Articles
“On Dams and Failure,” Terrain, forthcoming
“Applejacking,” Tin House, July 2019
“Organic Machines,” Urban Omnibus, June 2019
“Among the Gerrymandered,” Pacific Standard, November 2018
“A More Perfect Union,” Pacific Standard, March/April 2018
“Revising the Bible,” Pacific Standard, May 2017
“The Power of Education,” Orion, January-February 2016
“Kurt Vonnegut’s Okie Eden,” This Land, Spring 2016
“How Jane Vonnegut Invented Kurt Vonnegut,” The New Yorker, December 2015
“Vonnegut on the Road,” Tin House, September 2015
“Empowered,” Orion, May/June, 2015
“Company Town,” Tin House, Fall, 2013 (Best American Essays notable essay, 2013)
“Hitchhiking’s Time has Come Again,” The New York Times, November 10, 2012
“Troubled Waters,” 3-part series, This Land, September/October 2012
“American Isolato,” The Believer, May, 2012
“Speed Freaks: Seeking the Car of the Future,” Orion, September/October 2011
“The Economics of Estuary,” Orion September/October 2010
(Best American Science and Nature Writing notable essay, 2010)
“In Search of the Wild Cohiba,” The Believer, October 2009
(Best American Travel Writing notable essay, 2010)
“Beautiful Ruination,” Orion, September/October 2009
“The Poetry of Power,” Orion, May/June 2009
“The Crying Indian,” Orion, November-December 2008 (Pushcart Prize)
“A Swamp Forest Grows in Brooklyn,” Orion, March-April 2008
“Keyword: Evil,” Harpers, March 2008
“Selling Sex in Honeymoon Heaven,” The Believer, January 2008
“What’s the Use of Pets?” Orion, September/October, 2007
“Faux Falls,” Orion, November, 2006
“The Ecology of Empire,” The Believer, February 2006
“The Age of Aquariums,” Harper’s, August 2005