Articles Written By Matt Ray Robison
TMN editor Matt Ray Robison is a fellow at the University of Michigan’s Helen Zell Writers’ Program. He lives in Ann Arbor.
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News From America
Voices of the Walmart
There are eight million stories in a city. How many are there at Walmart? Random telephone calls made to hear about life inside.
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News From America
Work Is Pretty Scarce Around Here
Just before and right after President Obama’s State of the Union address, an editor telephones complete strangers around the country, to find out what’s really going on.
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News From America
We Don’t Eat It Here
People living in countries that aren’t the US explain the meaning of Thanksgiving, from the splendor of “harvest day” to the tradition that is gun violence.
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Profiles
Main Street, USA
Sinclair Lewis despised his hometown in Minnesota. It disliked him, too, especially after being lampooned in a bestselling novel that mocked the citizens for their small-town ways. These days, though, he’s all they’ve got.
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News From America
Lots of Oil Fields Around Here
A special Fourth of July edition of our series where an editor randomly calls people in small towns around America to see what’s happening.
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News From America
Odd People Here
The United States is a huge country, much too big for the nightly news. Our series continues where one of our editors randomly calls people in small towns around America to find out what’s really going on.
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News From America
Here You Know Pretty Much Everybody
Our series continues with more random phone calls around small-town USA to find out what’s really going on. This time our editor only makes his calls at night, to see what happens when America goes dark.
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News From America
People Here Drink a Lot
Our country is colossal, much too big for the nightly news. Our series continues where a TMN editor randomly calls people in towns around America to find out what’s really going on.
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The News From America
The Type We Do Here Is for Self-Defense
Continuing our series of randomly calling people around the U.S. to find out what’s going on in their towns, this time we focus on the Olympics—how do folks who come from the same communities as America’s Olympians feel about their star athletes?
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The News From America
Here People Keep Christmas Lights Up All Year Round
The United States is much too big for the nightly news to cover thoroughly. Continuing our series of randomly telephoning people around the country—from Santa Claus, Ind., to Brilliant, Ala.—to find out what’s really going on.
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The News From America
People Here Actually Show Their Livestock
The United States is an enormous country, much too big for the nightly news. We asked one of our editors to randomly call people in towns around America and find out what’s really going on.
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Letters From Wisconsin
One More Day in Madison
For two weeks, Wisconsin state employees have occupied the capitol. Our man in Madison reports from inside the rotunda, where the mood swings from obligated to giddy.