factory farming, animals, & animal rights
​
The bitter civil war dividing American veterinarians • To fight the cruel meat industry, veterinarians have to fight their own profession. Vox, January 2023
​
The fight against factory farming is winning criminal trials • Why it's such a big deal that juries are siding with activists who rescue animals from factory farms. Vox, March 2023
​
Eggs are expensive for all the wrong reasons • Eggs should not be cheap. Vox, February 2023
​
Activists Acquitted in Trial for Taking Piglets from Smithfield Foods • Covering this historic trial of two activists who rescued piglets from a Smithfield Foods factory farm, and its incredible surprise outcome, was one of the most memorable experiences of my life. The Intercept, October 2022
​
Amid Bird Flu Outbreak, Meat Producers Seek ”Ventilation Shutdown” for Mass Chicken Killing • How gruesome, industry-funded experiments at a public university laid the foundation for a method now being used to mass exterminate farmed birds by heating them to death. The Intercept, April 2022
​
Cory Booker has a plan to stop taxpayer bailouts of Big Meat • A Vox exclusive by me and Kenny Torrella on a sweeping new meat industry reform package from Sen. Cory Booker. Vox, November 2022
​
An animal rights activist was in court on criminal charges. Why was the case suddenly dismissed? • The story of an activist who faced eight years in prison for one of the most important factory farm investigations in recent history, The Guardian. January 2022
​
U.S. farms lobby to use ”cruelest” kill method as bird flu rages • The meat industry wants to make it easier to use the worst mass cull methods. The Guardian, November 2022
​
U.S. Supreme Court to hear case on California's ban on extreme confinement crates • How the Supreme Court could put climate, public health, and animal welfare regulations across the country on the chopping block. The Guardian, October 2022
​
Utah Bill Seeks to Restrict Regulation of Animal Industries • In which Utah legislators tried to restrict cities from regulating “animal enterprises” like factory farms & puppy mills, and lied to their constituents about it. The Intercept, March 2022
​
Millions of birds culled in ”the most inhumane way available” • How cooking animals to death became meat industry standard. The Guardian, June 2022
​
Will New York City’s foie gras ban make a difference? • NYC is set to ban foie gras, a food that's been called ”the Abu Ghraib of poultry dishes.” Is it really any worse than factory farmed meat? Grid (RIP), June 2022
​
”They're cooking them alive”: calls to ban cruel killing methods on US farms • On some of the methods used to mass kill farm animals (including, yes, cooking them to death). The Guardian, March 2022
​
Why the anti-Factory Farming Movement Needs Direct Action • Direct action is often maligned by people who don’t know anything about it, but it’s actually one of the credible sources there is on factory farming. Current Affairs, March 2022
​
How U.S. dietary guidelines ignore the climate crisis • On the push to include sustainability in the U.S. dietary guidelines — which are more influential than you might think. The Guardian, August 2022
​
”Forget They Are an Animal” • What an obscure 1970s-era pork industry journal can tell us about animal agriculture. Current Affairs, August 2022
​
Five things to know about the SCOTUS challenge to California’s ban on extreme farm animal confinement • On the U.S. Supreme Court’s surprising decision to take up the pork industry’s lawsuit against the country’s strongest farm animal protection law. The Counter, March 2022
​
What this Mother Jones story got wrong on primate testing • A little commentary on why media gets primate experimentation so wrong. Sentient Media, August 2022
​
For These Wisconsin Farms, Animals Are Off the Table • A story on the rural Wisconsinites providing refuge to animals saved from slaughter. In These Times, December 2021
​
The Case Against the Concept of Invasive Species • And why some scientists and environmental philosophers are rethinking it. Vox, November 2021
​
Animal Liberation Needs Animal Voices • A review of a new book on the political agency of animals. Tenderly, December 2019
​
What Vegans With PCOS Actually Need to Know • On the extremely common but little understood hormonal disorder PCOS, and how to be vegan when you have it. Tenderly, February 2020
​
On Jonathan Safran Foer's We Are the Weather and how factory farming has remade life on Earth. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, November 2019
​
On Jean-Baptiste Del Amo's Animalia and encountering factory farming in literature. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 2020
​
On the extraordinary intelligence of crows. Harvard Magazine, August 2019
​
On the joy of baby turkey season in Cambridge. Harvard Magazine, June 2019
​
(car) culture
​
A Graceful Place Where Bhangra and Bollywood Meet • On the magnificent dancer Manpreet Toor and how the internet is transforming Punjabi diaspora dance. The New York Times, June 2021
​
America’s car crash epidemic • Cars are killing us, and it's gotten even worse during the pandemic. Vox, September 2021
​
The Spiritual Bankruptcy of Bottled Water • A comic reported by me and illustrated by Christine Mi on how bottled water redefined our relationship with a natural resource. Vox, July 2021
​
The Year of the Wedding After-Party • On the art of planning a belated reception when you got married in the pandemic age. The New York Times, March 2021
​
As the World Burns, Americans Buy Bigger Cars • On the rise of SUVs. Vox, March 2020
​
Curator of American Culture • A profile of the delightful Radhika Jones, Vanity Fair editor-in-chief. Harvard Magazine, March-April 2021
​
As Russian Jews, We Are Characters in Someone Else’s Story • An essay about secrecy, class, and the Soviet Jewish experience. The Forward, July 2019
​
On the unfortunate Netflix series Friends from College. Harvard Magazine, July 2017
​
ideas & history
​
In the age of social media blasts, what’s the point of letters to the editor? • On what happens when we allow a beloved old form to be swallowed up by the social media firehose. Poynter, May 2022
​
From Lewis and Clark to Michael Brown • A profile of Walter Johnson and his radical history of my home city, St. Louis. Harvard Magazine, May-June 2020
​
History from Below • A profile of Vince Brown, a historian who will change the way you think about war, slavery, and anti-Black militarism. Harvard Magazine, March-April 2020
​
The Trilemma • A profile of economist Dani Rodrik and his field’s reckoning with free-market orthodoxy. Harvard Magazine, July-August 2019
​
Sex and Due Process on Campus • An essay on Title IX sexual assault guidelines, radical feminism, and due process. Current Affairs, January 2018
​
A Language Out of Nothing • A profile of linguist Kate Davidson and some of the questions that preoccupy people in her field. Harvard Magazine, May-June 2017
​
The Purpose of Harvard Law School • An essay on the clash between Harvard Law School’s public service ethos and its corporate law reality. Harvard Magazine, August 2016
​
On the Harvard map collection and the uses of maps. Harvard Magazine, August 2018.
​
books
​
On Martin Puchner’s The Language of Thieves, in which a German-American scholar discovers that his grandfather was a Nazi. Harvard Magazine, November-December 2020
​
On the myth of the egalitarian kibbutz, a new book about kibbutzim, and the kinds of arguments economists make. The Forward, April 2018
​
On The Story of Hebrew and the kinds of arguments linguists make. The Forward, August 2017
​
On Dara Horn’s Eternal Life and what’s wrong with Jewish-American literature. Harvard Magazine, January-February 2018
​
On Susan Ware's Why They Marched, a new history of the women's suffrage movement. Harvard Magazine, May-June 2019
​
On the work of Bengali-British novelist Tahmima Anam. Harvard Magazine, July-August 2017
​
politics, etc.
​
The Watchdog • A profile of Bharat Ramamurti, the guy in charge of overseeing $500 billion in CARES Act stimulus money and a former adviser to Elizabeth Warren. Harvard Magazine, September-October 2020
​
ProMedica has a medical, moral duty to keep city's only abortion clinic open • This is a throwback — an August 2015 column in the Toledo Blade urging Ohio hospital system ProMedica to prevent Toledo's last abortion provider from shutting down. A few years later, the pro-choice advocates won!
​
​