My research on social media and the brain takes place in the Cognitive & Affective Neuroscience of Psychopathology (CANoPy ) Lab at the University of New Mexico, where I’m pursuing a PhD in Cognition, Brain and Behavior. My research is focused on the neuropsychological effects of social media and spans the neuroscience of decision-making, addiction, isolation, attention and false beliefs. The study I’m running at the moment looks at the cognitive and behavioral effects of TikTok. In 2024 and 2023 I received grants through UNM to study social media and the addictive aspects of its design. I am also personally fascinated by the history of psychopharmacology.
On the journalism side, I’m a current Good Science Project-Johns Hopkins Science Writing Fellow. In 2022, a series I helped develop for the Guardian on America’s Water Crisis was recognized for excellence in data journalism and as one of Fast Company’s 2022 World Changing Ideas. From 2020-2021, I received grants from Forecast in Berlin and the New England Foundation for the Arts, as well as residencies at MASS MoCA and SALT in Istanbul. In the 2018-19 academic year, I lectured on story craft in the journalism department at Northeastern University. A Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT in 2017-2018, I looked at the online spread of misinformation and how technology interacts with the brain. I’ve spoken at the World Conference of Science Journalists about storytelling and at the Society of Environmental Journalists on the award-winning series I launched covering threats to America’s public lands. Before that, I could be found at The Guardian (US), Outside magazine, Here & Now, Gawker, the Salt Institute for Radio Documentary, 北大 and Northwestern University.