Mac McClelland is an award-winning journalist who has written for publications like Time Magazine, The New York Times and Mother Jones. She’s reported from every region in the United States, gone undercover in industry and the sex trade and reported internationally from places like Thailand, Haiti, Australia, Burma, Uganda, Turkey and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
McClelland has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, the Hillman Foundation, the Online News Association, the Society of Environmental Journalists and the Association for Women in Communications. Her book “For Us Surrender is Out of the Question” was a finalist for the 2011 Dayton Literary Peace Price. She’s been nominated for two National Magazine Awards for Feature Writing. And her work has been anthologized in Best American Magazine Writing, Best American Nonrequired Reading and Best Business Writing.
She has written about a lot of human rights issues, including reporting from Haiti after the deadly earthquake in 2010. She often immerses herself in her stories, like when she worked in a massive warehouse for an online retailer for several weeks. Most recently, she’s written about Syrian refugee camps in Turkey for The New York Times. You can read a lot of McClelland's stories by visiting her own personal website.
Since joining the podcast, McClelland's book “Irritable Hearts: A PTSD Love Story,” has been published. The book is a beautiful yet painful look at how PTSD can affect reporters who have covered traumatic events.