Einstein and J. Robert Oppenheimer. Its mission is to provide essential information to the public, policymakers, and scientists to help reduce man-made threats to human existence. The Bulletin publishes a premium digital magazine and offers free articles that focus on nuclear risk, climate change, and disruptive technologies. It is well-known for its Doomsday Clock, which symbolizes the threat of human extinction and is updated annually. Additionally, the organization hosts events and forums to foster discussions on critical global issues, engaging a diverse audience to address these challenges effectively.