Investigations
At Profiles Theatre the drama—and abuse—is real (Chicago Reader, June 8, 2016)
The University of Chicago’s message to the class of 2019: Don’t be a rapist (Chicago Reader, September 25, 2015)
Food
Shelf Stable (an ongoing monthly column at Eater)
In England’s Lake District, a Gingerbread House Defies Fantasy (Eater, August 10, 2023)
Prime targets: why are teenagers so obsessed with energy drinks? (The Guardian, July 27, 2023)
‘The I Hate to Cook Book’ Fought Domestic Despair With Laughter (Eater, February 1, 2023)
A culinary guide to Chicago (National Geographic Traveller, Winter 2023)
Dog treats, deodorant, Spam: why does America sell 138,000 pumpkin spice things? (The Guardian, September 27, 2022)
Climate Chaos Finds Its Way Into the Bakery (Eater Chicago, July 7, 2022)
What’s the Next Big Thing in American Snack Culture? (Eater, June 3, 2022)
Toward a unified theory of chicken sandwiches (The Takeout, June 3, 2021)
A brief history of latkes (The Takeout, December 10, 2020)
“Why don’t we, Jews, eat pie?” (The Takeout, October 27, 2020)
Classic Cookbooks: An Omelet And A Glass Of Wine by Elizabeth David (The Takeout, August 20, 2020)
This is The Jewish Cookbook and you won’t need any other (The Takeout, October 3, 2019)
Detroit’s Coney Island hot dogs are family business (The Takeout, September 15, 2019)
Peanut butter is the most American of sandwich fillings (The Takeout, November 29, 2018)
Aba, the new West Loop “Mediterranean” restaurant, serves food from the land of milk and honey (Chicago Reader, August 2, 2018)
The Paul Kahan Way (Taste, October 10, 2017)
The End of Cooking For My Cat (Riverfront Times, June 22, 2010)
buying and selling
‘It’s the brand speaking to you’: the scent firms making smells for Subway, Abercrombie and more (The Guardian, May 8, 2024)
Band of Bookstores: Facing extinction, indies unite to show us everything they bring to St. Louis that Amazon can’t (Riverfront Times, March 17, 2011)
people, dogs, and Other Animals
Fire. Dog. Life. Ice. (Delacorte Review, March 18, 2024)
Turkey Trouble in Sun City (Texas Monthly, May 22, 2023)
In the 80s, an Atlanta astronaut performed a Coke vs. Pepsi taste test in space (Atlanta, April 2023)
Going to see a man about a dog: canine DNA tests lead to family reunions (The Guardian, February 27, 2023)
Hair of the Dog: Meet the Bar Animals of Chicago (Eater Chicago, February 8, 2022)
The Twitter Rabbi: “This, too, is Torah,” says Danya Ruttenberg (Chicago Reader, August 21, 2019)
People Issue 2014: Stanley and Josephine Lyskanowski, the survivors (Chicago Reader, December 11, 2014)
Patti Smith discusses art, remembrance, and detective shows (Chicago Reader, October 27, 2014)
The twilight of Freddy the Beard (Chicago Reader, April 30, 2014)
Paradiso Błekitna Przystan is the sexiest dog in Chicago (Chicago Reader, March 26, 2014)
What happened when my dog watched DogTV (Chicago Reader, October 9, 2013)
She Flies Through the Air With the Greatest of Ease: Meet St. Louis’s Own Elliana Grace, Human Cannonball (Riverfront Times, March 21, 2013)
His Kingdom for a Mini Horse: The equine quest of Sir Kwain of Webster Groves (Riverfront Times, July 23, 2008)
protests
The Brotherhood’s Last Stand: As demands for reform grow deafening, Chicago’s biggest police union and its firebrand leader are digging in for the fight of their lives (Chicago, October 13, 2020)
Protest fashion is all the rage (Chicago Reader, December 6, 2017)
Enemy Kitchen, a food truck and public art project, serves up hospitality in place of hostility (Chicago Reader, October 5, 2017)
Was The Chicago Dyke March Controversy A Misunderstanding, Or Something Worse? (The Forward, June 29, 2017)
The future is female. So how do we get there? (Chicago Reader, March 23, 2017)
We need the Read/Write Library now more than ever (Chicago Reader, January 11, 2017)
Pussy Grabs Back (Chicago Reader, October 20, 2016)
history
Why is the Maxwell House Haggadah different from all other haggadahs? (The Takeout, March 26, 2021)
The Jews waited 4,000 years… for Crisco? (The Takeout, January 21, 2021)
Were Jell-O salads an act of prefeminist vengeance? (The Takeout, November 7, 2019)
Chicago 1968: The Whole World Is Watching chronicles the chaos of the infamous DNC convention (Chicago Reader, September 12, 2018)
How culinary propaganda from a women’s magazine made Thanksgiving a thing (The Takeout, November 20, 2017)
Cubs mascots: A dark and tragic history (Chicago Reader, January 15, 2014)
A tale of two minstrel shows (Chicago Reader, December 17, 2013)
The migration of the hipster: A Chicago history, 1898-present (Chicago Reader, October 2, 2013)
books
Sonali Dev’s Bollywood happily ever afters (Chicago Reader, September 22, 2016)
Kate Bolick’s new book surveys the past, present, and future of the unmarried woman (Chicago Reader, May 14, 2015)
Is Single, Carefree, Mellow Literature or chick lit? (Chicago Reader, February 19, 2015)
The Greatest Ever Chicago Book Tournament (Chicago Reader, started November 19, 2014; concluded April 16, 2015)
Little House in the Present: America’s economic downturns run through Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books like a big three-hearted river (Riverfront Times, November 24, 2011)
Life and Death
Heaven Can’t Wait: A skeptic’s guide to afterlife awareness (Riverfront Times, July 11, 2013)
Dr. Peanut: A St. Louis pediatrician battles child malnutrition in Haiti with peanut butter (Riverfront Times, June 30, 2010)
Death Watch: Final Exit’s clandestine ways have put the assisted-suicide network on life support (Riverfront Times, April 8, 2009)
Mysteries and obsessions
Are Twizzlers Still Twizzlers Without the Twists? A Philosophical Inquiry (The Takeout, April 3, 2020)
Aldermania! The Board Game (Chicago Reader, February 21, 2019)
Going beyond bronies at the My Little Pony Fair (Chicago Reader, July 1, 2015)
Napoleon is dynamite (Chicago Reader, July 3, 2013)
The Electric Pencil: A long-lost cache of sketches by a state mental hospital inmate finally yields up some of its secrets (Riverfront Times, September 14, 2012)
Where You Should’ve Gone to High School (Riverfront Times, February 16, 2012)
Moon Lady: The long, wondrous life of Lucia Pamela (Riverfront Times, March 10, 2010)
Mount My Squirrel! Local taxidermist Rick Nadeau has a lot of fun with his “little buddies” (Riverfront Times, August 12, 2009)