A Few Favorite Things
The Wells Fargo Hustle. NPR's Planet Money. It was a pleasure to work as editor with Chris Arnold and Robert Smith to make this episode about what happened to the workers at Wells Fargo when they were asked to open accounts without telling their customers. My small part was to direct the reporting which turned up the black list. We won a Peabody for it.
Coverage of the Pandemic for Planet Money, which I edited.
I talked for Planet Money about wealth taxes and carriages.
Imagine There's No Oil, Harper's Magazine. I wrote this cover story for editor Bill Wasik at Harper's Magazine when I, along with the rest of the world, was freaking out about the price of oil. It's a look at energy, told through the experience of a group who believed we were on the edge of total collapse. I like this piece because it feels more true as time passes. I wish I could write more stuff that didn't expire in about a week.
What Is Code? by Paul Ford, Bloomberg Businessweek.
I was lucky to work with Josh Tyrangiel, Jim Aley, and the rest of Businessweek editing Paul Ford's code issue, which was a lovely piece of writing. It not only took over a magazine--which I can't find copies of anymore, and I work here--but it lived in one of the strangest and most inviting websites I've ever seen, and I was proud to be part of that, too. We won a National Magazine Award for it.
The Blow-Up, Technology Review.
I'm still not quite sure this happened, but somehow I started writing about the financial "wizards" who built the subprime boom before they were really understood. I think I was trying to sell a story about finance to Technology Review, and I was like, "Hey! They do math! You should hire me to write about them." But Technology Review's Jason Pontin had the foresight to put it on the cover, and the piece took off. It was the only cover I've ever done where they printed out the opening lines, which I've always thought was the coolest thing you could do.
The F.D.R. Drive Guy, The New Yorker
My cup of coffee. Otis Houston, the subject, still shows up in his spot from time to time.
I read a chapter of The Great Gatsby for Planet Money. We decided to read the whole book when it came into the public domain. I wasn't very worthy but okay.