Sono Motoyama

American journalist and editor, based in the Paris region.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy •

Black Faith Groups Have Been Fighting Neighborhood Gun Violence for Decades. They’re Finally Getting Support.

Indianapolis hit record-high murder rates in recent years, breaking the all-time record in 2021 with 251 homicides, making it one of the most violent cities per capita in the United States. The spike reflects a national increase in gun violence during the pandemic that experts attribute to a range of factors including disruption in people’s work and personal lives, an increase in gun sales, and mental health issues. But the city is now in the midst of a promising experiment, led by faith leade
The Verge •

Meet the ‘Lady Gaga of Mathematics’ helming France’s AI task force

On a crisp Saturday morning in Orsay, a southwestern suburb of Paris with some 16,500 inhabitants, the rue de Paris was bustling. But while many residents were doing their usual weekend shopping at the fishmonger or the butcher shop, further up the street, in a small former chateau that is now the town’s cultural center, about 80 people had set aside their late-morning hours to hear the “voeux” of their legislative representative to the National Assembly, Cédric Villani. The voeux, or “new year
Eater •

Meet the Rebel Butcher of Paris

On a perfect Sunday in late May, with blue skies and fluffy clouds straight from a Rococo painting, Yves-Marie Le Bourdonnec, the most embattled butcher in Paris, was in his element. In the village of Le Plessier-Huleu (population: 75), about 67 miles northeast of Paris, he had gathered the employees of his three-shop butchery empire, along with their families, his students, and other select associates — about 30 people in all — for an annual barbecue at the farm of one of his breeders. Le Bour
Medium •

This French Baguette Is a Political Statement

At the Moulins Fouché in La Ferté-Alais — in Essonne, one of eight departments in the Île-de-France — a squat office building is part of a hodgepodge of structures that now make up the mill after a 3-million-euro renovation wrapped up in 2003, replacing antiquated buildings, one of which dated to the 18th century. Vincent Fouché, 41, a sixth-generation miller, heads up his family’s old business, though he is no longer “chez lui,” as he puts it. A holding company now owns the business, though he
The Verge •

Inside the United Nations’ effort to regulate autonomous killer robots

Amandeep Gill has a difficult job, though he won’t admit it himself. As chair of the United Nations’ Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) meetings on lethal autonomous weapons, he has the task of shepherding 125 member states through discussions on the thorny technical and ethical issue of “killer robots.” It’s a subject that has attracted a glaring media spotlight and pressure from NGOs like Campaign to Stop Killer Robots.
Atlas Obscura •

How an Indigenous Chef Fights for Food Sovereignty

Johl Whiteduck Ringuette’s life changed when he took part in a Shake Tent ceremony in the early 2000s. An indigenous rite in which participants attempt to make contact with spirits for guidance and healing, the ceremony was a way to recover something he felt had been stripped from him: his Anishinaabe identity. This set him on a ferociously ambitious path to not only establish an indigenous restaurant and catering business in Toronto, but to stake a claim for indigenous food sovereignty in Canad
Eater •

In a High-Class Paris Neighborhood, a Star Chef Feeds the Homeless

The internationally known and yet anonymous artist who goes by the moniker JR hoists a platter of gâteau de chou (“cabbage cake”) up in the air and catwalks it through the new Refettorio Paris. Located in the historic Madeleine church in the 8th arrondissement, the windowless space features a long, narrow dining room with a vaulted ceiling and stone walls, and JR is prowling it like a runway. “Chaud devant!” calls the “photograffeur”-cum-volunteer waiter, as he hawks his wares at this new commu
Paris Chow •

Is the World Ready for Designer Karim Rashid?

THE TINY LOUNGE area of the chic new restaurant Morimoto is like a bamboo womb. The brown floor covering swaths not only the floors but the curvy walls and ceilings. An elongated porthole of the second-floor space looks out over the dining floor. The floors and ceilings of the main room are also fashioned of the trendy surfacing, and the white plaster walls erupt into biomorphic, sculpted shapes. All these curves contrast with the actual shape of the long, rectangular room and the geometric li
The Christian Science Monitor •

Finding My Way in France

A few months after we moved to Tours, in France's Loire Valley, I wanted to meet my husband, Stéphane, for lunch at the university where he worked. I got lost. I had to call him from the roadside to find out how to get back to the university, which I'd far overshot. Stéphane's office mate, a Brazilian well acclimated to French life, overheard the conversation and said, "How could she get lost? You just go straight." Well, no. That's the problem. You never "just go straight," because France is t

ABOUT

A Memphis-based journalist and editor, I have worked at numerous publications in the U.S. and Europe, including The Chronicle of Philanthropy, the Philadelphia Daily News, Baltimore City Paper (as editor-in-chief), The New Yorker, Interview, Entertainment Weekly and others. I've written freelance articles for The Verge, The Globe and Mail, The Independent, Eater, The New York Times Magazine, The San Francisco Examiner and Time Out/New York.

I also have extensive experience in business communications and public relations.

Contact me

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