Select Journalism
Behind the Scenes of TV’s Biggest Show: The Art, Craft, and Politics of Televised Football (New York Times Magazine, 2023)
The Long History of Jewface (The New Yorker, 2023)
The Worst Movies I’ve Ever Liked: R.I.P. The Expendables (Slate, 2023)
Leo Messi, South Florida Retiree (The New Yorker, 2023)
Talking Loud, Saying Nothing: On China’s White Paper Protests (New York Times Magazine, 2022)
The Genius of Lionel Messi Just Walking Around (The New Yorker, 2022)
The Despair of Generation “Notti Bop” (The New Yorker, 2022)
It’s Going to Be a Weird World Cup (The New Yorker, 2022)
Bob Dylan’s The Philosophy of Modern Song (Los Angeles Times, 2022)
When New York’s Squalor Goes Viral (New York Times Magazine, 2022)
Willie Nelson’s Long Encore (New York Times Magazine, 2022)
Bicycle Graveyards: Why Do So Many Bikes End Up Underwater? (The Guardian Longread, 2022)
George W. Bush’s Viral Gaffe (New York Times Magazine, 2022)
Thinking About Shackleton’s Ship As Antarctica Melts (New York Times Magazine, 2022)
The Digital Antiheroes of Scam Rap (New York Times Magazine, 2022)
The Crypto Hard Sell (New York Times Magazine, 2022)
Barack and The Boss: Epic Windbags (Slate, 2021)
The Apology Line Podcast and the Pitfalls of True Crime (Slate, 2021)
Tom Zoellner’s The National Road (New York Times, 2020)
Reaction Videos and Racial Anxiety (New York Times Magazine, 2020)
Bicycles and Black Lives Matter (New Yorker, 2020)
New York City’s Isle of the Dead (New York Times Magazine, 2020)
R.I.P. Adam Schlesinger (New Yorker, 2020)
Rudy Giuliani, Butt-Dialer (New Yorker, 2019)
The Art and Morality of Tanking (New Yorker, 2019)
Greta Thunberg vs. Donald Trump (New York Times Magazine, 2019)
Here Are Hundreds More Artists Whose Tapes Were Destroyed in the UMG Fire (New York Times Magazine, 2019)
The Day the Music Burned (New York Times Magazine, 2019)
Lionel Messi’s Viral Wonder Goals (New York Times Magazine, 2019)
On “Creative” (New York Times Magazine, 2019)
Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Twitter Homilies (Tablet, 2018)
On Bagels (Tablet, 2018)
Murphy Beds (New York Times Magazine, 2018)
R.I.P. Aretha (Tablet, 2018)
Ka, Rap-Noir Virtuoso (New York Times Magazine, 2018)
On “Everything” (New York Times Magazine, 2016)
Mister Softee’s Greatest Hit (New York Times Magazine, 2016)
R.I.P. Prince (New York Times Magazine, 2016)
The Jody Grind: The Secret History of My Name (Slate, 2016)
Lionel Richie’s “Hello”: The Schmaltz Sublime (New York Times Magazine, 2016)
Billie Holiday and Frank Sinatra at 100 (T: The New York Times Style Magazine, 2015)
On The Ashley Book of Knots (T: The New York Times Style Magazine, 2015)
Larry King, Internet Star (T: The New York Times Style Magazine, 2015)
The Apple Watch (T: The New York Times Style Magazine, 2015)
Ashley and JaQuavis Coleman, Royal Couple of Street Lit (T: The New York Times Style Magazine, 2015)
Ordos, Colossal Ghost City (T: The New York Times Style Magazine, 2015)
The Knowledge (T: The New York Times Style Magazine, 2014)
In Praise of the Humble Knot (T: The New York Times Style Magazine, 2014)
Animal Traffic (T: The New York Times Style Magazine, 2014)
Oh! You Kid!: How A Sexy Hit Song of 1909 Changed Music Forever (Slate, 2014)
In Defense of Shlock Music (New York, 2014)
Benji Hughes’s Infinite Songbook (New York, 2014)
100 Years of New York Pop (New York, 2014)
Blandings, the Anti-Downton Abbey (New York, 2014)
Taylor Swift, Platinum Underdog (New York, 2013)
Peter Ackroyd, Graphomaniac (T: The New York Times Style Magazine, 2013)
The World’s Greatest Bookshop (T: The New York Times Style Magazine, 2013)
Beyoncé: Her Highness (New Yorker, 2013)
Older Than That Now: Bob Dylan’s Tempest (New Yorker, 2012)
Donna Summer, 1948-2012 (Slate, 2012)
Farewell, Guru (Slate, 2010)
Malcolm McLaren, Huckster Extraordinaire (Slate, 2010)
In search of Eva Tanguay, the First Rock Star (Slate, 2009)
Jason Statham, B-Movie God (Slate, 2009)
Guns N’ Roses’ Kinda-Sorta Comeback (Slate, 2008)
James Brown: The Almightiest (Slate, 2006)