Dave Schilling
Dave Schilling uses humor and personal observation to connect parenting, culture and politics to the pressures of technology and contemporary media life in his columns for the Guardian. His work treats family decisions, pop culture debates and policy fights as everyday encounters with power, propaganda and the internet’s reach. He writes as a commentator rather than a straight news reporter, favouring first-person and analytical pieces over reported hard news.
Parenting under algorithmic and cultural pressure
In his parenting coverage, Schilling focuses on what it feels like to raise children inside an attention economy shaped by algorithms, apps and AI tools.
In “Parenting is hard. Should we let AI do it for us?”, he weighs the appeal of offloading parts of parenting to AI against the loss of human judgment and emotional labour, treating the question as a moral and practical dilemma rather than a gadget review. He digs into how technology promises efficiency for overwhelmed parents while risking a flattening of empathy and imagination, using plain language and humour to hold that tension.
The piece positions parenting as continuous work that cannot be cleanly automated, and uses a conversational tone to make broader points about responsibility and care. Within the Guardian’s lifestyle and opinion streams, his parenting writing sits alongside other reflections on everyday life, which reinforces that he approaches the subject as lived experience and social commentary, not as expert advice or service journalism.
Culture, conspiracy and the internet’s habits of belief
Beyond parenting, Schilling regularly writes about how pop culture and conspiracy theories reveal changing norms around truth and trust. In his column on the “Jim Carrey is a clone” conspiracy theory, he treats the idea as absurd but uses it to explore why people embrace outlandish narratives in a landscape dominated by techno-oligarchs and nonstop propaganda. The piece links celebrity gossip, online speculation and political disinformation, showing his habit of using internet ephemera to examine deeper anxieties about reality and authority. His writing on Star Trek’s 60th anniversary looks at how the franchise’s hopeful vision now feels distant, turning a cultural milestone into a way to think about stalled progress and disillusionment. Across these articles, he writes with a mix of scepticism and amusement, grounding critique in familiar shows and viral stories rather than abstract theory.
US politics, infrastructure and the language of power
Schilling’s political columns focus on how language and symbolism shape public understanding of policy, infrastructure and accountability in the US. In his coverage asking “Why is the Trump administration calling bike lanes ‘DEI’?”, he examines a seemingly narrow issue - transport infrastructure - and shows how culture-war framing distorts debates about public space and safety.
Related pieces on Trump’s offers to voters and the legacy of George W Bush’s impunity treat campaign stunts and past decisions as part of a continuum of rhetorical manipulation and lawlessness. Rather than cataloguing legislative detail, he highlights how phrases, comparisons and branding choices reveal what political actors think of the public and of democratic norms.
The tone combines clear political judgment with a columnist’s eye for the absurd, which aligns with his broader emphasis on how power operates through stories and spin.
Humor, personal essays and a wider writing career
Schilling’s author page at the Guardian describes him as a writer and humorist, and his work there spans opinion, lifestyle and US news feeds, underscoring a deliberately cross-beat role. A Guardian press announcement has highlighted that he ranges across culture, politics, sports and the internet, bringing a humorous and creative approach to those intersections.
Outside the Guardian, he has written long-form personal and reported pieces such as an essay on learning to swim framed through race and identity, and a detailed account of covering the Mayweather–McGregor boxing event, which show his comfort with narrative and immersive reporting. A profile at another outlet notes that his work has appeared in the New Yorker, New York Magazine and GQ, signalling that he moves between commentary, culture writing and feature work across different publications.
Across these contexts, his distinguishing traits are a conversational voice, a willingness to centre his own experience, and a consistent interest in how media, technology and institutions shape everyday life - from parenting choices to entertainment and electoral politics.
4 more parenting journalists.
Abigail Shrier
Abigail Shrier is a journalist, columnist at The Free Press, and bestselling author whose work centers on parenting, family relationships, and the cultural forces shaping childhood. She writes the weekly “Tough Love” advice column, where readers send hard personal and family dilemmas and she focuses on concrete situations and practical choices for parents, partners, and adult children. She also publishes essays and reported features on parenting that examine how institutions and professionals influence everyday family life, including criminalization of ordinary parental decisions and therapeutic advice that leads to “no contact” with parents. Her books “Bad Therapy: Why the Kids Aren’t Growing Up” and “Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters” extend her reporting on therapy, gender medicine, and youth. She also covers education, gender, speech, activism, and censorship, approaching these subjects as reported arguments.
Alesandra Dubin
Alesandra Dubin uses parenting to examine how travel, independence, and everyday logistics shape family life. She is a digital travel and lifestyle journalist with more than 15 years’ experience covering parenting, travel, food, events, fashion and beauty, entertainment, home, and viral content for consumer and business outlets. Her work has appeared in Insider, Good Housekeeping, Parents, Esquire, Woman’s Day, Prevention, Glamour, Shondaland, AFAR, and TODAY. Her parenting beat centers on family travel, including flights, camps, hotels, destinations, and the ways parents protect their identity and relationships while caring for children. She also covers practical planning, from room layouts and prices to crowds, tickets, transit, pacing, and family-friendly dining. She reports through candid first-person stories, then draws out clear service advice and emotional insights about care, autonomy, stress, and family dynamics.
Alyson Krueger
Alyson Krueger is a freelance journalist who covers how people live, parent, gather and chase status in contemporary culture through reported narratives anchored in specific communities, events and social scenes. She writes for The New York Times and other publications and has contributed to The New York Times since 2013. Her parenting work centers on fatherhood and family rituals, using observed behavior and everyday routines to show changing family roles. She often reports on urban social life and leisure, including how people socialize and find rest in demanding environments, from city winters to shifting ski seasons. Her business and fashion stories examine the social meaning of wellness practices, marketing with superheroes, playful luxury food and gifting. She also covers major events, weddings and fan culture, paying attention to atmosphere, crowds and what draws people together.
Amie Windsor
Amie Windsor links parenting and everyday family life directly to local policy, community crises and governance decisions. She is the Opinion Editor at The Press Democrat and is described by the masthead as the Community Journalism Team Lead, drawing on nearly a decade in community journalism with sustained coverage of city hall and school boards. She writes opinion columns and reported pieces on parenting under democratic stress, wildfire displacement, transportation planning, law enforcement technology and major energy infrastructure decisions. Her parenting work treats raising children as part of civic life under political instability, showing how structural shifts enter routines, emotional labor and family conversations. Her reporting on biking and walking projects, hybrid police cruisers and dam decommissioning keeps policy and infrastructure grounded in specific projects, residents and public processes, emphasizing civic engagement, community resilience and resident-first coverage.