Laird Townsend is the founder of Project Word. Previously, he was features editor at Orion magazine, which he helped earn the coveted Utne Independent Press Award for General Excellence in 2004. From 1997 to 2003, he was editor of Terrain magazine, a Berkeley, California-based environmental news quarterly, where his writers won two Project Censored awards.
Award-winning photojournalism.
Stunning video. Fearless conversations.
Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.
By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from Mother Jones and our partners.
Can you pitch in a few bucks to help fund Mother Jones' investigative journalism? We're a nonprofit (so it's tax-deductible), and reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget.
We noticed you have an ad blocker on. Can you pitch in a few bucks to help fund Mother Jones' investigative journalism?
Do you give a damn about this country’s future?You wouldn’t be reading this if you didn’t. So while corporate media goes all in on horse-race journalism, we've spent this election season digging for the stories that matter, like dirty deeds done by billionaire-funded super-PACs and the GOP’s ties to right-wing extremism. One thing that can reliably stop liars, grifters, and wannabe dictators is truth-telling independent media. Please show your support and donate right now.
Do you give a damn about this country’s future?You wouldn’t be reading this if you didn’t. So while corporate media goes all in on horse-race journalism, we've spent this election season digging for the stories that matter, like dirty deeds done by billionaire-funded super-PACs and the GOP’s ties to right-wing extremism. One thing that can reliably stop liars, grifters, and wannabe dictators is truth-telling independent media. Please show your support and donate right now.