For 16 years, I've wirtten articles for The Atlantic, The Economist, New York Magazine, The Washington Post, Reader's Digest, Popular Science, and other publications. Here are some of my favorites.
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The Dark Reality of Betting Against Qanon
The conspiracy theory has been tied to real-life danger—but before it entered the mainstream, one man stumbled upon Q in a game of political predictions.
Sexual Attraction Is the Oldest Story on Earth
It’s pretty hard to catch single-celled organisms in the middle of sex.
“If you were a Martian looking down on Earth and asking if humans were sexual or not, if you couldn’t look through the windows, you’d never see humans having sex," John Logsdon, an early-eukaryotic-sex expert at the University of Iowa, told me. "Well, rarely.”
Does Medicine Actually Make People Live Longer?
When I was a kid, adults told me that medicine would be so advanced by the time I grew up, I’d live to be 150.
It seems possible. Alas, not for me, personally, but as a concept. After all, modern medicine has surely been extending the human lifespan for hundreds of years … hasn’t it?
The Hoax That Tricked Millions Into Thinking About The Environment
In 2017, a scam fooled millions of journalists, store owners, investors and ordinary people around the world. But the scammers weren’t after money ― and they were just as surprised as anyone that people believed them.
My Life With a Sleep Disorder That Makes Me Nocturnal
I once interviewed author Michael Lewis on the challenges of being a night owl. “Morning people ignore the bigotry at the heart of our culture,” Lewis told me. “It’s like a conspiracy of farmers. I’m handicapped by what farmers used to do.”
Would a Work-Free World Be So Bad?
Fears of civilization-wide idleness are based too much on the downsides of being unemployed in a society premised on the concept of employment.
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