I’ve been a working journalist for about 20 years. From the muddy jungles of Cambodia to the dense rain forests of Brazil, I’ve reported stories from around the world for The Christian Science Monitor, The Economist, The New York Times, and elsewhere.

I grew up in the northeastern U.S., primarily between a Pennsylvania suburb of Scranton, a Maine fishing village, and a Connecticut mill town. From an early age I enjoyed exploring and documenting my explorations (I made a movie about bicycling mostly solo across America), and the field of journalism scratched both of those itches. I worked for a newspaper in Cambodia and backpacked across Asia, then later became a Brazil correspondent and meandered around South America. Over the years, one of my favorite trips was a three-week mountaineering expedition in 2014 to the summit of Aconcagua, tallest peak in the Western Hemisphere, which I wrote about for The New Yorker.

I took a break from deadlines in 2016-2017 to participate in the Knight-Bagehot Fellowship at Columbia University, where I earned my M.S. from the Graduate School of Journalism. Through the program, I began working on a story about a mysterious area of Appalachia where cell service and WiFi are restricted by state and federal laws. This turned into a book called The Quiet Zone, published by HaperCollins in August 2021.

During the pandemic I hid in Woodstock Valley, Connecticut, with my wife and our two sons. It’s nice out here.