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The battle over rescuing 2,000 beagles from lab research is not over. • A viral campaign to rescue beagles used for experiments is part of a much bigger fight. Vox , April 2026The life of a dairy cow • The surprising truth about milk is hiding in plain sight (comic illustrated by the brilliant Cat Willet) Vox , April 2025You’re being lied to about “ultra-processed” foods • Coverage of the latest nutrition buzzword is overly broad, arbitrary, and wildly misleading. The problem goes deeper. Vox , December 2024I gave up meat and gained so much more • The delightful abundance of going vegan (comic illustrated by the wonderful Christine Mi). Vox , April 2024What if AI treats humans the way we treat animals? • The dehumanizing philosophy of AI is built on a hatred of our animal nature. Vox , August 2023The bitter civil war dividing American veterinarians • To fight the cruel meat industry, veterinarians have to fight their own profession. Vox , January 2023
see stories from:
2026 / 2025 / 2024 / 2023 / 2022 / 2021 / 2020 / 2019 / 2018 / 2017 / 2016 / 2015
- 2026 -
Why the Trump administration loves the stupidest renewable energy • America’s biofuel policy is helping destroy the world’s rainforests Vox , July 2026Leather is not an innocent byproduct of the meat industry • Your leather purse might put out as much carbon as 35 hamburgers. But the alternative doesn’t have to be junky pleather! Vox , July 2026The evidence against “ultra-processed” foods is weaker than you think • New analysis suggests other factors may explain the harms blamed on “ultra-processing.” Vox , July 2026What housing in America could look like in 50 years • Abundant, affordable, and…fun? Here's how to get there. Vox , July 2026Americans don’t know how to fight AI. So they’re fighting data centers. • The data center revolt is a symptom of our political failure on AI. Vox , June 2026A simple way to lower everyone’s property taxes • Compact neighborhoods cost cities half as much to maintain. So why don't we build more of them? Vox , June 2026The global epidemic of death by cars • We’ve made little progress against one of the world’s greatest killers. Vox , May 2026The surprising reason why pedestrian deaths are down in the US • And why walking is still so dangerous here. Vox , April 2026How Austin’s stunning drop in rents explains housing in America • We finally have some good news about housing affordability. Vox , April 2026Hey Google, stop trying to write my emails! • How AI-generated email creates a synthetic version of you. Vox , March 2026Americans ditched veal. What replaced it may be just as bad. • The giant loophole that lets Big Dairy keep baby cows in solitary confinement. Vox , March 2026The medium is the message, & many other thoughts on the mass rescue of beagles from Ridglan Farms • I was there. You know I couldn’t not write about this! Substack , March 2026The biggest drawback of driverless cars • Driverless cars could save thousands of lives. They might also break our cities. Vox , March 2026One good thing the Trump administration might actually do for science • A primate research center could become a sanctuary as the NIH pushes to move biomedical research beyond animal testing. Vox , February 2026How to raise a low-income kid’s future earnings by 50 percent • The surprising impact of better-designed public housing. Vox , February 2026The hidden double standards driving our housing crisis • Apartments are safer and more affordable than single-family homes. Why do we treat them like a hazard? Vox , February 2026Can America build beautiful places again? • Ugliness has more to do with the housing crisis than you think. Vox , January 2026The new food pyramid is lying to you • It’s also a contradictory mess. Vox , January 2026
- 2025 -
We need to grow the economy. We need to stop torching the planet. Here’s how we do both. • Let’s fix the two massive efficiency sinks in American life. Vox , December 2025The surprisingly profound debate over whether fish feel pain • We can never prove that other animals are conscious. What do we do with that? Vox , November 2025We love dogs as family. We also experiment on them. When will it come to an end? • The secretive dog experimentation industry is starting to crumble. Vox , November 2025How soybeans took over America — and the world • This technology could feed a world of 10 billion. We’re squandering it, and the trade war with China could make it worse. Vox , October 2025Jane Goodall’s most radical message was not about saving the planet • The conservationist used her stature to advocate for one of the most important, yet unpopular, causes in the world. Vox , October 2025The brutal trade-off that will decide the future of food • A growing number of thinkers say factory farming can help save the planet. Are they right? Vox , August 2025America’s fastest-growing suburbs are about to get very expensive • Sprawl made suburbia affordable. Now it’s breaking it. Here’s what a new vision of the suburbs could look like. Vox , July 2025The one thing the Trump administration got very right • Too bad it’s now sabotaging it. Vox , June 2025You’re being lied to about protein • Yes, protein builds muscle. No, you don’t need as much as lifting influencers say. Vox , May 2025These fluffy white wolves explain everything wrong with bringing back extinct animals • Don’t buy the hype about “de-extinction.” Vox , April 2025Americans are drinking more cow’s milk. Here’s why that’s a problem. • For years, dairy milk was plummeting. The vibe shift — and America’s protein obsession — is bringing it back. Vox , March 2025
- 2024 -
8 million turkeys will be thrown in the trash this Thanksgiving • We don’t have to accept all that death and waste for a dry, flavorless bird no one likes. Vox , November 2024Starbucks won’t charge extra for plant-based milk. Other companies should follow. • It’s a big deal for the climate — and for the coffee industry at large. Vox , November 2024These California and Colorado ballot measures are terrifying the meat industry • In Sonoma County and Denver, activists are putting animal welfare on the ballot. Vox , October 2024How Factory Farming Ends • I brought together 10 writers & thinkers for this collection of stories on the past and future of the fight against one of the great moral calamities of our time. Vox , August 2024Humanity is failing one of its greatest moral tests • The long, maddening, glorious, vital fight against factory farming. Vox , August 2024Republicans want to put pigs back in tiny cages. Again. • House Republicans are working to make America’s factory farms even crueler. Vox , June 2024The dairy industry really, really doesn’t want you to say “bird flu in cows” • How industrial meat and dairy trap us in an infectious disease cycle. Vox , April 2024Mega drive-throughs explain everything wrong with American cities • They’re great for the fast food industry — but not so great for us. Vox , April 20249 charts that show US factory farming is even bigger than you realize • Factory farms are now so big that we need a new word for them (with Kenny Torrella). Vox , February 2024
- 2023 -
The greenwashing of wool, explained • Big Wool wants you to believe it’s nice to animals and the environment. It’s not. Vox , December 2023Bird flu is surging again on poultry farms. The US is normalizing the cruelest mass killing method to stop it. • We failed to prepare, and now animals are paying the price. Vox , December 2023You’re more likely to go to prison for exposing animal cruelty than for committing it • California could send a man to prison for 3.5 years for rescuing factory-farmed animals. Where does the movement go from here? Vox , November 2023How cars ruin wild animals’ lives • If you love nature, consider not driving in it. Vox , September 2023America has the world’s safest air travel but sucks so bad at car safety • Three things the US can learn about road safety from our ultra-safe air travel system. Vox , August 2023Undercover audio of a Tyson employee reveals “free-range” chicken is meaningless • Why you shouldn’t believe what’s on your chicken label (with Kenny Torella). Vox , August 2023What’s worse than a cruel animal experiment? A cruel and fake animal experiment. • Raising the consequences for animal testing experiments gone wrong. Vox , July 2023A fire killed 18,000 cows in Texas. It’s a horrifyingly normal disaster. • Factory farming’s disaster problem, explained (with Kenny Torella & Julieta Cardenas). Vox , April 2023The fight against factory farming is winning criminal trials • Why it’s such a big deal that juries are siding with activists who rescue animals from factory farms. Vox , March 2023Eggs are expensive for all the wrong reasons • Eggs should not be cheap. Vox , February 2023
- 2022 -
Cory Booker has a plan to stop taxpayer bailouts of Big Meat • A Vox exclusive by me and Kenny Torrella on a sweeping new meat industry reform package from Sen. Cory Booker. Vox , November 2022U.S. farms lobby to use “cruelest” kill method as bird flu rages • The meat industry wants to make it easier to use the worst mass cull methods. The Guardian , November 2022Activists Acquitted in Trial for Taking Piglets from Smithfield Foods • Covering this historic trial of two activists who rescued piglets from a Smithfield Foods factory farm, and its incredible surprise outcome, was one of the most memorable experiences of my life. The Intercept , October 2022U.S. Supreme Court to hear case on California's ban on extreme confinement crates • How the Supreme Court could put climate, public health, and animal welfare regulations across the country on the chopping block. The Guardian , October 2022How U.S. dietary guidelines ignore the climate crisis • On the push to include sustainability in the U.S. dietary guidelines — which are more influential than you might think. The Guardian , August 2022“Forget They Are an Animal” • What an obscure 1970s-era pork industry journal can tell us about animal agriculture. Current Affairs , August 2022What this Mother Jones story got wrong on primate testing • A little commentary on why media gets primate experimentation so wrong. Sentient Media , August 2022Millions of birds culled in “the most inhumane way available” • How cooking animals to death became meat industry standard. The Guardian , June 2022Will New York City’s foie gras ban make a difference? • NYC is set to ban foie gras, a food that's been called “the Abu Ghraib of poultry dishes.” Is it really any worse than factory farmed meat? Grid , June 2022In the age of social media blasts, what’s the point of letters to the editor? • On what happens when we allow a beloved old form to be swallowed up by the social media firehose. Poynter , May 2022Amid Bird Flu Outbreak, Meat Producers Seek “Ventilation Shutdown” for Mass Chicken Killing • How gruesome, industry-funded experiments at a public university laid the foundation for a method now being used to mass exterminate farmed birds by heating them to death. The Intercept , April 2022Utah Bill Seeks to Restrict Regulation of Animal Industries • In which Utah legislators tried to restrict cities from regulating “animal enterprises” like factory farms & puppy mills, and lied to their constituents about it. The Intercept , March 2022“They're cooking them alive”: calls to ban cruel killing methods on US farms • On some of the methods used to mass kill farm animals (including, yes, cooking them to death). The Guardian , March 2022Why the anti-Factory Farming Movement Needs Direct Action • Direct action is often maligned by people who don’t know anything about it, but it’s actually one of the credible sources there is on factory farming. Current Affairs , March 2022Five things to know about the SCOTUS challenge to California’s ban on extreme farm animal confinement • On the U.S. Supreme Court’s surprising decision to take up the pork industry’s lawsuit against the country’s strongest farm animal protection law. The Counter , March 2022An animal rights activist was in court on criminal charges. Why was the case suddenly dismissed? • The story of an activist who faced eight years in prison for one of the most important factory farm investigations in recent history. The Guardian , January 2022
- 2021 -
For These Wisconsin Farms, Animals Are Off the Table • A story on the rural Wisconsinites providing refuge to animals saved from slaughter. In These Times , December 2021The Case Against the Concept of Invasive Species • And why some scientists and environmental philosophers are rethinking it. Vox , November 2021America’s car crash epidemic • Cars are killing us, and it's gotten even worse during the pandemic. Vox , September 2021The Spiritual Bankruptcy of Bottled Water • A comic reported by me and illustrated by Christine Mi on how bottled water redefined our relationship with a natural resource. Vox , July 2021A Graceful Place Where Bhangra and Bollywood Meet • On the magnificent dancer Manpreet Toor and how the internet is transforming Punjabi diaspora dance. New York Times , June 2021The Year of the Wedding After-Party • On the art of planning a belated reception when you got married in the pandemic age. New York Times , March 2021Curator of American Culture • A profile of the delightful Radhika Jones, Vanity Fair editor-in-chief. Harvard Magazine , March 2021
- 2020 -
On Martin Puchner’s The Language of Thieves , in which a German-American scholar discovers that his grandfather was a Nazi. Harvard Magazine , November 2020
The Watchdog • A profile of Bharat Ramamurti, the guy in charge of overseeing $500 billion in CARES Act stimulus money and a former adviser to Elizabeth Warren. Harvard Magazine , September 2020From Lewis & Clark to Michael Brown • A profile of Walter Johnson and his radical history of my home city, St. Louis. Harvard Magazine , May 2020As the World Burns, Americans Buy Bigger Cars • On the rise of SUVs. Vox , March 2020History from Below • A profile of Vince Brown, a historian who will change the way you think about war, slavery, and anti-Black militarism. Harvard Magazine , March 2020What Vegans With PCOS Actually Need to Know • On the extremely common but little understood hormonal disorder PCOS, and how to be vegan when you have it. Tenderly , February 2020On Jean-Baptiste Del Amo's Animalia and encountering factory farming in literature. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette , February 2020
- 2019 -
Animal Liberation Needs Animal Voices • A review of a new book on the political agency of animals. Tenderly , December 2019On Jonathan Safran Foer's We Are the Weather and how factory farming has remade life on Earth. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette , November 2019
On the extraordinary intelligence of crows. Harvard Magazine , August 2019
As Russian Jews, We Are Characters in Someone Else’s Story • An essay about secrecy, class, and the Soviet Jewish experience. The Forward , July 2019The Trilemma • A profile of economist Dani Rodrik and his field’s reckoning with free-market orthodoxy. Harvard Magazine , July 2019On the joy of baby turkey season in Cambridge. Harvard Magazine , June 2019
On Susan Ware’s Why they Marched , a new history of the women's suffrage movement. Harvard Magazine , May 2019
- 2018 -
- 2017 -
- 2016 -
The Purpose of Harvard Law School • An essay on the clash between Harvard Law School’s public service ethos and its corporate law reality. Harvard Magazine , August 2016
- 2015 -
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