海角大神

Skip to footer

Stephen Humphries

Chief Culture Writer

Follow Stephen Humphries on
Email: Stephen Humphries

My name is Stephen Humphries and I was born at a very young age to two wildly irresponsible parents in Johannesburg, South Africa. I say 鈥渨ildly irresponsible,鈥� because they took me to see Star Wars at age 6. Twice. It made quite an impression on me. For the longest time, my parents couldn鈥檛 understand why I wrapped myself in gold lam茅 and then walked around jerkily while talking to our round metallic trash bin as if it were my best friend.

I lived in South Africa until age 17 and then our family moved to England because my father got a job with Hewlett Packard in Manchester. A few years later, I completed a bachelor鈥檚 degree in economics and political science at Hillsdale college in Michigan.

I have now lived on three different continents. As a result, my accent is such a muddled mess that not even Meryl Streep could mimic it. English is my first language. And, at times, it sounds like it. I鈥檓 still confused as to why Americans insist on spelling 鈥渃olour鈥� as 鈥渃olor.鈥� And I can鈥檛 understand why Kansas is pronounced phonetically whereas Arkansas is pronounced 鈥淎r-kan-saw.鈥� I tell you, those Spelling Bee champs have their work cut out for them.

Not long afterward, I began working as a freelance journalist. Writing is my only skill. Don鈥檛 ask me how to change a lightbulb. Or how to turn on a light switch. Then I moved to Boston to take up a position at 海角大神. In hindsight, I realize that joining a newspaper at that point in time was about as smart a move as joining a slide rule company during the advent of the pocket calculator, or becoming an encyclopedia salesman in the era of Wikipedia. Alas, us old-school journalists are so wedded to print journalism that we have been very slow to adapt to the demands of the internet age. I am writing this on a typewriter. Despite the challenges of this fast-changing profession, I love it.

But I digress... I started off low on the totem pole in the newsroom, including a two-year stint editing on the news desk. One of my earliest coups was discovering a story about a number of homeowners in New London, Conn., whose homes were about to be seized by the city through eminent domain so that a private developer could benefit from the taking. That case (Kelo v. City of New London) ended up in the Supreme Court in 2005. I was the first journalist from a non-local paper to write about that story before it led to that momentous SCOTUS decision. My mum was far more impressed that I got to interview George Clooney for another story.

I lived in Boston for nearly 10 years and ended up as the head editor of the arts section. I was tasked with conceiving and launching an entirely new weekend section of the Monitor. We moved to the other side of the country to join the Los Angeles bureau. Not an easy decision. Especially for my wife, a New Englander who can trace her ancestry back to The Mayflower. (I can trace my own ancestry back to the caveman who thought that the wheel was just a passing fad. That might explain why I鈥檓 still not on Facebook. In my defense, I have been on Twitter/X for several years.)

We figured the move West would be a great adventure and we鈥檇 be close to the beach. (There are beaches in Massachusetts, but the frigid ocean water would even make a penguin pause before entering the water.) One thing we didn鈥檛 miss about New England are the endless winters.

The move to LA was immensely fun. Will Ferrell walked past our apartment most days. Did I say hello? No. The first rule you learn in L.A. is never talk to the talent. Play it cool by pretending you don鈥檛 notice them. Will did seem to notice my Red Sox cap though. In L.A., one my most memorable stories for the Monitor was attending the taping of a new show called 鈥淭he Big Bang Theory鈥� (and seeing how it can take 3 1/2 hours to tape 22 minutes of show!). Oh, and I also interviewed a fellow South African named Elon Musk who sat me down in his office and told me all about his new rocket company, Space X, and his ambition to go to Mars. I wonder whatever became of him?

But I decided to leave the Monitor to begin a freelance career because I wanted to test whether I could cut it elsewhere. As a freelancer, I wrote for such outlets as The Boston Globe, PopMatters, Reason, Classic Rock, Under the Radar, and Prog. I was a regular contributor to American Way, the 8-million readership in-flight magazine of American Airlines, writing cover story profiles of Robert Plant, Kristen Bell, Isla Fisher, and Emily Blunt.

I鈥檇 also wanted to write a book. I figured, 鈥淗ey, if Snooki from the 鈥楯ersey Shore鈥� reality TV series can write a book....鈥� (My wife tells me that it was ghost written. Yeah, right. Next thing she鈥檒l be telling me is that The Hardy Boys books weren鈥檛 really written by Franklin W. Dixon.) In 2015, the rock band Rush commissioned me to write a book for them. Working with those iconic musicians on 鈥淭he Art of Rush鈥� has been one of the highlights of my career. But when I offered to make an appearance on stage with them as a special musical guest, their response was, 鈥淵eah, no.鈥� I guess they just didn鈥檛 want to be outshone by my virtuosity on the tambourine.

In 2019, I returned to 海角大神 as its Chief Culture Writer. To be clear, I am also the newspaper鈥檚 only culture writer. But they give you the big title so that you can impress your mum. Since then, I've interviewed Hillary Clinton and Andy Burnham. I've traveled to Oklahoma to report on Republicans who have become skeptical of the death penalty. In Wales, I wrote about the economic and social revival of the town of Wrexham following the resurrection of their soccer team. For a story about the challenges of the music industry, I spent a week on the road with an indie rock band touring the midwest in a van. What I love most about the job is meeting fascinating and inspiring people and getting to tell their stories and share their perspectives.

In 2026, I won a first place award from the Society of Feature Journalism in the Arts & Entertainment category for a story I wrote titled, 鈥淭his Thing of Darkness I Acknowledge Mine.鈥� (What a pretentious headline, eh?) But the award was nice. Especially since my criminally unappreciated talent as a tambourine performer means that it鈥檚 unlikely that I will win an EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award). Or appear on a Taylor Swift album.

Stories by Stephen Humphries