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Spend Some Time With: A spliff of history, an actual newspaper, an Ethio-Pioneer

Alex Kliment
By Alex KlimentApril 23, 2019
Alex Kliment
Alex wears a few different caps and tips them all regularly. He writes for the GZERO Daily, works as a field correspondent for GZERO's nationally syndicated TV show GZERO WORLD WITH IAN BREMMER, and writes/directs/voices GZERO's award-winning puppet satire show PUPPET REGIME. Prior to joining GZERO, Alex worked as an analyst covering Russia and broader Emerging Markets for Eurasia Group. He has also written for the Financial Times from Washington, DC, and Sao Paulo Brazil. In his spare time, he makes short films and composes scores for long ones. He studied history and Slavic literature at Columbia and has a Master's from Johns Hopkins SAIS. He's a native New Yorker, a long-suffering Mets fan, and owns too many bicycles.
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My weekly three recs for escaping the hell of breaking news and views.

See: As cannabis legalization spreads, Grass is Greener, a smoky and spectacular new Netflix documentary by visual artist and hip-hop legend Fab 5 Freddy, surveys the history and future of the plant in America by looking at a hundred years of popular music, racial discrimination, and the destructive legacy of the "War on Drugs."

Read: An "Urgent Quest for Slower, Better News" in which The New Yorker's online editor Michael Luo goes on a "media diet," argues that profit and principle are at odds in today's digital journalism, and wonders what we might do about it.

Hear: Ethiopia has lately become an optimistic story of political reform and renewed openness, but you may also know it as the birthplace of Mulatu Astatke, who half a century ago pioneered a bewitching blend of Afro-Latin rhythms, melancholy soul grooves, and Ethiopian scales that came to be known as Ethio-Jazz. New York-based readers can catch him in concert in May. I'll be there.

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