Davidson Student and Prof Help Propel Mental Floss to Wide Acclaim
The cover of a recent issue of Mental Floss.
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4/22/2003
Contact: Bill Giduz 704/894-2244 or bigiduz@davidson.edu
Have you seen Mental Floss magazine yet?
You will. A late-breaking email alert from the magazine’s assistant editor, Davidson senior Peter Leese, lets us know that Courteney Cox will be seen reading a copy of Mental Floss on the April 24 episode of the hit TV show “Friends,” as reported by Entertainment Weekly.
The EW blurb is just the latest in a long string of positive press that Mental Floss has generated since its humble newsletter beginnings at the turn of the century. Today, the magazine that promises to make you “feel smart again” is one of the hottest, fastest magazine success stories in recent industry history. With a worldly eye toward scintillating cocktail conversation and the youthful, intellectual energy that flows oh-so-readily from recent college grads -- “A Smart(-Alecky) Read,” said a Newsweek headline last December -- Mental Floss is garnering raves from publishing trade magazines and national newspapers. In addition to snappy editorial content, the magazine has jumped on the marketing fast track.
Take, for example, an emailed update from senior biology major Leese: “HarperCollins’ book, Mental Floss Condensed Knowledge, comes out early 2004. Working on a syndicated column concept with the NY Times Syndicate. Multi-product deal with Books-A-Million ("Test Your IQ" book, fact-a-day calendar, board game) … editorial office will be moving from Alabama to Washington D.C., and magazine has been internationally reviewed and nationally has made it into Newsweek, Washington Post, and NPR, among others. See www.mentalfloss.com/press.htm
Leese has risen through the Mental Floss ranks from a cold-calling freelance writer to science editor to “assistant editor (left brain).” (Until recently, Christa Wagner ’02 occupied the “right brain” slot, but has moved to other pastures.) Peter took a semester off from Davidson to work in the magazine’s offices, which were then located in Birmingham, Ala. He returned to Davidson for his senior year and promptly turned the writing-assignment tables on Assistant Professor of Biology Karen Bernd, corralling her into authoring the general biology chapter in the aforementioned HarperCollins book. Now, Workman Publishing wants to turn a recent Mental Floss cover story into a book; the magazine is being distributed in bookstores like Joe Muggs and Barnes and Noble from here to Australia; “Saturday Night Live’s” Victoria Jackson did a one-minute radio riff on the Mental Floss concept; and if we don’t hurry up and post this story there’s likely to be some other hot marketing scoop to report!
“People want to feel smart,” Leese said recently over coffee at Summit Coffee & Tea in beautiful downtown Davidson, “but they're intimidated by the work. We take the work out of learning by blurring the lines between information and entertainment.”
Enter Davidson’s cell biology Assistant Professor Bernd, who clearly has done strong work in the information department -- in an entertaining way, it seemed to Leese. When he happened upon the combination of Bernd in a black leather jacket and a Science Man Action Figure on her office desk, he knew he’d found his mark for writing the general biology chapter of Mental Floss Condensed Knowledge. Bernd, relishing the chance to help clarify science for the masses, dove right in.
“If you can’t teach an intro level course in your topic, then you don’t understand your topic,” she opined in the same coffeehouse conversation. “Topics don’t need to be dumbed down, they need to be explained well. I think almost any topic can be accessible.”
Tables turned! Karen Bernd of the biology faculty pleads for mercy as Mental Floss science editor Peter Leese lays a heavy editing pen on her copy.
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The magazine started as a newsletter put out by Duke U. roommates Mangesh Hattikudur and Will Pearson, who hit the ground running with it upon their graduation in 2001. The rest is history. And science. Or maybe history and science. A recent Leese article in Mental Floss (he’s written some half-dozen) covered “The Greatest Moments in Ancient Science,” touching on the origins of everything from sewing needles (prehistoric France) to toothpaste (Egypt) to corsets (Crete) to batteries (Baghdad) to flush toilets (Crete again; something to do with the corsets, maybe?).
The current issue of the bi-monthly features slick design elements to carry forth last year’s phenomenally successful “10 Issue” theme as an annual event. There are sections on ten political moments in rock’n’roll, ten shocking sports scandals, ten bright ideas in science, ten not-so-bright ideas in science, and ten groundbreaking comedians. The cover tagline proclaims, “Now with 10 times the Recommended Daily Allowance of Fun!”
That ought to teach readers of all ages a thing or two!
Davidson is a highly selective independent liberal arts college for 1,600 students. Since its establishment in 1837, the college has graduated 23 Rhodes Scholars and is ranked among the top ten liberal arts colleges in the country by U.S. News and World Report magazine. Davidson is currently engaged in "Let Learning Be Cherished," a $250 million campaign in support of student financial assistance, academic resources, and community life.
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