dan oshinsky dot com: A blog about stories, the work... and my mother.

This is not a ground-breaking statement, but I’ll say it anyway: Life is confusing. We have so many questions and so few answers. And it’s tough to know who our role models should be. There are so many great leaders and thinkers and builders in our world. Who to model a life after? Gandhi? Lincoln? (…)

I was at the Stry.us HQ/apartment on Monday night, sitting on the floor, when I looked up and announced to my editor, Jordan: This is the furthest along this project has ever been. Stry.us — or versions of it, at least — had been on my mind since 2007 or so. But it really came (…)

I posted the job openings for Stry.us on JournalismJobs.com last week, and since then, the apps have been rolling into my inbox. Some are exceptionally good. A few have been exceptionally bad. Many have left no impression on me whatsoever. That shouldn’t happen. I’m seeing apps from talented people who just failed to catch my (…)

Let me take you back to 2009. Newspapers were slashing staff daily. Jobs weren’t plentiful. A young, wide-eyed Dan Oshinsky was about to graduate from college. And in the midst of all this, a strange thing happened: A big newspaper chain decided that they really liked me. They liked my attitude and my skills. They (…)

I’m going to guess that you’ve seen the movie “Cool Runnings,” simply because I’ve never met anyone who hasn’t seen “Cool Runnings.” It’s one of my favorite films, the based-on-a-true-story tale of four Jamaican guys who somehow qualify for the Olympics as bobsledders. It’s funny, and goofy, and inspiring. It’s also, it turns out, a (…)

I remember watching my little brother go fishing once. He was in fourth or fifth grade at the time. You have to understand that my little brother is highly allergic to fish. The kid’s face puffs up if he so much as walks past a Benihana. But he sat on the banks of that river (…)

It’s that time of year when everyone’s breaking out their brackets. And everyone’s got their methods. Some pick based on reputation. Some turn to the computers for advice. Some pick based on the cuteness of a school’s mascot. I’ve got a new system this year, and I think it’s a winner: I pick by storyline. (…)

I got asked to speak to a class of business students about two weeks ago. The students were all upperclassmen, all entrepreneurial-minded. I talked about learning how to adjust to life after college, and then we got into the Q&A. One student asked me if I had any heroes in journalism. “I’m not going to (…)

This post is really for anyone who’s about to graduate college and move to a new city. I don’t recommend graduation, but if you have to do it, and you’re moving to a new place, this post might help. I graduated college on my 22nd birthday. I didn’t yet have a job. Three days later, (…)

I read this story last summer, and I didn’t fully understand it. I loved it, and I bookmarked it, and I read it a half-dozen times, but I didn’t really get it. It was about Bob Bradley, the former coach of the U.S. men’s soccer team. The story was by Luis Bueno, who used to (…)