Pamela Weintraub

Literary & Investigative Science Journalist

http://www.astralgia.com  ♦ pam3001@gmail.com 

 

 

CAREER TIMELINE

 

2007-present. Discover, Senior Editor.  Conceive, assign and edit stories across the range of sciences, from biomedicine, neuroscience and evolution to astrophysics, energy and the environment. Specialty: Investigative and literary journalistic narratives, but also handle columns and short-form. Top edit junior staff members. Manage extensive group of freelancers, including many of the preeminent science journalists in the world and young writers that I find and nurture along. As the Interview editor, I personally interview the great iconic thinkers of the new century and produce, from these in-depth discussions,  formal, feature-length Q&A’s.

 

December 2008-present. Psychology Today, Blogger.  Through the blog, Emerging Diseases, I cover patients at the crossroads of new diseases and chronic ills..

 

May 2008. Cure Unknown: Inside the Lyme Epidemic, St. Martin’s Press.  An investigation into the medical history, patient experience, and brutal political war over Lyme disease. Widely considered the definitive book on Lyme disease and its co-infections. First place winner of the American Medical Writers Association Book Competition, 2009, for best medical book for a consumer audience.   

 

2005-2007. Psychology Today, Consulting Editor.  Conceived, acquired, and edited two features an issue. Topics included  personal transformation, growth, and, relationships, mind-body health, cultural trends, and cutting-edge findings from the frontiers of psychology and neuroscience. 

 

2005-2007. MAMM Magazine. Executive Editor.  As top staff editor for this 200,000 circ. magazine for women with breast cancer, I reported directly to the publisher. I conceived the line-up for each issue, from news stories to columns to profiles and features. Worked with staff, from assistant editors to art director, on very aspect of magazine editorial and production. Beat ranged from biomedical breakthroughs and exploration of emotional territory (like hope, intimacy and resilience) to personality profiles and women's service.

 

1999-2004. Consulting, Writing, Editing.  Wrote four books: Bioterrorism (Citadel, 2002); Pre-parenting: Nurturing Your Child from Conception (Simon & Schuster, 2002); The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Surviving Divorce (MacMillan, 2005, 3rd version,) and ghostwriter for The Omega-3 Connection: The Groundbreaking Anti-depression Diet and Brain Program (Free Press, 2001).  Edited special sections on health, travel, and the environment for Newsweek International. Wrote many freelance articles for national magazines. Developed content and community-based web sites. Started an Internet company, Tools for Health, which received millions of dollars in funding and is currently in the black. Other specific projects are detailed below, under topic categories.

 

 Omni Internet, Editor-in-Chief, 1996-1998. Conceived and directed the transformation of the print version of OMNI Magazine into a multi-award-winning web site at the dawn of the Internet era, creating one of the largest and most popular content destinations of the day. Supervised all editorial, production, design, and programming, providing living web-based journalism based on interactive, real-time content and web communities.  Created “OMNI Prime Time,” consisting of six nightly web shows a week, on topics ranging from health to anomalies to the environment, with a name guest for each production. Managed budget and staff, including 6 full-time editors, two programmers, and literally dozens of freelancers.  Forged a wide variety of relationships with entertainment and business partners to drive traffic and generate revenue streams.  Accompanied marketing staff to help pitch to advertisers.

 

Omni Magazine, 1981-1996

   Editor at Large, 1990-1996. Acquired, edited, wrote, and rewrote feature stories and coordinated production of entire issues.

   Senior Editor, 1984-1990. Acquired and edited feature stories and supervised production of issues.

   Associate Editor, 1981-1984. Handled features and columns on a wide range of subjects, including health and medicine, computers, and the environment. 

 

Discover, 1980-1981. As charter staff writer, produced feature stories on medicine, psychology, the environment, technology, neuroscience, computers, and a wide range of other subjects.

 

 

BOOKS

 

Cure Unknown: Inside the Lyme Epidemic, St. Martin's Press, June 2008

 

Bioterrorism: How to Survive the 25 Most Dangerous Biological Weapons, Citadel, 2002.

 

 Pre-parenting: Nurturing Your Child from Conception. The art and science of parenting based on the latest findings in brain science, with Dr. Thomas Verny, Simon & Schuster, 2002

 

Medical Emergency!!: The St. Luke's-Roosevelt Book of Emergency Medicine, William Morrow, 1996. First serial rights to Redbook and Women's Day.

 

The Omega-3 Connection: The Groundbreaking Anti-depression Diet and Brain Program by Andrew Stoll, Free Press, 2001. Ghostwriter.

 

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Surviving Divorce, Macmillan, 1996, 2000, 2005 and The Christian Family Guide to Surviving Divorce, Penguin, 2003 .

 

Thirty-Day Higher Consciousness Series:  funky, stylized self-help books based on psychology and neuroscience, co-authored with psychologist Keith Harary, St. Martin’s Press, 1991-1994, published in US, England, Japan, Spain, and the Netherlands, among other countries. “Dreams” and “Out-of-Body” remain cult classics:

Lucid Dreams in 30 Days: The Creative Sleep Program, St. Martin's Press, 1992

Have an Out-of-Body Experience in 30 Days: The Free Flight Program, St. Martin's Press, 1992

Right Brain Learning in 30 Days: The Whole Mind Program, St. Martin's Press, 1993

Memory Enhancement in 30 Days: The Total Recall Program, St. Martin's Press, 1993

Inner Sex in 30 Days: The Erotic Fulfillment Program, St. Martin's Press, 1994

Mystical Experiences in 30 Days: The Higher Consciousness Program, St. Martin's Press, 1994

 

Nurturing the Unborn Child: A Nine-Month Program for Soothing, Stimulating and Communicating with Your Baby, co-wrote with Thomas Verny, M.D., Delacorte, 1991. Sold in the US, Japan, Spain and Portugal.

 

Save the Animals, co-wrote with Dr. Michael Fox, scientific director of the Humane Society, St. Martin's Press, 1991.

 

25 Things You Can Do to Beat the Recession of the 1990s, St. Martin's Press,1991.

 

Omni's Catalog of the Bizarre, Doubleday, 1985

 

The Omni Interviews, Ticknor & Fields, 1984. Edited and conducted interviews with the world's preeminent scientists, including Dr. Jonas Salk, Hans Bethe, Richard Leakey, and E.O. Wilson.

 

 

 FREELANCE WRITING & EDITING

 

Wrote dozens of feature articles for many national magazines, including OMNI, Health, Redbook, Ms., McCall's, Audubon, Discover, Women's Day, American Health, Eating Well, Penthouse, HMS Beagle, My Generation, Modern Maturity, Self, Psychology Today and others, 1977-present.

 

Special Sections Editor for Newsweek International, 1989-2002. Working for the special projects department as a regular, out-of-house editor, created and edited  several 15-60-page center sections  a year on a variety of subjects from travel to biotechnology, wireless technology, and the environment.

 

Columnist. Wrote two weekly columns, one on Business in Cyberspace, and the other on Entertainment in Cyberspace, for about 30 daily newspapers in the US and abroad, including The New York Daily News, The Boston Herald, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and The St. Paul Pioneer Press thrugh LA Times Syndicate, 1995-1996.  Wrote health and fitness column for Longevity, 1990-1992. Regular Contributor to Newsweek International's website for the global executive and the site's "Net Prophet" column on the future of business in Cyberspace.

 

 

 

INTERNET

 

 

OMNI Internet. As editor-in-chief of OMNI, converted the magazine into

one of the largest content-based websites at the dawn of the Internet age. Managed a full

staff, including editors, writers, producers and programmers. Directed Internet

marketing, including corporate partnerships. (Site is password protected but available upon

request.) 1996-1998.

 

Event Horizon Web Productions, Inc.: Think Tank for the Web.   Founded and ran a web production company specializing in health and science content as well as idea incubation.    Through Event Horizon, was selected to present business plans at major Venture Conferences and launched multiple web ventures, including an award-winning webzine and a company that received millions of dollars in funding and still exists. Also produced live web events, including online book tours, online conferences, and an online SciFi Convention. Web event clients included Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Avon Books, and Warner Books. 1998-2001.

 

Tools for Health, Inc. Was founding president of this Event Horizon spin-off, created to foster communication between patients and doctors. To date, Tools for Health has been recipient of millions of dollars in venture funds and is currently in the black.  1999-2000.

 

Divorce Central. Created extensive website and online community on the topic of divorce. Launched 1997.   

 

ENY Projects Web Hangout. Critically acclaimed web community for Brooklynites, covered in the New York Times, New York Post, and Daily News. Launched 1998.

 

Event Horizon: SF, Fantasy, Horror, Co-founder of this award-winning fiction and film webzine, 1998-1999.

 

Web skills:

Web site production with html and javascript

Interactive script creation with cgi and perl

Internet marketing and traffic analysis

Community creation and management

Web site management with UNIX

Graphic design and presentation with Photoshop and Powerpoint

 

 

 

EDUCATION

 

Boston University, MS, Science Journalism

SUNY at Albany,BS in Biology with a double major in English

Bronx HS of Science

 

 

AWARDS & HONORS

 

First place, American Medical Writers Association book competition for Cure Unknown, 2009

Community Service Award for dedication to revealing the history, politics, and patient experience of Lyme disease through investigative journalism, California Lyme Disease Association, 2008

Notable mention in Best Science and Nature Writing, 2009, for "The Great Imitator," published in Psychology Today in April, 2008.

Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, Summer science Writing Fellowship with concentration in molecular evolution, 1990