2023
On Dan Ariely, Francesca Gino, and fraud in the behavioral sciences (New Yorker); on Michael Lewis’s SBF book (New Yorker); a dispatch from the SBF trial (New Yorker); on states and corporations as runaway machines (New Yorker); on dying patients who want experimental drugs (New Yorker); on olive oil in coffee (New Yorker); on surveillance in the trucking industry (New Yorker)
2022
On Francesco Costa and Italian politics (New Yorker); on Will MacAskill and effective altruism (New Yorker); on Sam Bankman-Fried and EA complicity (New Yorker); on Jonathan Haidt and the harms of social media (New Yorker); on a Chinese professor accused of being a spy (New Yorker); on an account of a Hasidic enclave (New Yorker).
2021
On the politics of behavior genetics (New Yorker); on the UFO renaissance (New Yorker), with an accompanying podcast (New Yorker Radio Hour) and a CNN appearance. On remembering Janet Malcolm (New Yorker). A follow-up about the UAP report (New Yorker), and an appearance on Chris Hayes’s podcast.
2020
On Ezra Klein, Rene Girard, and polarization (Wired); on one entrepreneur’s at-home Covid test (New Yorker); on Slate Star Codex and the New York Times (New Yorker); on the pandemic and ‘social trust’ (Wired).
2019
On Michael Apted on the occasion of “63 Up” (New York Times Magazine); on the controversial rise of the study of ancient DNA (New York Times Magazine); on the rise of WeWork (New York Times Magazine).
2018
On Tezos, a blockchain love/horror story (Wired); on a married couple separated by the travel ban (New York Times Magazine); on the stakes of privacy (New York Times Magazine); on a walk-in storefront private-jet dealership (New York Times Magazine).
2017
On a Trump-inspired little magazine (The Nation); interview with Joshua Cohen (Vice); on the downballot effects of the new distributed political energy (New York Times Magazine); selection for Best American Travel Writing 2017 anthology.
2016
On machine learning, artificial intelligence, and Google Brain (New York Times Magazine); on municipal broadband for public housing (Wired); on Rashad Robinson and Color of Change (Wired); on Baku (Virginia Quarterly Review); on the essays of Mark Greif (Bookforum); on travel and documentation (New York Times Magazine); on Hillary Clinton, the War of Ideas, and the 99 Percent: The Roosevelt Institute (New York Times Magazine); on Peter Thiel and Donald Trump (New York Times Magazine online); on the controversy over the work of Alice Goffman (New York Times Magazine); on a Japanese robot hotel (Wired); an interview with Tony Tulathimutte (LitHub); on the venture capital bubble (New York Times Magazine); "Germany" in The Wurst of Lucky Peach.
2015
On a Kickstarter fiasco (New York Times Magazine); on machine translation (New York Times Magazine); on a libertarian micronation (New York Times Magazine); on grand jury service [PDF] (Harper’s); on Politico in Europe (The Guardian); on the Tour de Mont Blanc (T Magazine); on Colm Tóibín [PDF] (New York Review of Books); on Paulo Nazareth (Frieze); interview with Joshua Cohen (The New Republic); on Tom McCarthy (Bookforum).
2014
On Christopher Nolan (New York Times Magazine); on Japanese hole-digging [PDF] (Harper’s); ‘No Exit,’ on entrepreneurial struggle (Wired); ‘No Exit,’ an extended version (Kindle Single); on Janet Malcom's collages (New York Review of Books Blog); on Teju Cole [PDF] (New York Review of Books); on autocorrect (Wired); on Georgian wedding toasts (Lucky Peach); on a DIY Orient Express (New York Times Travel); on Elena Ferrante (T Magazine); on a volcanic residency (T Magazine); recommending Olga Grjasnowa (Times Literary Supplement); Über das Übersetztwerden (Die Zeit, in German); on Japan's Three Scenic Views (Outside).
2013
On Japanese co-sleeping (Harper’s); on Philip Roth [PDF] (New York Review of Books); on Airbnb travel (T Magazine); on Janet Malcolm (Times Literary Supplement); on Evgeny Morozov & Tao Lin [PDF] (Harper’s); on Michael Clune (New Yorker.com); on The Lonely Crowd (New Yorker.com); on the Spanish Civil War (London Review of Books); 'City of Rumor,' a short chapbook on Berlin (Readux Books).
2012
On famous internet cats (Wired); on Tokyo cat cafes (Wired); on the Electric Daisy Carnival (GQ); on neuroscience (London Review of Books); on fact-checking (New York Times Magazine); on the Kalahari (Paper); on David Foster Wallace (Bookforum); on Sadakat Kadri (NPR).
2011
On David Levine (Threepenny Review); on Javier Cercas (n+1); on John Jeremiah Sullivan (New York Times Book Review); on Thomas Bernhard (n+1; published in German by Die Welt).
2007–2010
On the Prelinger Library [PDF] (Harper’s, 2007); on marijuana cultivation (Harper’s, 2009); on the Frankfurt Book Fair (Harper’s, 2009); on Richard Rorty (n+1, 2009); on Shop Class as Soulcraft (n+1, 2009); on Omer Fast (Tablet, 2008); on Wilhelm Reich (Tablet, 2008); on David Grann (Bookforum, 2009); on John Banville (Slate, 2007); on Louis Menand (Slate, 2010); on Reza Aslan (LA Times Book Review, 2009); on James Wood (LA Times Book Review, 2008); on Kevin Vennemann (Tablet, 2008); on Rimini Protokoll (Threepenny Review, 2008); on Thomas Bernhard (Threepenny Review, 2007); on Alexander Nehamas (New York Sun, 2007); on Martin Amis (San Francisco Chronicle, 2007).
<2007
On an MLA convention (The Believer, 2004); on a water-tasting competition (Oxford American, 2006); on Adam Phillips (New York Times Book Review, 2005); on nighttime (New York Times Book Review, 2005); on Geoff Dyer (Threepenny Review, 2006); on Chris Adrian (Bookforum, 2006); on Daniel Mendelsohn (The Nation, 2006); on Colson Whitehead (Washington Post, 2006); on Amos Oz (Threepenny Review, 2006); on Reading Lolita in Tehran (Slate, 2006); on Haruki Murakami (San Francisco Chronicle, 2005); on Tom Reiss (LA Times Book Review, 2005); on Dean Young (Threepenny Review, 2005); on David Remnick (San Francisco Chronicle, 2006); on Joan Didion (LA Times Book Review, 2005); on Garret Keizer (San Francisco Chronicle, 2004).