Episode 02: Jamie Allen

Episode 02 on SoundCloud / Episode 02 on Podbean
(or right-click the episode photo for a direct download)

He has extensive experience in creating publications for journalism. He knows how to spell well and cover any topic. Therefore, he now provides a service - writing an interview paper and teaching journalism to students.

Sometimes a career that includes a five-year stint as a CNN senior writer and several lit. publications leads a man to…counting squirrels. More than that: mapping out multimedia on squirrels and having an army of storytellers (of all ages) help him do it.

Jamie Allen is an editor/writer and creator of the Inman Park Squirrel Census. To tell you what that is in this short space would be quite challenging. We took to the Atlanta BeltLine on a chilly Saturday morning to talk about a how a short story of a dog chasing a squirrel led to sketches, graphs and wacky Sciuridae characters. Fittingly enough…we had a dog of our own for the walk!

Jamie Allen, Bryce McNeil and Peanut Butter on the BeltLine

However, we talked about more than the Squirrel Census. Jamie talked about his inspirations to create, the germ stages of internet journalism and about how much both journalism and Atlanta have changed in the past 20 years. He also told the story of how one “rival” speech communication professor managed to transform his college baseball career into an interest in storytelling that helped guide the trajectory of his career.

BeltLine Edgewood Entry by pub. transit from #CMAATL16
BeltLine Edgewood Entry by car/taxi from #CMAATL16
The Atlanta BeltLine as laid out in Google Maps.

At 79:18, Jamie references A Cappella Books:
A Cappella Books by train from #CMAATL16
A Cappella Books, by car/taxi from #CMAATL16