Bio
I’VE BEEN WORKING AS A JOURNALIST SINCE 1987. My stories are narrative, and frequently they aim to tell larger cultural tales—about global warming, say, and the weird rise of the Tea Party—as they zero in on specific true-life characters. For publications ranging from The Atlantic and The New Yorker to Wired, Runner’s World, and The Washington Post Magazine, I’ve been lucky enough to go on reporting adventures all over the world.
Over the years, I have kayaked through the concrete drainage ditch that is the Los Angeles River; ridden all-terrain-vehicles with hardened criminals through the stripmined hills of West Virginia; searched for fallen meteorites in the Sahara Desert; biked the streets of Shanghai; snuck into Manuel Noriega’s abandoned beach house in Panama; and swum along the coast of California with the world’s premier cold water distance swimmer.
Two of my stories have been nominated for a National Magazine Award. My work has also been reprinted in Best American Sports Writing, Best American Travel Writing, and many other anthologies.