Originally published in Nieman Reports. WHEN I AGREED TO WRITE about school lunches for the magazine Mother Jones, conventional wisdom tying junk food to childhood obesity was so rampant that I could have produced a serviceable story with very little research. Reading newspapers and talking with food professionals and government officials, I repeatedly heard that the nation’s biggest nutrition […]
Secondhand Diplomacy
After closed-door meetings with cigarette makers, the Bush administration is seeking to derail a global tobacco treaty. Originally published in Mother Jones. IT WAS GETTING TOWARD MIDNIGHT when the phone rang in Thomas Novotny’s hotel room in Geneva. It was a May evening in 2001, and Novotny, then the assistant surgeon general, was leading the U.S. delegation […]
Colleen’s Choice
When her fight against cancer became unbearable, Colleen Rice chose death as her only option. Now the U.S. government is challenging the Oregon law that helped her end the agony. Originally published in AARP The Magazine. THE NIGHT BEFORE COLLEEN RICE SWALLOWED THE MEDICATION that ended her life, she wanted to give her grandchildren one final, uncomplicated […]
The Scientist Who Hated Abortion
Endocrinologist Joel Brind says research has shown him the truth about abortion, and that’s why he set out on a crusade that now reaches into the heart of the nation’s most powerful cancer agency. But what if he’s wrong? Originally published in Discover. IN A LARGE, FORMAL PHILADELPHIA COURTROOM six years ago, endocrinologist Joel Brind swore on […]
Unhappy Meals
School lunches are loaded with fat—and the beef and dairy industries are making sure it stays that way. Originally published in Mother Jones. EVERY WEEKDAY AT LUNCH, courtesy of the federal government, more than 27 million schoolchildren sit down to the nation’s largest mass feeding. If we took a giant snapshot of their trays on a typical […]
Can We Trust Research Done with Lab Mice?
New studies show that animals used in critical experiments may be out of their minds. Originally published in Discover. Paired twirling by lab mice, a stereotypic behavior. Video courtesy of Hanno Würbel. IN THE EARLY 1990s A SOFT-SPOKEN doctoral candidate at Switzerland’s leading university asked a deceptively simple question: What do all those laboratory mice do after the researchers and […]
Return to Loves Creek
Originally published in Indy Week. IT’S A WARM FRIDAY AFTERNOON, and I’m driving down Silk Hope Road through Alamance and Chatham counties. It’s a familiar route that I used to take several times a week, when I was reporting on the life of Siler City’s Loves Creek Hispanic Baptist Mission. For eight months in 1999 I threw […]
Can Turtles Live Forever?
A quiet backwoods study opens a huge window on aging. Originally published in Discover. WHEN JUSTIN CONGDON WAS A TEENAGER, he spent his days in the woods of northeastern Pennsylvania, shooting pheasants and trapping muskrats so he could sell their pelts for $4 apiece. He would have laughed had anyone told him he might spend the rest […]
The Stealth Crusade
Inside one Southern university, Christian missionaries are being trained to go undercover in the Muslim world and win converts for Jesus. Originally published in Mother Jones. AT 8 O’CLOCK ON A WARM MONDAY MORNING IN JANUARY, 20 students file into Rick Love’s classroom at Columbia International University in South Carolina. Eyes glassy from writing papers all weekend, they […]
A Mother Finds Her Voice
Judy Shepard, whose son Matthew was murdered because he was gay, has summoned the courage to share her story. Originally published in Us Weekly. ONE DAY LAST MAY, while she was in Toronto, Judy Shepard looked up and caught a glimpse of her older son crossing the street. Wearing khakis and a blue-checked shirt that hung loosely […]
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