I went to a prepper convention and learned about eating after the apocalypse for Lucky Peach.
I once dropped a wedding cake, and other confessions on the eve of my own wedding. An essay for Elle.
We try to use photographs to tell each other stories, but the mind sees, always, whatever it wants. A feature on Sally Mann for The New Republic.
Why are Americans eating high-energy foods that make them fat? Blame the military. A review for The New Republic.
It's the 100th anniversary of the creation of the Singapore Sling. Is that a good thing? A dispatch for Roads & Kingdoms' Five O'Clock Somewhere series.
The 19th century explorer Isabella Bird suffered from a strangely literal homesickness. For The Appendix.
Why we can't stop writing about what we can't remember: the literature of forgetting for The New Republic.
In Catalonia, booming local microbrews are just another way for people to express their independence. An article for Roads and Kingdoms.
Johnny Shockley thinks he’s found a way to clean up the Bay and preserve a way of life—while turning a profit. A piece for Washingtonian magazine.
The last time tools were built for small-scale farmers was the 19th century. For The Magazine, how engineer-farmers are taking things into their own hands.
Thirty miles from Spaceport America, a modern-day homesteader is peeing into a litter box and using the runoff to water her plants. A review for the LA Review of Books.
A profile of the New York City Ballet's choreographer for the Summer issue of Kinfolk.
Will Lisbon's city-wide sardine celebration be brought low by climate change? A dispatch for Roads & Kingdoms.
A look at the world's oldest zoo, from its royal beginnings through the dark days of Nazism to its ultra-modern present.
If a city’s strength is in its infinite variety, a village’s strength is in its routines. A dispatch for Roads & Kingdoms' Five O'Clock Somewhere series.
A new wave of farmers are bringing terroir to the salt world. For the winter 2014 issue of Modern Farmer.
M.F.K. Fisher’s The Gastronomical Me, 70 years later. A review for Slate.
Are handcrafted knives worth the hefty price? A piece for The Magazine.
Travel the world, but work on New York time. This is what I learned about circadian rhythms by unravelling my own. An essay for Aeon Magazine.
A non-fiction chronicle for the New York Times from Mark Weiner's Return of the Clan to Daniel Brook's A History of Future Cities.
A look at the legacy of Madeleine L'Engle, author of A Wrinkle in Time, focusing on the 2012 biography Searching for Madeleine, by Leonard S. Marcus.
A review of Bill Streever's Heat: Adventures in the World's Fiery Places.
We know meat is bad for us and the environment, but we can't stop eating it. Why are we addicted? A review for The New Republic.
The original southern peanut was thought to be extinct, but one farmer is bringing it back. A feature for Modern Farmer.
Thanks to his debut cookbook, “Heritage,” Sean Brock's signature dishes can now be had in kitchens from Charleston to Chennai. An interview for Modern Farmer.
At Mount Vernon, Lisa Pregent is bringing back animals George Washington himself would recognize. A profile for Washingtonian.
Why is pop culture so obsessed with the Middle Ages? A review for The New Republic.
Can a crop of startups convince people to invite strangers over for dinner to make a buck? A look at dining in the sharing economy.
If contemplating the Pilgrim worldview without the lens of our own time is a challenge, making it flesh is a Herculean task. A piece for The Magazine.
Ernest Hemingway wrote that Lewis had a frog-like face and the eyes of an “unsuccessful rapist.” A review of 1922 for The New Republic.
The story of 20-year-old Sylvia Plath’s “real whirl” in 1953 Manhattan: a review of Elizabeth Winder's Pain, Party, Work for the Slate Book Review.
The Global Farms Race and the quest for food security.
Janet Malcolm's prickly career, from her first anthology in a decade to the libel suit that grabbed headlines.