Some Links To My Work
Books
Tasty: The Art and Science of What We Eat (Scribner, 2015)
City Adrift: New Orleans Before and After Katrina (Center for Public Integrity/LSU Press, 2007; co-author with six others)
Path of Destruction: The Devastation of New Orleans and the Coming Age of Superstorms (Little, Brown & Co., 2006; co-author with Mark Schleifstein)
Tasty excerpts
Why We Love the Pain of Spicy Food – The Wall Street Journal
The First Potato Chip: A very short book excerpt – The Atlantic
Getting bitter: Tasty, The Art and Science of What We Eat traces the evolution of flavour in human cultures – National Post
The mysteries of chili heat: Why people love the pain – Salon
Tasty pieces/posts
Slate:
The Science of Mmm: How food and drink tickle the brain's pleasure centers
Secret Sauce: Umami is what makes savory foods so delicious
Why Do We Like Bitter Foods? There are receptors for bitter compounds all over your body
More work
Without These Whistleblowers, We May Never Have Known the Full Extent of the Flint Water Crisis – Smithsonian Magazine
Technology companies are racing to track patients’ behavior in real time – Statnews.com
Patient mix-ups happen more often than you think. Why the easy fix isn’t easy at all – Stat
Hurricanes and Climate Change – Nova
Is Genetically Engineered Food the Food of the Future? - EatingWell
The Secrets Behind Your Flowers - Smithsonian Magazine
Panel Chief on the Gulf Spill: Complacency Led to Disaster - Interview with William Reilly, co-chair of presidential oil spill commission, Yale Environment 360
The Green Cross - Do we need one to respond to environmental disasters? Conservation Magazine
Legacy of the Gulf Spill: What to Expect for the Future? - Yale Environment 360
Anatomy of the BP Oil Spill: An Accident Waiting to Happen - Yale Environment 360
In Search of New Waters, Fish Farming Moves Offshore - Yale Environment 360
Will Obama's Choice Change Education in America? - Profile of Arne Duncan, the Secretary of Education, in Ed., Harvard Graduate School of Education Magazine
The Netroots: Bloggers and the 2008 Presidential Campaign - Nieman Reports
Mountaintop Mining Legacy: Destroying Appalachian Streams - Yale Environment 360. The science tells us that ecological damage from mountaintop coal mining means Obama's compromise approach won't make much difference.
The Razing of Appalachia: Mountaintop Removal Revisited: Yale Environment 360. On the Obama administration's new strategy for easing the impacts of MTR.
Mining the Mountain - Smithsonian Magazine. On mountaintop removal coal mining.
The Demise of the Washington News Bureau - The American Prospect
Prediction Markets Are Hot, But Here's Why They Can Be So Wrong - Wired
How to Help Burma - The Guardian online. When a cyclone hits a xenophobic police state, what can the world do?
Storm Warning – Mother Jones series on the troubled future of New Orleans
Can’t-Do Nation: Is America Losing Its Knack for Getting Big Things Done? - Washington Post Outlook. What Iraq and Katrina and a host of other things have in common
Is Global Warming Causing Bigger Hurricanes? - Slate.com
My Forbes blog (currently focused on media/politics, with some food and taste posts)
My True/Slant blog
My posts on the Guardian online
My Huffington Post blog
Hurricane Katrina
10th anniversary piece: America Is Forgetting the Lessons It Never Learned From Hurricane Katrina
2002 series Washing Away: How South Louisiana is Becoming More Vulnerable to a Catastrophic Hurricane
2005 post-Katrina series on Dutch flood control (scroll to bottom to find “Beating Back the Sea”)
2006 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for Katrina coverage (my stories investigating levee breaks submitted as part of overall TP entry)
Times-Picayune series
1997 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service - “Oceans of Trouble: Are the World Fisheries Doomed?”
1999 Pulitzer finalist for national reporting - Home Wreckers: How the Formosan Termite is Devastating New Orleans
2000 series Unwelcome Neighbors: How the Poor Bear the Burdens of America’s Pollution
2003 series Fatal Mission on how military outsourcing led to plane crashes/deaths/hostage-takings in Colombia
Book reviews
Storm World: Hurricanes, Politics, and the Battle Over Global Warming, by Chris Mooney
Edge of Disaster: Rebuilding a Resilient Nation, by Stephen Flynn
Media
Some thoughts on what's next for investigative journalism, ca. 2006. (It has sort-of come true.)
Tasty: The Art and Science of What We Eat (Scribner, 2015)
City Adrift: New Orleans Before and After Katrina (Center for Public Integrity/LSU Press, 2007; co-author with six others)
Path of Destruction: The Devastation of New Orleans and the Coming Age of Superstorms (Little, Brown & Co., 2006; co-author with Mark Schleifstein)
Tasty excerpts
Why We Love the Pain of Spicy Food – The Wall Street Journal
The First Potato Chip: A very short book excerpt – The Atlantic
Getting bitter: Tasty, The Art and Science of What We Eat traces the evolution of flavour in human cultures – National Post
The mysteries of chili heat: Why people love the pain – Salon
Tasty pieces/posts
Slate:
The Science of Mmm: How food and drink tickle the brain's pleasure centers
Secret Sauce: Umami is what makes savory foods so delicious
Why Do We Like Bitter Foods? There are receptors for bitter compounds all over your body
More work
Without These Whistleblowers, We May Never Have Known the Full Extent of the Flint Water Crisis – Smithsonian Magazine
Technology companies are racing to track patients’ behavior in real time – Statnews.com
Patient mix-ups happen more often than you think. Why the easy fix isn’t easy at all – Stat
Hurricanes and Climate Change – Nova
Is Genetically Engineered Food the Food of the Future? - EatingWell
The Secrets Behind Your Flowers - Smithsonian Magazine
Panel Chief on the Gulf Spill: Complacency Led to Disaster - Interview with William Reilly, co-chair of presidential oil spill commission, Yale Environment 360
The Green Cross - Do we need one to respond to environmental disasters? Conservation Magazine
Legacy of the Gulf Spill: What to Expect for the Future? - Yale Environment 360
Anatomy of the BP Oil Spill: An Accident Waiting to Happen - Yale Environment 360
In Search of New Waters, Fish Farming Moves Offshore - Yale Environment 360
Will Obama's Choice Change Education in America? - Profile of Arne Duncan, the Secretary of Education, in Ed., Harvard Graduate School of Education Magazine
The Netroots: Bloggers and the 2008 Presidential Campaign - Nieman Reports
Mountaintop Mining Legacy: Destroying Appalachian Streams - Yale Environment 360. The science tells us that ecological damage from mountaintop coal mining means Obama's compromise approach won't make much difference.
The Razing of Appalachia: Mountaintop Removal Revisited: Yale Environment 360. On the Obama administration's new strategy for easing the impacts of MTR.
Mining the Mountain - Smithsonian Magazine. On mountaintop removal coal mining.
The Demise of the Washington News Bureau - The American Prospect
Prediction Markets Are Hot, But Here's Why They Can Be So Wrong - Wired
How to Help Burma - The Guardian online. When a cyclone hits a xenophobic police state, what can the world do?
Storm Warning – Mother Jones series on the troubled future of New Orleans
Can’t-Do Nation: Is America Losing Its Knack for Getting Big Things Done? - Washington Post Outlook. What Iraq and Katrina and a host of other things have in common
Is Global Warming Causing Bigger Hurricanes? - Slate.com
My Forbes blog (currently focused on media/politics, with some food and taste posts)
My True/Slant blog
My posts on the Guardian online
My Huffington Post blog
Hurricane Katrina
10th anniversary piece: America Is Forgetting the Lessons It Never Learned From Hurricane Katrina
2002 series Washing Away: How South Louisiana is Becoming More Vulnerable to a Catastrophic Hurricane
2005 post-Katrina series on Dutch flood control (scroll to bottom to find “Beating Back the Sea”)
2006 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for Katrina coverage (my stories investigating levee breaks submitted as part of overall TP entry)
Times-Picayune series
1997 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service - “Oceans of Trouble: Are the World Fisheries Doomed?”
1999 Pulitzer finalist for national reporting - Home Wreckers: How the Formosan Termite is Devastating New Orleans
2000 series Unwelcome Neighbors: How the Poor Bear the Burdens of America’s Pollution
2003 series Fatal Mission on how military outsourcing led to plane crashes/deaths/hostage-takings in Colombia
Book reviews
Storm World: Hurricanes, Politics, and the Battle Over Global Warming, by Chris Mooney
Edge of Disaster: Rebuilding a Resilient Nation, by Stephen Flynn
Media
Some thoughts on what's next for investigative journalism, ca. 2006. (It has sort-of come true.)
