What L.A. Times staffers are giving from the Gift Guide

Mark E. Potts is a former senior editor for video at the Los Angeles Times. A native of Enid, Okla., Potts graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a master’s degree in broadcast journalism. He has created and edited video for DreamWorks, YouTube, Microsoft, Sony and BET.

Adam Tschorn is a former small-town newspaper editor, game-show question-and-answer man, fashion scribe and cannabis culture writer. He grew up in the tiny Vermont town of Sandgate, earned his B.A. in philosophy from the University of Vermont and an M.A. in journalism from Northeastern University in Boston. All of these things have prepared him perfectly for going out into the world, looking at things, asking “why?” and then writing down the answers. From 2007 to 2025, he asked those questions — and got those answers — on behalf of the Los Angeles Times. He can currently be found on LinkedIn, adamtschorn.com and wherever burning questions need answering.

Lisa Boone is a features writer for the Los Angeles Times. Since 2003, she has covered home design, gardening, parenting, houseplants, even youth sports. She is a native of Los Angeles.

Born and raised in California, Christopher Reynolds has written about travel, the outdoors, arts and culture for the Los Angeles Times since 1990.

Jeanette Marantos started writing for the Los Angeles Times in 1999, doing Money Makeovers until 2002. She returned to write for The Times’ Homicide Report in 2015 and the Saturday garden section in 2016, a yin and yang that kept her perspective in balance. In early 2020, she moved full time into Features, with a focus on all things flora. In June of 2023 she began writing the monthly L.A. Times Plants newsletter, which included a calendar of upcoming plant-related events. Marantos was a SoCal native who spent more than 20 years in central Washington as a daily reporter, columnist, freelancer and mom before returning to the land of eucalyptus and sage. She died Feb. 7, 2026.

Defne Karabatur is platforms analyst at the Los Angeles Times. She graduated from UC Berkeley, where she studied applied mathematics, English and political economy, and previously was a 2023-24 Times fellow. Karabatur got her start in journalism working for the Daily Californian, Berkeley’s independent, student-run newspaper, where she was the 2022-23 creative director. She grew up in Connecticut and Istanbul.