Meet Your Artifact Interviewers: Stephen Wood

Hometown: Richmond, Virginia
Based in: South Bend, Indiana

What did you want to be when you grew up?

I always kind of wanted to be a writer — it was never much more specific than that. I had a satirical newspaper in middle school. For a year, I was editor of the sports section of The Daily Princetonian, writing about, you know, all of Princeton's “great athletic achievements.” Towards the end of college, I started to think a lot more about the off-the-field parts of sports. When I graduated, I started trying to get people to let me write about that for them.

What was your first important gig?

Paste magazine was the first place that I got paid to write for. The first thing that I had published was a history of Olympic mascots. This was the 2016 Rio de Janeiro games. I then successfully convinced them to pay me to write multiple articles about Olympic handball.

What do you like about working for Artifact?

It's uplifting. At a time when it's so easy to feel isolated, I have in-depth, meaningful interactions with strangers on a daily basis because of Artifact. I’m a very talkative person, just by nature. I'm interested in history. I'm interested in people's stories. And I also like to think that I've learned a lot about history just by hearing what people have lived through.

It's really nice to wake up on a gray winter morning in the middle of a pandemic and interview some couple who are old enough to be my grandparents — and they’re reminiscing about falling in love. It’s a much cooler experience than I think most people are having at work right now.

Want to schedule a chat with one of our awesome Artifact interviewers? Start here.