My research looks at the neuropsychological and network effects of social media (you can read more about it in The Atlantic). As a doctoral researcher in the Cognitive & Affective Neuroscience of Psychopathology (CANoPy) Lab at the University of New Mexico, I earned an MSc in Cognition, Brain and Behavior, running an original study on the cognitive and behavioral effects of TikTok. I’ve received scholarships from the American Academy of Clinical Neuropsychology and the Santa Fe Institute. SFI’s storied Complex Systems Summer School turned my work toward understanding how individual changes in cognition scale up into collective behavior online.
My writing and research first came together during a Knight Science Journalism Fellowship at MIT, where I studied the online spread of misinformation and how technology interacts with the brain.
My journalism has been supported by grants and fellowships from the Fund for Investigative Journalism, Johns Hopkins, the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Forecast and the New England Foundation for the Arts. I’ve held residencies at MASS MoCA, Forecast Festival in Berlin and SALT in Istanbul. I’ve spoken about storytelling at the World Conference of Science Journalists, and at the Society of Environmental Journalists about the award-winning series I launched at the Guardian on threats to America’s public lands. I’ve also taught story craft in Northeastern University‘s journalism department.
Along the way, I’ve worked at the Guardian (US), Outside magazine, Here & Now and Gawker (RIP), and studied at the Salt Institute for Radio Documentary, Peking University (北大) and Northwestern University.