Dan Sinker

Sinker in 2018

Born|  (1975-11-14) November 14, 1975 (age 49)

London

Alma mater| School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Occupations|

* Journalist
* writer
* podcaster

Years active| 1994–present
Website| dansinker.com

Daniel Sinker (born November 14, 1975) is an American journalist known for creating Punk Planet, a punk rock zine which ran from 1994 to 2007. He has written for Esquire, and his pieces have appeared in publications such as The New York Times, The Atlantic and Slate.

Sinker founded Punk Planet in 1994. During its eighty-issue run, he co-edited the small but influential publication—which had articles on music and politics—with Elizabeth Moore. Sinker received media attention in 2011 after revealing himself as the author of @MayorEmanuel, a popular Weird Twitter account which satirized politician Rahm Emanuel. From 2008 to 2011, he taught journalism full-time at Columbia College Chicago. He directed the journalism organization OpenNews from 2011 to 2018.

Sinker co-hosts the Says Who? and The Hitch podcasts.

## Personal life

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Daniel Sinker was born on November 14, 1975.[1][2] He was raised in Evanston, Illinois,[3] where he still lives with his wife and two children.[4] In 1996, Sinker graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in video art.[3]

## Career

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### Punk Planet and other work (1994–2011)

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In 1994, at the age of 19, Sinker founded Punk Planet, an independent music, politics and culture magazine that helped to document the independent music and art scenes of the 1990s and 2000s.[5]

From 2004 to 2011, Sinker was an assistant professor in the Journalism Department at Columbia College. In 2008, Sinker was a John S. Knight Journalism Fellowships at Stanford.[6]

In 2010 and 2011, Sinker was the author of the @MayorEmanuel Twitter account.[7] a parody account that Atlantic Magazine said, "pushed the boundaries of the medium, making Twitter feel less like a humble platform for updating your status and more like a place where literature could happen."[8]

### Later career (2011–present)

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In 2011, he led the Knight-Mozilla News Technology Partnership of the Mozilla Foundation, which was spun out as Open News in 2017.[9]

In September 2016, he began co-hosting the podcast Says Who? alongside young adult author Maureen Johnson. Self-described as a coping strategy, Says Who? was originally conceived as an eight-week project in which Johnson and Sinker would talk with political experts about how they were surviving news coverage of the 2016 Presidential Election. The podcast has since continued past the results of the election, switching to a biweekly, then weekly, and then, for a time, daily format in which the hosts attempt to humorously discuss the news of the day, and more personally, share how they are coping as citizens both in the current political era as well as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since 2018, he has been an independent author, consultant, and entrepreneur, writing for Esquire Magazine,[10] and creating products like the Pee Tape and Robert Mueller III Prayer Candles.[11]

## Books

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* We Owe You Nothing, Punk Planet: The Collected Interviews, 2001[12]
* We Owe You Nothing: Expanded Edition: Punk Planet: The Collected Interviews (Punk Planet Books), 2007[13]
* The F***ing Epic Twitter Quest of @MayorEmanuel, Scribner, 2011[14]
* How I Resist (contributor), 2018[15]
* Arte Agora: Art made, sold, or placed in the public way (foreword)[16]

## References

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1. ^ Mckenna, Phil (March 2, 2010). "Finding the facts that online news leaves out". New Scientist. Retrieved October 5, 2023.
2. ^ Sinker, Daniel [@dansinker] (October 22, 2022). "Hahahahha on my birthday" (Tweet). Retrieved December 5, 2023 - via Twitter.
Sinker, Daniel [@dansinker] (September 11, 2021). "I'm 46 years old and still get my mind fully blown every time a Muppet rides a bike" (Tweet). Retrieved December 5, 2023 - via Twitter.
3. ^ a b Felts, Susannah (June 3, 2004). "Punk Planet's Expanding Orbit". Chicago Reader. Retrieved December 5, 2023.
4. ^ Schmich, Mary (January 24, 2020). "Column: From the man who brought you the @MayorEmanuel Twitter parody, a newsletter on Trump's impeachment". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved December 5, 2023.
5. ^ "Zine Wiki page for Daniel Sinker". Zine Wiki. Zine Wiki. Retrieved 6 April 2019.[permanent dead link]
6. ^ "JSK Fellow Daniel Sinker". JSK Journalism Fellowships page of Stanford University. Stanford University. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
7. ^ "Mayor Emanuel Twitter account". Twitter. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
8. ^ Madrigal, Alexis. "Revealing the Man Behind @MayorEmanuel". Atlantic Magazine. Atlantic Magazine.
9. ^ Sinker, Dan. "Endings And Beginnings: Dan Sinker Says Goodbye". Open News. Open News. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
10. ^ "Dan Sinker Contributor Page at Esquire Magazine". Esquire Magazine. Esquire Magazine. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
11. ^ "Pee Tape and Robert Mueller III Prayer Candles Kickstarter page". Kickstarter. Kickstarter.
12. ^ "Amazon sales page for "We Owe You Nothing, Punk Planet: The Collected Interviews"". Amazon. Amazon. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
13. ^ "Amazon sales page for "We Owe You Nothing: Expanded Edition: Punk Planet: The Collected Interviews (Punk Planet Books)"". Amazon. Amazon.
14. ^ "Amazon sales page for "The F***ing Epic Twitter Quest of @MayorEmanuel"". Amazon. Amazon.
15. ^ "Amazon sales page for "How I Resist"". Amazon. Amazon.
16. ^ Sinker, Dan. "Foreword for Arte Agora". Retrieved 6 April 2019.