Dylan Matthews facts for kids

Dylan Matthews is an American journalist. He writes for Vox, which is an online news website.

Dylan Matthews' Career

Early Writing Days

In 2004, when Dylan Matthews was 14, he started his own blog. It was called minipundit and he wrote about politics and other topics there.

He finished high school at Hanover High School in 2008. After that, he went to Harvard University. There, he studied social and political ideas. He also wrote for the university's newspaper, The Harvard Crimson.

Working at The Washington Post

From June 2013 to January 2014, Dylan Matthews wrote for Wonkblog. This was a section of The Washington Post newspaper. He focused on topics like taxes, government budgets, and the US economy.

In October 2013, Dylan Matthews helped launch a new blog called "Know More." He worked with another journalist, Ezra Klein, on this project. "Know More" aimed to create articles that people would share a lot online, like those on popular sites such as BuzzFeed.

The project was very successful. Dylan Matthews became well-known inside The Washington Post and outside of it. He even won an award from The Washington Post publisher for his work on "Know More."

He explained that the goal was to create content that would be shared widely on Facebook. He noted that many popular websites get most of their traffic from Facebook, not Twitter.

Some people compared "Know More" to "clickbait" sites. But Dylan Matthews said that BuzzFeed is a very effective news organization. He felt it was good at giving people what they were looking for.

Joining Vox.com

In early 2014, Dylan Matthews, Ezra Klein, and others announced a new online news project. They teamed up with Vox Media. This new website, called Vox.com, started in April 2014.

Dylan Matthews wrote his first article for Vox.com in April 2014. The scientific study he wrote about in that article later turned out to be fake. About a year later, he wrote another article saying he was sorry for being tricked by the false information.

Today, Dylan Matthews leads a section at Vox called "Future Perfect." This section focuses on effective altruism. This is a movement about using evidence and reason to find the best ways to help others.

Other Writing and Work

Dylan Matthews has also written for other publications. These include Salon and The New Republic. He has discussed topics like basic income (a regular payment to everyone), immigration policy, and effective altruism.

He is also on the advisory board for the Journal of Economic Perspectives. This is an economic journal published by the American Economic Association.

Dylan Matthews' Personal Life

In 2017, Dylan Matthews donated one of his kidneys. He wrote about this experience in an article for Vox. In the article, he encouraged other people to think about donating a kidney to help someone else.

Dylan Matthews is part of the effective altruism movement. He is a member of Giving What We Can. This is a group of people who promise to give at least 10% of their earnings to charities that are proven to be very effective.