How Close Is Humanity to the Edge?
This New Yorker piece examines the possibility of humanity's extinction, and why it's worth being optimistic about the greatest threat of all.
In Her Words: Stressed
For the New York Times, a look at the ways the chronic stress of quarantine changes behavior and the body.
Read at NYT
The robot that could change the senior care industry
A robot and a team of Irish scientists walk into a nursing home. The rest is in this October 2019 Time cover story.
Read at Time
What do we look for in a 'good' robot colleague?
A growing share of us work with robots in their daily lives. There are times when we cut robots slack we wouldn't for humans—and times when they annoy us more.
Robots will probably help care for you when you're old
When cognition starts to decline with age, what's the most ethical way to integrate robots and reality?
Read at Quartz
Inside the highly experimental, loosely regulated world of for-profit body donation
Months before Reuters, I tracked the shady world of for-profit tissue donation—starting at a very unusual place.
I let Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson run my life for a week
Unpacking the secrets of the man shoving us all a little closer to greatness. See what the Rock said about this story here.
To actually have a successful marriage with two careers, rethink everything you’re doing now
Navigating a dual-career marriage can sometimes feel like a zero-sum game. Can we do better?
The highly profitable, deeply adorable, and emotionally fraught world of Instagram’s famous animals
A look at the complicated relationships between famous pets and the humans who love them.
MeToo hijacked black women’s work on race and gender equality
When the experiences of victims who are white, wealthy, and privileged are prioritized over those who are not.
Ice, ice melting
A report from Greenland, where climate change is already changing the landscape and people's lives.
Queen Elizabeth II owns all of the UK’s swans. And every year, she counts them
A mad, mad ride with the crown’s official swan census.
In Lockdown, an 86-Year-Old Blogger Finds an Audience and a New Purpose
How an elderly London widow conquered isolation and earned a global audience of fans along the way.
Quarantine Anyone? When Everyday Drinking Becomes a Problem
This piece looks at how chronic stress and isolation can shift formerly benign drinking habits in a different direction.
Welcome to the new midlife crisis
Taffy Brodesser-Akner said she wished she'd read this piece on midlife before writing Fleishman Is In Trouble, and that was the happiest I've ever been on Twitter.
Do screen time rules still apply in lockdown?
I talked to the American Academy of Pediatrics and childrens' media experts. None of them care how much your kids are on screens in lockdown.
How AI changed organ donation in the US
Paired kidney exchange is one of AI's greatest success stories—and a perfect example of its limits.
Why everyone around the world is having the same nightmare
This story explores the science of sleep paralysis—and the fascinating reasons why the same nightmarish figures appear in dreams around the globe.
Selling US-themed souvenirs used to be straightforward. Then Trump got elected
How a humble gift shop chain ended up on the frontlines of a culture war.
The psychology behind why couples always fight when assembling Ikea furniture
On a good day, we avoid blame and take the enlightened view. An Ikea day is another story.
Read at Quartz
This man used to hunt Belfast Catholics with a .357 Magnum. Here’s his story
A former paramilitary grapples with age, regret, and redemption. Part of my series When Terror Gets Old.
Everything about this ridiculous “CNN Nutrition” ad is a lie
One of two pieces dissecting an absurd—and dangerous—viral scam.
A stressed, sleep-deprived couple accidentally invented the modern alien abduction phenomenon
Their experience birthed a genre, and says a lot about why we believe what we do.
