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By Robert S. Benchley
As assistant editor for Mental Floss, Lucas Reilly ’13 has found the perfect fit, a quirky magazine that promises to help you “feel smart again.”
Lucas Reilly ’13 at Mental Floss office in New York
A self-described “cultural omnivore,” he delights in the variety of assignments he covers for the print magazine, website, and blog. “How to Pick a Lock,” “7 Schools That Dropped Their Native American Nicknames,” and “What’s the Difference: Orchestra, Symphony, and Philharmonic?” illustrate the range.
Reilly connected with the magazine’s editors during his junior at Lafayette year through an externship with Bob Bliwise ’76, a journalism instructor at Duke University and editor of Duke Magazine. Bliwise introduced Reilly to the Duke alums who launched Mental Floss. That connection resulted in a paid summer internship with the magazine, freelance writing assignments during his senior year, and what Reilly calls “the ultimate compliment”—a job offer as staff writer a month after graduation.
“None of this would have happened without my externship,” says Reilly, an English and music graduate. “I knew very little about magazine journalism, but after three days with Robert I knew that’s what I wanted to do with my life.”
Reilly, a pianist and English and music graduate, conducted research as an EXCEL Scholar, performed with The Jazz Ensemble, and was a member of Concert Choir.
He cites two additional mentors: Suzanne Westfall, professor of English and theater, whose marginal notes on his papers helped him realize how much more he had to learn, and Ken Briggs, former visiting part-time instructor of English, who “taught me how to write concisely” in a journalism course.