Since 2001, I’ve spent more time being a science communicator than being a scientist. Aside from writing books, book reviews, blurbs, scholarly articles and book chapters, I consider myself a journalist, having published articles and essays in selective national-international platforms such as The Atlantic, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Smithsonian, and The Conversation, My forthcoming book for Princeton University Press The Walden Experiments, a series of essays written in journalistic style.
For 15 years, I was regular contributor to The Hartford Courant, the state’s flagship and capitol-city daily, the oldest continuously published newspaper in the United States. For the first year, 2003, I was an essayist and member of their Board of Contributors to Place, a special Sunday section. From 2004-2008 I was a weekly columnist, and from 2004-2018 wrote bi-weekly columns. Since then, my main outlet has been the Wall Street Journal, where I wrote an average of two essay book reviews per year. I’ve also been been writing for The Conservation, where my pieces have been picked up by other outlets, notably the PBS News Hour. In 2023, my Smithsonian essay on New England’s stone walls was selected for the History News Network’s list of “Best History Writing for 2023.” In 2025, I finally published in The Atlantic with co-author Robert Gross in the special issue, “The Unfinished Revolution.”
