I write about the intersection of science and society. My work explores how medical research impacts our health and behaviors, and it explains the science (or lack thereof) behind cultural and wellness trends.
I’m currently contracting as a mental health reporter for The New York Times’ Well section, covering topics like depression, dementia, and ADHD.
Previously, I worked as a senior staff writer at Elemental, Medium’s health publication. I debunked weird wellness fads in my column, Optimize Me, and provided the scientific rationale for sensible health advice, like why exercise is so darn good for your brain. In March 2020, I pivoted to write almost exclusively about Covid-19, covering everything from how the immune system responds to infection to how the pandemic changed our brains. My reporting on the pandemic won the American Society of Journalists and Authors Crisis Coverage Award in the Science Category for my piece on why Covid-19 May Be a Blood Vessel Disease, Which Explains Everything.
As a freelancer, I’ve written for many publications, including The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Scientific American, STAT, Popular Science, Vice, and more. My favorite topics to write about explore how scientific and cultural trends respond to and influence one another, like my pieces on how the biohacking movement took on the insulin cost crisis and how anti-vaccine sentiments fueled by Covid-19 led to a polio outbreak in New York.
I also help universities and research organizations tell their stories of scientific discovery, the realities of lab life, and the personalities who make the magic happen. For several years, I worked at the Gladstone Institutes and the University of California, San Francisco translating and promoting life science research to the public.
Before embarking on a career in journalism, I was a research scientist and completed a PhD in experimental psychology from the University of Cambridge. There, I studied drug addiction and binge eating disorder using cognitive testing and functional neuroimaging.