Cleo Abram, creator of the YouTube series HUGE* If True, will deliver the keynote address at the August 15 summer graduation ceremony, speaking to graduates of the M.S. Documentary and M.S. Data Journalism programs. Voted by Columbia Journalism School faculty, Abram is known for exploring the future of science and technology through widely accessible, visual storytelling.
Abram's work reflects a shift in how audiences engage with journalists, toward formats that are digital, explanatory and widely accessible. For graduates entering a rapidly changing media landscape, Abram’s approach offers a model for meeting audiences where they are while maintaining depth and clarity.
A 2015 graduate of Columbia College, she studied political science and founded TEDxColumbiaCollege in her first year, a student-led event featuring speakers across disciplines that continues today. She also served as a University Senator of Columbia College Student Council, where she advocated for expanding online education, a commitment that carries through in her work today, bringing information to wider public audiences through digital media.
Abram has built a large and engaged audience through reporting that makes complex technologies accessible and compelling. HUGE* If True, which has more than 7.5 million subscribers, focuses on breakthroughs that could shape the future and the people behind them.
The series, which Abram describes as “an antidote to the doom and gloom,” emphasizes possibility while maintaining research-based reporting. Episodes take viewers inside cutting-edge developments, including humanoid robotics at Boston Dynamics, supersonic flight at NASA, quantum computing at IBM and the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.
Abram launched the show in 2022 after her time at Vox, where she helped define a new style of explanatory video journalism. She hosted Vox’s first daily show, Answered, and co-hosted the YouTube Originals series Glad You Asked, which earned an Emmy nomination in 2020.
Columbia Journalism School’s August 15 ceremony honors the M.S. Documentary and M.S. Data Journalism students part of the 115th graduating class since the school’s founding in 1912. It marks each student’s entry into a global alumni community of more than 15,000 graduates across 102 countries.
