Essays & Stories
Fear of an Invisible Threat
The coronavirus and the mystery of an unseen enemy.
The New Republic, March 2020
The Enthralling Brutality of Elizabeth Warren
Politico Magazine, March 2020
Tulsi Gabbard Had a Very Strange Childhood
Which may explain her longshot bid for the presidency.
New York Magazine, June 2019
The Fall of USA Gymnastics
A predator and his sport.
New York Magazine, November 2018
National Magazine Award Nominee for Feature Writing
Sidney Award
Who Is Reality Winner?
New York Magazine, December 2017
Hunting Rebecca Francis
New York Magazine, July 2015
Serena Williams Still Has Tennis History to Make
New York Magazine, August 2015
Manny Pacquiao Is Fighting a Lot More Than Floyd Mayweather
New York Magazine, April 2015
The Cage of You
Granta, summer 2015
Ecce Homo Harper’s, September 2014
Hope Against Schope
Bookforum, February/March 2013
Fifty Shades of Beige
How E.L. James created an unlikely cottage industry in sanitized s/m
Bookforum, September/October/November 2012
And a Little Child Shall Lead Them
Making sense of Colton Burpo’s heavenly vision
Bookforum, April/May 2012
Vox Gravitatis
A Review of Elena Passarello’s Let Me Clear My Throat
Gulf Coast, Summer/Fall 2013
Cold Water in Texas
Fightland, March 2013
Pretty Citadel
The Paris Review, No. 198, Fall 2011
Cult Hero
How Dwight Macdonald became a Macdonaldist
Bookforum, Fall 2011
Borne Ceaselessly Into the Future
The Wall Street Journal, July 2011
The Road to the White House is Paved with Pizza
The New York Times Magazine, March 2011
Until Death Do Us Part
The New York Times Magazine, July 2010
Liberation Impasse
Taking Ambivalent Measure of the Legacy of Modern Feminism
Bookforum, Summer 2010
“Are You the Bitch Everyone Says You Are?”
How Kathleen Parker became America’s most-read woman columnist.
The American Prospect, November 2009
Welcome Guest Workers
Ideas: Fixing the world.
The Atlantic, July/August 2009
Does Mike Huckabee Have a Prayer?
Politics, January 2008
Guests in the Machine
Reason, January 2008
Who Owns Your Body?
Reason, March 2007
Ova for Sale
The art of the deal in the gray market for human eggs
Reason, October 2006