Bumpy Ride: Why America’s Roads are in Tatters
Co-published with Harper's. If the roads are failing, it means government is failing.
If We Don’t Focus On Why People Overeat, We Will Never Solve Obesity
Co-published with the Guardian. Emotional, physical or sexual abuse can lie at root of weight problems in later life and, unless targeted, taxes on food types will be cruel to those who self-medicate
My Small Town is Being Poisoned by Fracking Waste
Co-published with The Guardian. In a tiny south-eastern Ohio town in the Appalachian foothills, the Hazel Ginsburg Well is holding waste from out-of-state fracking operations – a sludge of toxic chemicals and undrinkable water.
Does This Avocado Toast Come With A Side of Gentrification?
Co-published with WNYC Studios. Businesses like Avocaderia are creating jobs in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. But at what cost?
America’s Local Newspapers Might be Broke – But They’re More Vital than Ever
Co-published with The Guardian. Local journalism is doing great work across the country while fighting cutbacks and tight budgets. But we need people to stop expecting news to be free.
Smoked Out
Co-published with The Baffler. The great enclosure of the marijuana commons.
Our New TV Antiheroes Don’t Want to Fall Out of the Middle Class
Co-published with The Guardian. Shows like Ozark, Billions and Empire are a new kind of aspirational television, about a 1% that lives with impunity.
The Socialist Experiment
Co-published with Oxford American, republished in The Clarion-Ledger. A new-society vision in Jackson, Mississippi
Oklahoma Isn’t Working. Can Anyone Fix this Failing American State?
Co-published with The Guardian. Poverty, police abuse, record prison rates and education cuts that mean a four-day school week. Why are public services failing Oklahomans?
Why Social Capital Could Be the Key to Solving America’s Overdose Epidemic
Co-published with The Guardian. Researchers are exploring how community, connection and trust could help protect society’s most vulnerable.
Automation Is a Real Threat. How Can We Slow Down the March of the Cyborgs?
Co-published with The Guardian. Instead of working to give robots personhood status, we should concentrate on protecting human workers – and decelerate the push to automate jobs.
Payday Lenders Kept Me Afloat When I Fell From Middle Class to Poverty
Co-published with Quartz. My odyssey from the middle class to Ace Check Cashing, speaking with a teller through a window of three-inch-thick bulletproof-glass, was simultaneously surreal and jarring.