From the monthly archives:

May 2009

Culture

Too smart for our own good

The premise behind any worry that kids are getting dumber is that this is a bad thing, a development to deprecate. If Johnny can’t write …

Culture

Attribution Lacking

Revising the details, checking the facts, finding new archives: Those are what is most exciting for historians. Failing to give credit deliberately destroys the traces,

…

Culture

The Evolution of Jewish Humor

A well-curated lightning tour by Chris Bonanos. The Evolution of Jewish Humor — New York Magazine.

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Culture

Videogames and Nostalgia

Video games may have been an escape, or a respite, or a memory of fun and intense competition, but whatever they are to the people

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Culture

Stephen Metcalf, Explaning the Rise of the Parenting Genre

The more fragmented, individualistic and competitive a society, the more the common institutions with at least some child-rearing function—the church, the public school, the actual

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Culture

Love’s Labors and Costs

But even if Miller, like many a marketer who came before him, flogs his product too hard, his broadest point is well taken: We are

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Culture

Shop Class as Soul Craft

As Michael Agger writes:

We all can’t become motorcycle mechanics. And while Crawford would not be so unsubtle as to suggest direct prescriptions for happiness,

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Media

Be Easy

Magazine editors are among the most unhappy people in the country. This is especially true now, with the industry imploding. But it’s been true for

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About Me

I am a New York-based freelance journalist and interactive media consultant. Read my ethics statement.

Journalism
My writing appears widely in print and online. I've also worked in various editorial positions over the years, spanning print, web, and television production.

Consulting
I'm also a consultant and commentator on digital content. My practice, Predicate, works with "Big Content" organizations and startups alike. Past clients include Conde Nast, NBCUniversal, Reuters, Washington Post Company, and Yahoo!

Coordinates
I live in charming Cold Spring, an hour north of New York City, with my fetching wife. I originally hail from leafy Vancouver, Canada.
About My Writing

I write on culture, science and technology, with a special interest in ideas journalism.

Clippings
My work has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Wired, New York Observer, Elle, Salon.com, MIT Technology Review, Print, Metropolis, and numerous other publications.

Coverage
Simply put, I write on what's smart, inventive or interesting in the culture, with passing glances at what's not. I've written on subjects ranging from bathroom graffiti to evolutionary psychology, serious gaming to public intellectuals, and celebrity sex tapes to urban planning.

Homage
I'm inspired chiefly by the genius writers and editors who, in the late 1990s, put brainy essayistic journalism back onto the map with Feed, Suck.com and Lingua Franca.
Contact Me

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