When White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste,” I thought to myself that this is a philosophy we should all adopt as we live through this trying time. I’ve wanted to explore a lot of interests for a while, and somehow the recession inspired me to think that relaunching this site would be one way to do this.

Even though I’m lucky to have a day job in storytelling for clients as a public relations executive, I miss the intensity and diversity of sharing and exchanging memorable, quirky, unique, funny, touching and surprising stories from grad school.

I wanted to relaunch the site as a forum for exploring stories in the many shapes, sizes and forms that they come in. For this reason, I’m open to having guest bloggers share insights on reporting the news, entrepreneurial & reinvention and worldwide trends. Somewhere among all of this, I’ve realized that I love economics as a backdrop for understanding the world and its stories, so there’ll likely be diverse econ related pieces on this site in one form or another. In addition to this site, I am also on Twitter @mariewiltz. (I’m sure it’s no surprise to you that I take responsibility for the content of this site, and nothing you read here reflects the perspectives of my employer. )

And if global brain candy evolves into a broad collaborative effort with several regular key contributors, I may shift the URL and name of the site. A lot has to happen for this evolution to happen, so let’s have fun in the meantime!

My Professional Background

Past professional stints include a White House intern in the second Clinton Administration, Peace Corps in Panama, several marketing/communications positions at JPMorgan Chase, Gavin Anderson, Ketchum Public Relations. I’ve been educated at Columbia University with a Masters in International Affairs and at Georgetown University with a Bachelor of Arts in Honors English. Both great experiences!!! I also speak Spanish and read El Pais and listen to BBC Mundo regularly to maintain whatever capabilities I have for communicating in a foreign language.

Favorites for Reading

Brainy, Hilarious, Always Surprising: Daily Beast, NY Magazine

Cool Colleagues’ Sites (for perusing occasionally): gurBlogs on media & politics, I have Zlata Thoughts for dating tips & overall entertainment, fernandorizo.typepad.com on tech & some brainy stuff, Nick Ragone for politics, media, humor

Authors: Jhumpa Lahiri, Isabel Allende, Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Books: Historical Fiction, Biographies, Wall Street Lit like Sandy Weill’s Biography & Liar’s Poker

Favorites for Doing

Yoga (especially after a spinning class!)

Living abroad

Studying foreign languages (communicating concepts in a completely different language and framework is fascinating to me)

Reading biographies & historical fiction (this one is time-permitting)