Emma Montgomery - Future Pulitzer Prize Winning Journalist

It is graduation season, and on episode 9 of The Tinstreamer Podcast, we sit down with Emma Montgomery. Emma just graduated from Texas Tech University, Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism. Emma is a writer, photographer, bikepacker, backpacker, and a lover of green chiles. I met Emma in 2023 at the Texas Tech University Adventure Media bikepacking trip over spring break. That year’s class bikepacked (camping and traveling by bicycle) for six days and five nights along the Monumental Loop in Southern New Mexico. I’ve written about and attended this groundbreaking program since 2019. To say Adventure Media changes lives is an understatement. It changed me as a writer, and it most definitely changed Emma’s life. Over the last four years (Covid canceled the 2020 class), I’ve had the opportunity to adventure with exceptional young people like Emma. I always walk away inspired and filled with immense hope about the next generation. Give this episode a listen and let Emma inspire you to be your best and chase that impossible dream.

 

Emma grew up on a cattle ranch in Pinon, New Mexico. We talk about how she found her way to Lubbock, Texas, and her decision to chase journalism as a major. “I don’t know why I came to Texas Tech, but I learned exactly why I stayed.” Towards the end of the podcast, we do a little improv acting scene - inspired by a couple of characters she and her good friend Hannah Hudgens conjured up during the 2024 semester of Adventure Media.

 

Go over to Emma’s website emmamontgomvery.me and peruse her writings and pictures. She is a fantastic journalist. My personal favorite is the “Dollar Store Dilemma,” for Planet Forward.

 

Corrections: I did not sing The Chicks, “Travelin’ Soldier” in episode 8, as I wrote in the description. It was this episode with Emma, that I attempted to sing the first verse of my favorite story telling song.