385. Claire Murashima

Claire Murashima, a journalist and graduate student at University College London, reveals a profound tension between her desire to stay creatively and intellectually engaged online and her need to protect her mental health and attention span. After years of building a following on TikTok while working at NPR, she’s taken a deliberate break from social media—removing apps from her phone entirely for over three months—to reclaim focus and resist the addictive design of digital platforms. Her Substack, Point of Clarification, has become her primary outlet for thoughtful, long-form writing about internet culture, journalism, and personal reflection. Claire argues that while algorithms and social media offer access to new voices and opportunities, they also erode editorial independence, amplify outrage, and create a permanent digital footprint that can haunt careers and relationships. She advocates for a return to human-centered discovery—making friends IRL, asking strangers for recommendations, and trusting personal connections over algorithmic curation. Her vision for the future blends the rigor of legacy journalism with the intimacy of personal storytelling, ideally within a collaborative team like NPR’s Planet Money, where she can report, produce, and grow without sacrificing her creativity or sanity.