Thanks for stopping by. I got my start in magazine writing as an intern and then editor at Surfing Magazine (RIP). Today, I’m a bit of a hybrid journalist, straddling the line between hard boiled beat reporting and longform magazine writing. My most recent work has been for The New York Times Magazine, Yale E360, Outside Magazine, and NJ Spotlight News. My story, about a Jersey Shore falconer, was a notable mention in the 2023 edition of The Best American Science and Nature Writing. Another article, about a biologist’s fight to save the endangered Atlantic sturgeon, was included in The New York Times Great Reads, which recommends “one piece of exceptional writing from The Times” each weekday. I have also been a finalist for a New Jersey Press Association award and have been the recipient of a Pulitzer Center Connected Coastlines grant. I also wrote a book called The Drowning of Money Island, about a community left behind in the wake of a devastating hurricane. If I had to pin my writing interests to a single theme, it might be that I love to explore stories that inhabit the narrow corners where water and humans collide.

SELECTED WRITING

How Warming Ruined a Crab Fishery and Hurt an Alaskan Town

As the world warms, extended spikes in ocean temperatures are triggering the collapse of key marine populations. For the Aleut community of St. Paul, Alaska, the loss of the snow crab fishery is having a profound economic impact and raising questions about the future.

This is Non-toxic

Non-toxic is a podcast devoted to understanding the ways climate change, nature, and masculinity intersect through culture, politics, media, and everyday life. 

Avian Flu Outbreaks in Marine Mammals Mark New Era for Deadly Virus

A highly pathogenic strain of avian influenza has killed thousands of wild birds and is now infecting seals and other marine mammals. Researchers know the virus can jump from birds to mammals, but they are on alert to see if it can be transmitted from mammal to mammal.

They Outlasted the Dinosaurs. Can They Survive Us?

Sturgeon are disappearing from North American rivers where they thrived for millions of years. And the quest to save them is exposing the limits of the Endangered Species Act.

The East Coast Whale Die-Offs: Unraveling the Causes

Activists are blaming a recent spate of humpback strandings off New York and New Jersey on seismic exploration by offshore wind companies. But scientists say the deaths are not unusual and are likely due to increased ship traffic and entanglements with fishing gear.

This ancient forest in Bear Swamp West is a gem. Can it be saved?

As sea levels rise, saltwater is pushing into the swamp, threatening to turn the old-growth forest into a ghost.

The Long, Slow Drowning of the New Jersey Shore

Billions have been spent to protect the beachfront. But inch by inch, water is winning the war.

A New Road Across the Tundra

An Arctic community opens to the world.

A Death at Sea on the ‘Row of Life’

At 59 years old and with a preexisting condition, Paralympic rower Angela Madsen had plenty to worry about as the coronavirus spread across the country. So she dipped the oars of her small rowboat in the Pacific and pointed the bow toward Hawaii. She never returned.

When a Hurricane Hits the Delaware Bay

On the impact of Super Storm Sandy.