Welcome to my
Website & Blog
I am a lecturer, a Columbia University professor and a journalist who does interviews and general reporting on science and health.
You may know of my interviews from the New York Review of Books, Quanta Magazine and the New York Times. In fact, I was the reporter who, in 1992, first brought the Q and A format to the New York Times.
Over the years, I’ve contributed interviews and articles to the New York Times Sunday Magazine, the Atlantic, the Chronicle of Higher Education, Columbia Magazine, Smithsonian, Newsweek and AARP-The Magazine.
Long ago, way in an earlier century, I was one of the Playboy Interviewers.
My sixth book, a collaboration with the political scientist, Andrew Hacker, was a critical look at our nation's colleges and universities and was one of the most widely reviewed non-fiction works of 2010.
I also consult with organizations and educational institutions, organizing one day workshops aimed at improving science communication.
NEWEST STORIES
INTERVIEW WITH CASSANDRA EXTAVOUR
Quanta Magazine:
A Multitalented Scientist Seeks the Origins of Multicellularity
INTERVIEW WITH KRISTY RED HORSE
Quanta Magazine:
She Studies Growing Arteries to Aid Heart Attack Recovery
CNN:
Opinion:
On the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade,
I can’t stop thinking about how abortion changed my life
INTERVIEW WITH SERGIU PAŞCA
Quanta Magazine:
Human Brains Are Hard to Study. He Grows Useful Substitutes.
The New York Times:
Nadia Calviño, A Top Spanish Official, Wants More Women At The Decision-making Table
CNN Opinion:
I almost died trying to get an abortion. I'm terrified my students could face a similar fate
The New York Times:
These Women Found Creative Ways to Overcome the Barriers in Front of Them
The New York Review of Books:
Dismantling the ‘Citadels of Pride’
an interview with Martha C. Nussbaum
FOLLOWING THE CIVIL RIGHTS TRAIL
Photo: Damon Winter/The New York Times
Photo: Phil Penman
The New York Review of Books:
‘I Can’t Just Stand on the Sidelines’: An Interview with Naomi Oreskes
WIRED Magazine
via Quanta Magazine
AT 90, E. O. WILSON STILL THRIVES ON BEING A SCIENTIFIC PROVOCATEUR
Photo: MacArthur Foundation, via Associated Press
Image: Phil Penman
Image: Kai T. Dragland / NTNU via Flickr
Photo: Phil Penman
The New York Review of Books:
THE GUY WHO WOULDN’T WRITE A HIT: AN INTERVIEW WITH DAVID SIMON
Photo: Joshua Bright for The New York Times
Photo: Phil Penman
The New York Review of Books:
‘Drawing Is Always a Struggle’: An Interview with Art Spiegelman
Photo: Annie Tritt for The New York Times
Asked About Retiring, They Have a Simple Answer: Why?
VIDEO
92ND ST. Y SCIENCE TALKS
E.O. Wilson and Paul Simon in Conversation: Life, Creativity and the Future of the Planet
SciTech Now Episode 338
Sean McCabe; photograph by Abe Frajndlich