Heather Chaplin is a Brooklyn-based author and journalist. Her most recent book, Reckless Years: A Diary of Love and Madness (Simon & Schuster July 2017) is her first foray into memoir. She is also the founding director of Journalism + Design at The New School and the recipient of more than $2 million in journalism innovation grants. In her spare time she can be found taking ballet classes she has no business attending but does anyway. Chaplin started her career at Salon where she wrote The Reluctant Capitalist column. Over the years, she’s worked for many publications, such as The New York Times and All Things Considered. She is the co-author of Smartbomb: The Quest for Art, Entertainment and Big Bucks in the Videogame Revolution, a New York Times Notable Book of 2006. In 2016 Chaplin was a fellow at The Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University. The previous year, she wrote a paper for the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars on complexity and the news. She is on the advisory board of The Guardian’s Mobile Innovation Lab. Chaplin has been recognized for her work on digital culture and the future of journalism in places including The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, The Believer, CBS Sunday Morning, Talk of the Nation and The Nieman Report, among other places. Chaplin is also a frequent speaker on these topics.