Who Is Max Fisher? Talking News and Media With Max Fisher

TL;DR

Max Fisher is an international reporter, former New York Times columnist, podcaster, and author of The Chaos Machine who helped Johnny Harris develop his journalism and the map explainer format. They reunited to launch The Bigger Picture, a Newpress channel offering rigorous reporting that connects current events without relying on outrage, opinion, or fear-mongering. Read on to discover Fisher’s background, approach, and work with Harris.

Transcript

• Hey friends, I've got some really exciting news for you, which is that we are launching another channel, this one with the person who taught me how to be a journalist, Max Fisher. Back when I was a lowly animator finding my way in this world, Max was a reporter. He had been a foreign reporter for a decade. He had a lot to teach me and I shadowed ... Read More

Key Insights

• The Bigger Picture is a new creator-led Newpress channel hosted by Max Fisher that aims to guide audiences through a tumultuous news environment with rigorous reporting, broader context, and connections among events instead of relying on outrage, opinion, or fear-mongering.
• Max Fisher is an international reporter whose career described in the conversation includes work at The Washington Post, leadership of Vox's foreign desk, a columnist role at The New York Times, podcasting, and writing the book The Chaos Machine.
• Johnny Harris and Max Fisher developed their working relationship at Vox, where Harris began as an animator without a strong understanding of journalism. Fisher edited his scripts, collaborated on videos, and helped him develop the reporting and communication practices that shaped his later work.
• The map explainer format was co-developed by Harris and Fisher during their time at Vox. Harris continued using the format after starting his own channel, where maps, geographic context, motion graphics, and structured explanations became recurring parts of his approach.
• Explainer journalism is most useful when it does more than provide a simplified timeline or a quick answer. Harris and Fisher describe its deeper purpose as giving audiences enough context to understand how present events emerged and why individual headlines matter.
• Fisher's motivation for journalism is helping people understand the world when events feel confusing, frightening, upsetting, or destabilizing. He views that work as valuable because understanding can connect scattered developments and make an overwhelming news environment more coherent.
• The media landscape has expanded significantly since Fisher's early career, when working for a major newspaper or a website created by newspaper journalists seemed like the primary route into journalism. Creator-led channels now offer another structure for producing explanatory reporting.
• Ghost Wars helped Fisher identify the kind of journalism he wanted to pursue because it connected religious fundamentalism, political turmoil, the Cold War, and other global forces to Afghanistan's trajectory. The experience showed him how broader context can make years of disconnected news finally click together.

Questions & Answers

Q: Who is Max Fisher?

Max Fisher is an international reporter who had worked as a foreign reporter for a decade when Johnny Harris began shadowing him at Vox. He later became a columnist at The New York Times, a podcaster, and the author of The Chaos Machine.

Q: What is The Bigger Picture with Max Fisher?

The Bigger Picture is a Newpress channel hosted by Max Fisher. It uses rigorous reporting to connect developments, explain what is happening in the world, and help viewers feel less overwhelmed by the tumultuous news environment.

Q: How did Max Fisher teach Johnny Harris journalism?

At Vox, Fisher edited scripts that Harris wrote while working as an animator. Harris shadowed Fisher, and the two made videos together while Harris developed his understanding of journalism.

Q: What did Max Fisher and Johnny Harris create together?

Fisher and Harris jointly developed the map explainer format at Vox. The format later became a mainstay of Harris’s independent channel.

Q: Why did Johnny Harris reconnect with Max Fisher?

Harris read Fisher’s book The Chaos Machine and contacted him about reconnecting. He then proposed that Fisher start a creator-led journalism channel at Newpress.

Q: What kind of reporting does The Bigger Picture publish?

The Bigger Picture publishes rigorous reporting intended to help audiences understand world events and connect the things happening around them. Its approach avoids centering outrage, opinion, and fear-mongering.

Q: Where has Max Fisher worked?

Fisher worked at Vox and was described as an international reporter with experience at The Washington Post and The New York Times. After leaving Vox, he became a New York Times columnist and then a podcaster.

Q: Why did Max Fisher join Newpress?

Johnny Harris invited Fisher to build a channel at Newpress, where creator-led channels are developed with journalists who care about explaining events. They worked on the idea for about a year before launching The Bigger Picture.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• Johnny Harris introduces The Bigger Picture, a new Newpress channel led by international reporter, columnist, podcaster, and author Max Fisher. The channel will publish rigorous explanatory reporting intended to help audiences connect current developments, understand a tumultuous news environment, and avoid coverage driven primarily by outrage, opinion, fear, or isolated headlines.

• Harris and Fisher recount working together at Vox after Harris arrived as an animator with animation skills, curiosity, and a degree in international relations. Fisher edited Harris's early scripts, taught him about journalism, and co-developed the map explainer format that later became a recurring feature of Harris's independent channel.

• Their discussion distinguishes meaningful explanatory reporting from basic summaries or timelines. Fisher describes journalism as a way to help people understand frightening or destabilizing events. Both argue that a useful explanation provides the larger historical context that lets a headline make sense as a real event with causes, connections, and a past.