This month’s cover of Audubon magazine features a cover story I wrote about the increasing prevalence of huge, uncontrollable fires around the world — the unintended consequence of bad management, raging human growth, and climate change. Read more here…
A guide to this site:
Please click on Books to learn about the two books I've authored, as well as four anthologies or photography books with chapters I wrote.
My first book, Powder Burn: Arson, Money and Mystery on Vail Mountain, is an account of the $12 million arson at Vail ski resort, which the Earth Liberation Front claimed "in the name of the lynx."
Monkey Dancing: A Father, Two Kids, and a Journey to the Ends of the Earth chronicles a five-month, around-the-world journey with my two children after their mother moved away and my older brother died of breast cancer.
The Last Polar Bear: Facing the Truth of a Warming World is a sweeping Arctic photographic journey by photographer Steven Kazlowski. I wrote the chapter about climate change science.
I Wanna Be Sedated: 30 Writers on Parenting Teenagers, includes essays by Anna Quindlen, Dave Barry, Barbara Kingsolver and Louise Erdrich, as well as one by yours truly, entitled "I Definitely Inhaled." Yes, you do know what it's about.
Wild Moments: Adventures with Animals of the North allowed me to pen one of my favorite first lines: "I'd been in carnivore country before...."
Far From Home: Father-Daughter Travel Adventures, includes an essay about the power of adventure to forge new relationships — this time with my nine-year-old daughter in Borneo.
The Magazine Articles section starts things off with my Top Ten Best Assignments.
My Favorite Stories includes a piece about an ultramarathoning sex cult, "The Mystery of the Masterpiece" about a portrait by Leonardo DaVinci, a piece for Harpers about the consequences of using National Guard and Reserve soldiers on extended deployments, and a National Geographic cover story on how climate change is altering global natural systems.
Environmental Journalism: Aldo Leopold wrote that "there are two things that interest me: the relationship of people to each other and the relationship of people to land." I share Leopold's fascination with how people relate to the natural world. These articles reflect efforts to explore those relationships. Includes a piece set in northern Pakistan -- where I met Three Cups of Tea author Greg Mortenson.
Other Topics is a collection of stories ranging from the first soldier to be charged with cowardice since Vietnam to the helicopter skiing exploits of legendary big wave surfer Laird Hamilton.
Stories Killed by Editors Sometimes stories crash and burn: an editor leaves a magazine, news events overtake a story; magazines fold. Here I resurrect a few, including a piece recounting my 10-day odyssey around the U.S. with the Dalai Lama, where I was the only journalist following His Holiness.
There are a few more drop-downs for my Op-Ed pieces, and samples of my work from 13 years at Newsweek.
The Multimedia section links to several far-flung videos produced by The Story Group in Ethiopia and southern Sudan, and a baseball story I did for NPR's Morning Edition about the difference between East Coast baseball fans and West Coast baseball fans. And more.
Lastly, the Teaching section offers information about journalism training and magazine writing seminars, and the Public Speaking page has a link to contact me for events.
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