Your Work
Post-college Internship Paradox
A step toward a dream job or the life of a perpetual intern
Georgette Eva didn’t expect to spend the first year-and-a-half since graduating as an intern, but she doesn’t really have a choice. She is on her fifth post-graduate internship since leaving Georgia State University with a degree in journalism and English.
Catching up with Colin Wright
Wright takes a break from his Exile Lifestyle to chat with Think Mag
Colin Wright threw one hell of a party in 2009. It was a break-up party. But he wasn’t just breaking up with his girlfriend; he was breaking up with normal. At 25, he’d already accomplished more than most people. He founded Stim Magazine, a Midwest culture rag based in Missouri — that lasted two years. His LA-based design firm lasted four. If he kept at it, he would’ve been living the American Dream: cash, security and settling down…
A More Empowering Career Day
From People with Panache
Filmmaker and former Chicagoan Sarah Moshman was frustrated working in an industry she thought objectified women. So, she traveled 7,128 miles in a minivan with five other girls through 22 states in search of inspiring women…
Midwest Grown, Midwest Brewed
Hops farms are making a comeback in the Heartland — and despite the recent drought and frigid winters, they’re thriving.
Brita Nelson owes part of her livelihood to beer nerds. In 2011 the one-time residential service provider, her husband Jason Skarin, and their friend and beer-loving business partner Jono Ruf decided to launch Driftless Edge Farm. Their goal: Dedicate a half-acre of their Decorah, Iowa, farm to growing hops. It was a big decision. You can’t just stick a seed in the ground. Hops — perennial plants with resins and oils that flavor and preserve beer — grow up to 20 feet high when fully mature. Nelson and her crew sunk 90 Black Locust tree trunks in the ground. They strung 420 feet of cable across seven rows. All to make a 16-foot trellis that eventually will hold up living walls of beer’s key ingredient.
The Bosnian War Influenced Refugee to Grapple with Iowa Politics
Anesa Kajtazovic became the first Bosnian-American member of the Iowa Legislature after her family left a refugee camp for Iowa.
Anesa Kajtazovic knows what it means to beat the odds. The 27-year-old immigrated to the United States from western Bosnia as a child. In 2010, Kajtazovic, a Democrat, became the youngest woman ever elected to the Iowa legislature, and the first Bosnian-American member of the legislature…
Unsigned Legislation Hurts Iowa Midwives
State laws prevent mothers’ access to midwives
Melanie Moore panicked. After helping deliver a stillborn baby, she knew in the back of her mind something could go wrong. She never expected to be arrested for doing her job. The Board of Medical Examiners arrested Moore, an Iowa midwife, for practicing medicine without a license in 2007…
Q&A with Rapper Toki Wright
Toki Wright isn’t your average rapper. And that’s a good thing.
Toki Wright has quite the résumé. The Twin Cities-based rapper has recorded with Atmosphere, opened for Brother Ali and was a coach on MTV’s “Made.” With roles that run the gamut from wordsmith and rap professor to community organizer and humanitarian, he’s got a lot on his plate. Think Mag sat down with Wright during the sound-check for the first show of his latest tour, “Pangaea,” to discuss spoken word, originality and his impressive head of hair…
Window Cleaning: A Work of Art
Veteran window cleaners Jason Alderman and Richie Brown have done it all: from cleaning high-rises to hanging Christmas lights.
At first glance, Richie Brown and Jason Alderman are intimidating. Even scary. Maybe it’s the numerous tattoos. Alderman has a set of red lips on his neck; Brown has a prominent one near his thumb and index finger. But it could also be their beards; the duo could compete with the “Duck Dynasty” crew. Or maybe it’s their general “I’ve been known to throttle people” vibe…
An Unexpected Passion
For five Millennials, nonprofit work became a surprise dream job.
A volunteer embraces a grinning child in a brochure photo. Inside, “Fun Facts” provide a peek into a nonprofit’s now-global impact. It all looks so … carefree, even perfect…
New Legislation Reawakens the American Spirits Business
Micro-distilleries breaking through the shot-glass ceiling
Ryan Burchett looked completely at ease standing behind the bar. It was only 1 p.m. and the former meteorologist just pushed up the sleeves of his navy blue fleece and drew a bottle of hooch and two squat sniffer glasses from the shelf…
Artist Adam DeVarney explores male heroism in his work
From Chicago Hustles Magazine
For Adam DeVarney, it’s all about the dead, white eyes. Sure, DeVarney, a Chicago-based visual artist, loves to deconstruct the icons of American dude-dom — astronauts, cowboys, lumberjacks, you know the type. He gives them twisted faces. He finds their inner struggles. He pastes them on a backdrop of re-contextualized vintage materials: pages from books, magazines, songs, packaging and office supplies. But those blank eyes make every piece DaVarney produces a comic book nightmare…
Mapping a Changing World
One cartographer hopes to bridge technology and aesthetic in a modern age of mapmaking
Nat Case’s dining room table is about the only flat surface in his home large enough to contain his map of the world, a draft of his latest work. The mapmaker is proudest of this one, mostly because its details speak loudly to his commitment to the physicality of what he creates. His world map is 25 feet long and 13 wide. Its color scheme is a refined blend of light blues and sandy browns, its font a confident serif…
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Q&A with comedian Cameron Esposito
Self-proclaimed “Purveyor of Fine Jokes” tells us what makes her laugh
Former Chicagoan Cameron Esposito made waves after her network debut on “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson” in September, and she’s been busy ever since. How can she not be when Jay Leno called her the “future of comedy”? Think Mag caught up with Esposito to talk about what’s next, her circus past, LGBT rights and the hilarity of The LEGO Movie…