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Benjamin Carlson

I'm a communications exec and a former editor at The Atlantic and foreign correspondent. Subscribe for lessons from my 15 years in media and PR

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Persona(l) Persona

The Carlson Letter Castor and Pollution, Max Ernst, 1923 Do you like your online self? Do you know your online self? Whether you like it or not, one of the first things a new acquaintance will do is Google you. What do they see? If you’re like many of us, they may see a series of results offering to sell your address, phone number, and possible family affiliations. Then they may see a Facebook page (yours, or maybe a namesake’s), your old work headshot, your LinkedIn profile. If you have a...

8 months ago • 3 min read

The Carlson Letter: On Trust In 1996, toward the end of his struggle with a terminal case of blood cancer, astronomer and public educator Carl Sagan sat down with interviewer Charlie Rose to discuss his book, The Demon Haunted World. In one arresting moment, Sagan — a famous and outspoken skeptic of superstition—made a surprising and moving admission. More than a decade after his beloved parents had died, Sagan said, he still occasionally heard their voices calling in his ear. “Carl!” As he...

over 1 year ago • 3 min read
person standing on stage

The Carlson Letter: On Oratory In 1962, a man stood on a football field in Texas. The autumn heat slicked his face with sweat. 35,000 people sat in stands around him. Watching. Listening. Decades before PowerPoint, TED talks, focus groups, quick-response surveys, and real-time message testing, he gave a long, 18-minute speech in a thick New England accent. He spoke about science. He evoked man’s technological progress, drawing an arc of history spanning 50,000 years. And then he pointed to...

over 1 year ago • 3 min read
painting of man

4: On Anger Hello again, This week's idea is on anger. The Problem Most people don’t know how to get attention for their ideas. They’re subtle. They’re quiet and subdued. Then there are those who do know how to get attention. In fact, they know too well. You’ve probably already guessed how they do it. It’s a strategy that works… ARKANGEL @itsarkangel kanye west in a white lives matter shirt pic.twitter.com/GxfwsDYVDD October 3rd 2022 121 Retweets 1,173 Likes They make people mad. It’s a fact...

over 1 year ago • 2 min read

3: On Media Hello and welcome back, It’s been a good week, and a strange one. On Monday, I did not set out thinking I would publicly tell a story I’ve never told before. I also didn’t think I would see lightning strike twice. (Metaphorically.) Yet both of these things happened. Let me explain. The story I didn’t mean to tell Earlier this week, I thought I’d share with you (my subscriber) something I hadn’t discussed elsewhere before: Why I left media. After all, I was one of the lucky ones....

over 1 year ago • 4 min read
The collector mindset

2: On buried treasure Hello and welcome back. Last week I shared the strange experience of going viral. (If you’re new to the list, here’s what happened: A video I shared got two likes. One from Jack Dorsey, the founder of Twitter. The other came from Elon Musk.) 4.8 million views later, I’d like to share with you how I found it. Benjamin Carlson @bfcarlson In 1977, media prophet Marshall McLuhan discussed CIA and FBI surveillance, and then turned it into one of the most mind-bending riffs on...

over 1 year ago • 4 min read

1: On Going Viral Hello and welcome. I'm glad you're here. Let's talk about that: why you're here. You're probably here because you came across a tweet I wrote this week that went viral. This was the tweet: Benjamin Carlson @bfcarlson In 1977, media prophet Marshall McLuhan discussed CIA and FBI surveillance, and then turned it into one of the most mind-bending riffs on identity in the digital age I've ever heard. pic.twitter.com/Uz5RbHkREO January 2nd 2023 7,374 Retweets 34,776 Likes As of...

over 1 year ago • 2 min read
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