Traveling Through with David Prior · Thursday, July 30, 2026
Deborah Needleman, formerly editor-in-chief of The New York Times Style Magazine, discusses her dramatic career shift from high-profile editing to hands-on craft, starting with broom making and evolving into basket weaving and other crafts.
“I think for many people, going to fashion shows sounds like a really sort of glamorous thing. But I think, like a lot of so called glamorous things, when you are really involved in them, they're not that glamorous.”
“I quit my job with this idea sort of almost out of nowhere, of becoming a basket weaver. And I was not like a crafty person. I had never done anything with my hands, and I'd always sort of lived in my head as a writer and editor. So in a way it was a big break.”
“For me, it just I really didn't like the idea of being told where to go and when to be somewhere.”