"It's all about empathy." Q&A with Insider's Executive Editor, Life, Ariel Schwartz

To help our readers get to know the people that power our newsroom, we host live Twitter conversations called #TheInsideStory on our @InsiderInc account with reporters and editors from our Business, Life, and News sections.

We recently caught up with Ariel Schwartz, Executive Editor, Life, who covers parenting, health, features, and essays. During our conversation, Ariel spoke about her role, recent highlights from her team’s reporting, where they find inspiration, how they build relationships, and what topics they are keeping a close eye on. Be sure to follow Ariel on Twitter @arielhs and check out her page on Insider.

We’re so excited to be speaking with you, @arielhs. As we get started, could you tell us more about your role at Insider?

Happy to be here! I'm an Executive Editor in our Life division overseeing health (including public health, fitness, nutrition, wellness, sex, and relationships), parenting, and features.

And can you also share a bit more about your career path and journey before joining Insider?

I've been at Insider for 7 years now, and I've had a bunch of roles inside the company. But pre-Insider, I spent many years working at Fast Company as a reporter and editor on what’s now known as the Impact section.

I covered everything from clean energy to the future of food and corporate social responsibility. And then before that, I freelanced.

Wow, you've covered an impressive number of topics! We're excited to hear more about your work in just a bit. But, before that, can you tell us what a "normal" day looks like for you as Executive Editor?

On any given day, I might brainstorm some story ideas based on the news of the day/week, give second reads to complicated stories, meet with editors about our coverage plans, and do some story edits myself.

That sounds like an action-packed agenda that requires a lot of creativity! Your scope also includes Insider Life’s features and essays. Can you tell us more about this and mention your recent favorite pieces?

I work with our Life features editor Allie Pape (@alliepape) to publish features from our in-house reporters and freelancers. Some recent highlights include a story about the mental health dangers of prednisone and this wild tale about the 2-decade battle by Pamela Anderson’s hat designer to prove she created “Scrat” from Ice Age.

Thanks for sharing these excellent reads. 2 wild stories on 2 different topics! Your team also covers parenting. Recently, Conz Preti @conz penned a piece about (successfully) traveling with toddlers - tell us about how you collaborate to produce compelling stories.

Courtesy of Conz Preti

This piece is an example of what we’d call a “life as your beat” story — basically taking what you’re experiencing in real life and turning it into a visual feature or story. It's a technique that's especially compelling with parenting coverage.

In this case, Conz perfected her list of tips and tricks for traveling with her 3 small kids, and with the travel chaos of recent months, decided to turn it into a story with pics to illustrate her points.

It's full of great advice, and definitely couldn't come at a more relevant time. It's also important to mention your team's work on covering public health, such as COVID-19 pandemic updates. How do you best identify sources and new information?

We look at research (there are new studies coming out constantly on COVID), stay in contact with agencies like the CDC, and talk to lots of experts.

The reporters who cover public health, like @hilarx and @drcatherinesb, have their favorite epidemiologists on speed dial.

A great combo of research and reaching out to the right people. And, speaking of reaching out, how does your team create connections with people so that they are willing to share their stories that are powerful and vulnerable?

It’s all about empathy and making sure the people we’re interviewing feel comfortable with the time, place, and topics involved in any given interview. I think it helps that people can see how sensitively we’ve handled personal stories in the past.

Branching off of this, could you share some of your recent favorite publications that required building relationships and approaching topics with empathy?

I have to call out some stories from a recent series we did on women who put themselves and their mental health first, including this piece on Hued founder Kimberly Wilson, who was inspired to start a company that connects people of color with culturally competent Drs because of her experience with fibroids.

And this story about Lauren Ruotolo, who has a rare genetic disease that warps her bones. She used her experience as inspiration to start a size-inclusive shoe line:

No matter the subject, it’s clear that everything you and the team work on is profound and carefully crafted. Where do you find inspiration for these stories?

Absolutely everywhere. Our personal lives and what we discuss with friends and family, what we watch on TV, the books we read, podcasts we listen to, social media. TikTok is my personal guilty pleasure, but it’s also a treasure trove of ideas and sources.

Could you give us a “sneak peek” into any topics that you and the team plan on covering? Anything we should keep an eye out for?

We are keeping a really close eye on monkeypox and trying to answer any questions that readers have about its spread. On a somewhat lighter note, we’ve got some stories coming that look at the experiences of Americans who gave birth abroad.

We appreciate the heads up and will be sure to watch out for these updates! We’re winding down to the end of our Q&A, but before we go, what’s your favorite part about working at Insider?

We never stop experimenting — with stories, formats, topics, and so on. If something is working, we go all in, and if it’s not, we don’t shy away from pivoting. That means my days are never boring!