Max Nesterak '13

I'm a reporter and producer at Minnesota Public Radio, where I've covered housing, urban policy, and Native American issues. I released my first radio documentary, "Uprooted: The 1950s Plan to Erase Indian Country," in November 2019. Previously, I worked for NPR's social science podcast Hidden Brain and with MacArthur "Genius" Angela Duckworth on her book Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance.I was also a Fulbright Scholar to Berlin, Germany, where I pursued independent research on street art. I graduated from Swarthmore in 2013 with a double major in German Studies and English Literature. Studying German stretched nearly every part of my brain (at least that's how it felt!). It stretched my memory to learn new words and conjugations. It stretched my analytical skills to decipher German syntax and idioms. Most importantly, it stretched my imagination as I tried to inhabit a different world view. Taking the perspective of another person, culture, or institution is a hallmark of the humanities, and something learning German allowed me to do in an intimate way. I didn't just learn what people from another society think, I learned how those thoughts are constructed. Being a good journalist is dependent on perspective taking, and studying German helped me hone that skill. ~ Max Nesterak '13