Other Writing
This is a selection of my writing from various publications, periods and (often obscure) topics:
What Does Your Credit-Card Company Know About You?»
The New York Times
“Listen,” the man said.
“I called her about this debt, and a guy picked up — a guy I’ve never heard before — and when I asked for her, he hung up on me. Can you believe that? We used that money to renovate the kitchen! And now she won’t even talk to me! Who the hell was that guy who answered the phone?”
“Look,” Santana said. “I know you’re angry at your wife. One step to ending that anger is putting this debt behind you. It will really help you find peace. You owe about $29,000. How much do you think you can pay?”
Smoking ’em out»
The Los Angeles Times
HARLEY BATES is steaming. He pushes past the off-duty cop standing in front of his ranch and charges the reporter and photographer.
“Get the hell off my land!” he says.
“Sir, I’m a reporter … ”
“You’re scaring people taking their pictures as they drive in!”
Fortune 500, Meet Daytona 500»
Slate
So an economics professor goes to the Daytona 500 … It sounds like the beginning of a bad joke. But for game theorists, stock car racing is emerging as an unlikely laboratory for understanding the world.
The Insurgency in Iraq – A Tutorial in Four Ordnance-Filled Lessons»
The Believer Magazine
LESSON ONE: THE GOAL OF INSURGENCY IS NOT DEATH, BUT DOUBT
The night before my GMC was bombed by Iraqi insurgents, I’d spent hours in front of a U.S.-controlled base in Baghdad.
From Midwest to M.T.A., Pain From Global Gamble»
The New York Times
“People come up to me in the grocery store and say, ‘How did we get suckered into this?’ ”
The series “Golden Opportunities”»
The New York Times
A series examining how businesses and investors seek to profit from the soaring number of older Americans, in ways helpful and harmful. Winner of the George Polk Award, the Sidney Hillman Award, a Deadline Award, and a Heywood Broun Award.
The series “Toxic Waters”»
The New York Times
A series exploring the worsening pollution in American waters and regulators’ response. Winner of the Scripps Howard National Journalism Award, the Investigative Reporters and Editors’ Medal, the National Academies’ reporting award, the investigative reporting award from the Society of Environmental Journalists, the 2009 Science in Society Journalism Award, as well as recognition from the Society of Professional Journalists, the Deadline Awards, the Society of American Business Editors and Writers, the Loeb Awards, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the John B. Oakes Awards at Columbia University.
