Selected Work

Reproductive Revolution

For years, science has made it possible to start families later in life. Now, more advanced methods to extend fertility may be on the way.

Originally published January 1, 2024 in National Geographic

Two weeks before her 48th birthday, Eboni Camille Chillis lay in a hospital bed, ready to give birth to her first child. As she nervously waited for the doctors to begin a cesarean section, she put on a playlist she had made for the occasion.

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Computer says not OK

What Thom Yorke did when Radiohead weren’t making music

Originally published August 5, 2022 in Times Literary Supplement

NO BAND CAPTURED the uneasy feeling of the final years of the millennium more faithfully than Radiohead. As the band’s frontman, Thom Yorke, recently put it: “I don’t know why we thought it was the last days on earth, but I guess we did.

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What Should America Do with Its Nuclear Waste?

Currently there are about 80 locations in 35 states where spent fuel is being stored, with no long-term plans for disposal.

Originally published April 11, 2022 in Washington Post Magazine

A little more than a decade ago, Marni Magda was reading Scientific American magazine in her living room when she came across an infographic titled “Aging Fleet under Review.

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What Masks Signify

Decades ago, the sociologist Erving Goffman had the answer

Originally published October 2, 2021 in The American Scholar

In the spring of 2020, when masks abruptly became a common sight in the United States, they introduced a new element into our social relations. They hampered our ability to communicate, muffling our voices and hiding our smiles.

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