Champe Barton

Freelance Writer

Location icon United States of America

I'm a third-year student at the University of Florida studying Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience and Economics with a minor in Classics. I run a daily newsletter called the Murrow Daily Report (sign up by emailing [email protected] or like us on Facebook), where I share relevant articles and synthesize the important information for voters; I'm also founder and editor-in-chief of a literary satire magazine called Trout (named for Vonnegut's Kilgore Trout, not the fish), which can be found at TroutMagazine.org.

Just about all things scientific or political fascinate me, and I enjoy writing about both as well as about music and film. I look forward to a career as a writer in some form, and journalistic and filmmaking ambitions often collide noisily in my head — perhaps when I have the money to afford more than 15 clippings in this portfolio, some short film scripts will be shared as well.

Portfolio

Science Writing

wannabeLiar
03/09/2016
Animal Eating Plants: A Delightfully Frightening Reversal

Carnivore...the word conjures meat and bones. A fleshiness. Thick fur or leathery scales and two rows of sharp, gleaming teeth. Today, however, I'll tell you three stories (with three videos!) for which "carnivore" has a leafier connotation. STORY NUMBER ONE-Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider Trap. We all know the Venus Fly Trap.

Political Journalism

Murrow Daily Report
10/18/2016
"How Florida Residents May Lose the Battle for Attainable Solar Energy"

Isn't Florida solar-power central? They've got year-round sunshine! -- This is true: Florida has huge potential to capitalize on almost unrelenting sunshine for sustainable solar power. But the tricky part isn't about how to capture and utilize that power, but rather to avoid a stranglehold utility companies are trying to place on the energy industry as a whole in an effort to maintain the status quo

The Independent Florida Alligator
02/23/2017
Slavery in the Sunshine State

Katarina Rosenblatt was invited to a sleepover with a middle-school friend, but instead of party favors, she and a group of other girls were given alcohol and cocaine, and then sold for forty dollars to pedophilic human traffickers.

Murrow Daily Report
10/25/2016
"Average Premiums for Popular ACA Plans Rising 25 Percent"

What does that mean? -- A premium is the amount a policy-holder or sponsor (the consumer's employer, typically) must pay the healthcare company monthly for health insurance. This number is, on average, rising about 25% for the ACA's more popular plans, but consumers in most states will still be able to find cheaper options through the exchanges

Music Reviews

Thefloridabasement
09/22/2016
Frank Ocean Blazes Trails Quietly in Blonde

This is a difficult album to contain in writing. At the same time both enigmatic and simple like Ocean himself, it manages to push past R&B into something dreamier, something new for which there is no mold. There's an ambient quality to it all: sweet, warm-toned melodies over crystal hums only set a stage.

Thefloridabasement
11/16/2016
Politics, Death, and Friendship Converge In A Tribe Called Quest's Latest Album

Q-Tip admits he isn't sure what the title, We got it from Here... Thank You 4 Your service means. Phife Dawg came up with it before he died. Whatever the initial intention, it's taken on a different meaning now, Phife's service having come to an end, Tribe having carried on and finished the album without him.

Thefloridabasement
10/20/2016
Take a Slow Stroll Through Dev Hynes' Mind With Freetown Sound

Freetown Sound is a diary, a scatter of thoughts from artist Dev Hynes about living life in the cultural margins of society: to be black, to be queer, to be unloved or feared without good reason. The album is, according to Hynes, one "for the under-appreciated" and somber synths and yearning saxophone runs confirm that description before a word is spoken.

Satire

Trout
All Lives Matter

The bullet was definitely in there. Blood spilled everywhere in gulps. Sure glad I wasn’t the one who got shot. I mean, the guy just crumpled to the floor like a popped balloon or something...

Trout
One Man Show

One Man Show “Did I ever tell you how I got to be so successful?” “No.” “I came from nothing, sport. I was dirt poor; my dad walked out on me when I was about your age. I worked hard in school—” “Wait, so grandma raised you by herself?” “Yes, that’s right. But like I was saying, I worked hard in school so that I could turn the tables. I worked a job to start saving money for college and got straight A’s throughout high school. I—” “Wow, so your teachers musta been real...

Trout
Identifiers

Identifiers Jerry slid through the thicket of bodies, his scaly green back glinting in the overhead light like a dried olive mud. At the counter, he ordered his usual: coffee, black. He let out a gravelly, hissing bellow as he slapped down his payment, thick nails clacking on the tiled countertop, signaling to the cashier that he was, in fact, there. She cooed gently in recognition. He stepped off to the side to wait, joining another fellow, this one a solid hunk of meat wrapped in...