Filter launched in September 2018 and is based in New York City. Our mission is to advocate through journalism for rational and compassionate approaches to drug use, drug policy and human rights.
Filter is owned and operated by The Influence Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. You can follow Filter on Facebook and Twitter, or sign up for our daily or weekly email newsletters here.
Editorial team
Will Godfrey – Editor-in-chief
Will has worked as an editor and journalist in the human rights and drugs spaces since 2006. He was the founder and editor-in-chief of The Influence (2015-2017), an award-winning publication covering drug policy and related areas. He also founded and ran Substance.com (2014-2015), a harm reduction-oriented news site, and was previously editor-in-chief of the addiction-focused site The Fix (2013). He formerly co-founded and edited Voice of the Ville, an award-winning print publication for incarcerated people in London.
Kastalia Medrano – Deputy Editor
Kastalia is a Manhattan-based journalist covering drugs, mental illness, and public health. She’s previously written for a number of outlets including Newsweek, VICE, Vox and Gizmodo. She also works at VOCAL-NY testing low-income New Yorkers for hepatitis C, and is a syringe exchange volunteer at the Lower East Side Harm Reduction Center. She would love to bring you naloxone.
Helen Redmond – Senior Editor
Helen has written about nicotine, mental health and drug policy for publications including Al Jazeera, AlterNet, Harper’s and The Influence. As an LCSW, she works with drug users in medical and community mental health settings. An expert on tobacco harm reduction, she provides training and consultation on mental health, nicotine use and THR, and in 2016 organized the first Tobacco Harm Reduction Conference in the U.S. Helen is also a documentary filmmaker, and produces original video for Filter.
Sessi Kuwabara Blanchard – Staff Writer
Sessi is a writer and organizer interested in cultural criticism, transnational politics and the ways that controlled substances are traded, policed and consumed. Having graduated from Vassar College with a degree in philosophy and women’s studies, Sessi kick-started her writing career with work appearing in publications like Broadly, i-D, Pitchfork and them., among others.
Lucia Geng – Editorial Fellow
Lucia is a journalist interested in covering non-reformist efforts to dismantle the carceral state and elevating the voices and narratives of marginalized people. She previously worked to improve prison conditions as an intern with the ACLU’s National Prison Project, and has written for the South Side Weekly, OpenSecrets and the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Filter was proud to be an official media partner of the 2019 Reform conference in St. Louis.
Contributors
David Abrams; Queen Adesuyi; Anthony Anderson; Shoshana Aronowitz
Clive Bates; Josiah Bates; Quinn Bell; Amanda Bent; Biz Berthy; Claire Bodkin; Matthew Bonn; Chelsea Boyd; Elizabeth Brico; Tommy Brothers; Keith Brown; Nigel Brunsdon; Marc Burrows
Gianluca Capellani; Tessie Castillo; Judy Chang; Samrat Chowdhery; Dolores Cloward; Aliza Cohen; Gregory Conley; Michael Cooper; John Cross
Arthur Debruyne; Patt Denning; Brandon A. Dorfman; Sophie N. Dowdy; Jessie Dunleavy; Erika Dupuis
Troy Farah; Jeselle S. Farias; Brooke Feldman; Guy Felicella; Seth Ferranti; Rory Fleming; Taylor Fleming; Kevin Franciotti; David Frank; Rachel French; Zorina Frey
Kevin Garcia; Grey Gardner; Tracie Gardner; Drew Gibson; Giada Girelli; Gabrielle Glaser; Marewa Glover; Morgan Godvin; Diane Goldstein; Mohawk Greene
Hugo Hanson; Jessica Harding; Jesse Harvey; Olivia Heffernan; Daliah Heller
Adi Jaffe; Shilo Jama; Reija Jean; Erving Jean-Jacques; Doug Johnson; Beverley Jones
Hasham Kamran; Jess Keefe; Arianne Keegan; Bill Kinkle; Annie Kleykamp; Alison Knopf
M.L. Lanzillotta; Victoria Law; Jasmine Leigh; Alexander Lekhtman; Antony Loewenstein; Kira London-Nadeau; Leili Lyman
Lucas Marten; Alexis Martin; Jessica Martinez; Michael McGrady; Ian McLoone; Kastalia Medrano; Colin Mendelsohn; Colin Miller; Ryan Mirvis; Tuyaa Montgomery; Christopher Moraff; Jack Murtha; Ray Mwareya
Uche Olatunji; Tony O’Neill; Dinah Ortiz
Natalie Papillion; Stanton Peele; Olivia Pennelle; Maritza Perez; Steven Proctor
JS Rafaeli; Trish Randall; Bruce Reilly; Zach Rhoads; Khary Rigg; Scott Roberts; Jackie Rocheleau; Lauren Rodota; Ivy Ann Rosado; Elizabeth Ryan
Simon Schatzberg; Thea Sebastian; André Seidenberg; Sharda Sekaran; Kiran Sidhu; Zachary Siegel; Caty Simon; April Smith; Brandon Soderberg; Maia Szalavitz
Claudio Teixeira; Michelle Tolson; Tessa Torgeson; Natasha Touesnard; Ria Tsinas; Shanell Twan
Sheila P. Vakharia; Jenny Valentish; Jeevika Verma; Louise Vincent; Niko Vorobyov
Carrie Wade; Neil Woods; Sheila Wren Hand
Erik Kubitschek; PXL Web Development Agency
Pitching guidelines and contact details
Please send all email correspondence to: Editor [at] filtermag.org.
We welcome pitches for feature-length articles around our subject areas, including investigative reports, op-eds, essays and interviews. Please send proposals (rather than drafts) and a sample of your previous work. Due to volume of pitches, we regret we cannot reply to them all; we will get back to you within a week if your idea is one we can use.
Donate to Filter
As a nonprofit publication, Filter is funded entirely by donations and grants. If you wish to support our reporting on drug use, drug policy and human rights, please donate using the button below. We’re grateful for your support.
