selected features, essays, & special projects
Your Neighbors Retired in Their 30s. Why Can’t You? (The New York Times Magazine + on The Daily)
Maybe we should have always been in it for ourselves, and nobody else, from the start.
Fix Your Glutes. Fix Your Life. (The New York Times Magazine)
On some less obvious reasons to love the derrière.
Who’s Afraid of the Big, Bad Tradwife? (The New York Times Magazine)
Squinting into the great consumerist mirage.
The Strange Threat of the Quiet Office Asian (The New York Times Magazine)
Race-based proficiency is a peculiar but longstanding American anxiety.
The Delirious Rise of the Superfake Handbag (The New York Times Magazine)
What happens when no one can tell a $10,000 Chanel bag from a $200 knockoff?
Dogsitting for New York City’s Opulent Elite (The New York Times Magazine)
In a city of yawning class inequality, some side hustles let you glimpse how the other half lives.
Tabi Shoes and Try-Hards (The New York Times Magazine)
The viral tale of some stolen footwear says a lot about the tricky way nonconformity works.
Louise Glück Taught Poetry to Write Poetry (The New York Times Magazine)
A poet as generous to her students as she was pitiless to herself.
The Things They Cherished (The New York Times Magazine)
The very personal collections seven artists left behind.
The Pets They Left Behind (The New York Times Magazine)
“When Shelley died, I didn’t hear him whistling for months and months.”
What Your Therapist Doesn’t Tell You (The New York Times Magazine)
A dozen counselors on what it’s really like to sit in the other armchair.
Actors in the Wild (The New York Times Magazine)
The best performers of the year, offscreen.
Babies Enter the Chat (The New York Times Magazine)
Up close and personal with unruly new colleagues.
Clive’s Moving Castle (Rolling Stone)
He forged the music industry’s most formidable empire. At nearly 90, why can’t he retire?
Garage Rock (Rolling Stone)
A windowless room in Cupertino has been been dictating the sound of music for 15 years.
Morgan Wallen’s Inadmissible Victory (Rolling Stone)
The walking succès de scandale is a sour, familiar American lesson.
Did ‘Butter’ Butter Butter? (Rolling Stone)
A completely specious investigation into the Kpop/dairy industrial complex.
Musical Chairs (Quartz)
The simple statistical analysis that explains the history of popular music.
The Vanishing University (Quartz)
A four-part series exploring the tech-driven future of higher education in America.
Dance Dance Revolution (Quartz)
A week with 8,000 worshippers of the fantastical cult of Zumba, and also Mario Lopez.
The Future of Music Special Issue (Rolling Stone)
A special issue on
Good Riddance to Songs of the Summer (Rolling Stone)
How streaming killed an annual stalwart of pop culture.
Don’t Fear the Reaper (Quartz)
Pop music, once the domain of bubblegum joy, has fallen in love with death.
Fresh Victims (The Economist)
A peddler of pricey organic and natural foods finds it has competition.
guest appearances
ABC’s Good Morning America
Al Jazeera
BBC
CBS
MIDEM
NPR’s All Things Considered
NYT’s The Daily
SXSW