Click here for a current and complete list of publications
Robots & AI
“AI Teaching Assistants Are No Match for Human Beings” Cognoscenti (Aug 2024)
“You Think AI Could Write ‘Shake It Off’? As if.” Cognoscenti (Jan 2024)
“The Future of AI and Robotics is Up to Humans,” Popular Science (Summer 2022, 150th anniversary issue)
Interviews with Marco Cerezo, Nazri Choucri, and Amy Stein on the role of AI in quantum computing, security, and climate change mitigation. Popular Science (Summer 2022, 150th Anniversary Issue)
“When Will Sexbots Reflect More than Stereotypical Male Fantasies?” Lady Science (Feb 2020)
"The U.K. Wants to Become the World Leader in Ethical AI" Slate (2018)
"What Does Consent Mean When One of You is a Robot?" Daily Beast (2018)
"When You Die, You'll Live on as a Robot" Daily Beast (2018)
"Should Robots Have Rights?" Daily Beast (2017)
"Why Humans Love Robots Like People" Daily Beast (2017)
"If I Only Had a Brain: How AI 'Thinks'" Daily Beast (2017)
"The Worst Driving City in the Country Needs Driverless Cars" Cognoscenti (2015)
Complete list of robot/AI publications
Smartphones & Internet
“Farewell, My BlackBerry. I’ll Miss You.” Boston Globe (May 2022)
“Our Need for True Connection is Giving Rise to Phone-Free Spaces” Aeon (July 2021)
“Why Older Adults Really Eschew Technology” Slate (July 2020)
“Working From Home is a Lifesaver—and a Big Danger” CNN (March 2020)
"The Sinister Realities Behind Google’s Tear-Jerking Super Bowl Ad" Slate (Feb 2020)
"Is Secondhand Screen Time the New Secondhand Smoking?" The Conversation (Jan 2020)
"Are My Days as a Smartphone Holdout Coming to an End?" OneZero (2019)
"What Happened When I Made My Students Put Their Phones in Pouches" Aeon (2017)
"And Their Eyes Glazed Over" Aeon (2016)
"What if 'Internet for Everyone' Isn't Such A Good Idea?" Cognoscenti (2016)
Cassini (credit NASA/JPL)
Space & Astrobiology
“Why a Private Mission to the Moon is Still a Win for America” Cognoscenti (Feb 2024)
“Racing Toward the Dark Side of the Moon” Slate (Aug 2023)
“What Jupiter’s Icy Moons Might Tell Us About Our Universe” Cognoscenti (April 2023)
“How the U.S. Government Made Pilots Too Embarrassed to Admit They’d Seen UFOs” Slate (Feb 2023)
“Artemis Finally Launched. But We’ll Need Humility to return to the moon” Cognoscenti (Nov 2022)
“Why Sending a Native American Into Space is a Big Deal” Cognoscenti (2022)
“What the James Webb Space Telescope Might Tell Us About Ourselves” Cognoscenti (2022)
“Looking for Alien Life? Seek Out Alien Tech” Wired (2021)
“What Would it Mean to Live in the Clouds?” Catapult (2021)
“The Troubling Rhetoric of Space Exploration” Undark (2021)
“The Perseverance Mission Isn’t Just About Science—It’s About Ethics” Boston Globe (2021)
"NASA’s Dragonfly Mission Will Seek Clues about Titan’s Habitability” NASA Astrobiology (2020)
“RNA and DNA May Have Shared Building Blocks and May Have Appeared at the Same Time” NASA Astrobiology (2020)
“How Animals Sense Earth’s Magnetic Field” NASA Astrobiology (2020)
"You heard the all-female spacewalk was canceled. Here’s some context to better understand the last-minute flop." The Lily (2019)
"If We Commodify Space, Who’s in Charge of the Cosmos?" Cognoscenti (2019)
"Yes, space tourism is for the rich. But sending artists to space is good for us all." Washington Post (2018)
"Should We Stop Searching for Intelligent Life?" The Smart Set (2018)
"Tears for Cassini: Why It's Okay to Well Up Over a Lump of Metal" New Scientist (2017)
"How We Colonize Mars is More Important than When" The Space Review (2016)
"Will Mining Celestial Bodies Ruin Space?" Cognoscenti (2015)
This map visualizes the relationships between science topics and journals according to user clickstreams. Source: PLOS ONE, made available through Creative Commons.
Science & Health
“Tiny Urban Woodlands, Big Biodiversity” Boston Globe (Dec 2022)
“How Science Fuels a Culture of Misinformation” OpenMind (June 2022)
“How Does Anyone Stay Healthy in a World Full of Germs?” Nautilus (Dec 2020)
“Why Older Adults Really Eschew Technology” Slate (July 2020)
“Is Aging a Disease?” Slate (March 2020)
“Will Care Bots Cure the Loneliness of Nursing Homes?” Daily Beast (2019)
“How to Speak Fluent Feline” Inside Your Cat’s Mind issue 4 (2020)
“A Fur Ball Comes Home,” “Cat Family,” “The Whisker Whisperer,” and “Tailgating” Inside Your Cat’s Mind issue 3 (2019)
“You Had Me At Meow” and “How to Read Your Cat”Inside Your Cat’s Mind Magazine (issue 2) (2019)
“Bringing Up Baby: Raising a Kitten to be a Great Cat” Inside Your Cat’s Mind magazine (2018)
Transhumanism & Cyborgs
“It’s the End of the World as We Know It and We Feel Fantastic: Examining the End of Suffering” NANO (2018)
"The Blurring of the Olympics and Paralympics" Daily Beast (2018)
"When You Die, You'll Live on as a Robot" Daily Beast (2018)
"Cyborgs Aren't Just For Sci-Fi Anymore" Daily Beast (2016)
“The Most Terrifying Kids' Book” Slate (2014)
Science Fiction
“Doomsday Book Teaches Readers About Pandemics—and About Hope” Slate (Dec 2020)
“What Would It Mean for Humans to Become Data?” Slate (2019) (about Years and Years)
"The First Goes Where Other Space Stories Don’t" Slate (Sept 2018)
"Of Course 'Doctor Who's' New Star is a Woman. Sci-Fi Has Always Been About Progress." Washington Post (2017)
“Orphan Black Was Never About Cloning” Slate (2017)
"Sci-Fi Suggests We Can't Run Away From Our Problems, Even if We Go to Space" Ploughshares (2016)
"Aliens in Sci-Fi: What's 'Out There' Has Always Reflected What's 'In Here'" Ploughshares (2016)
"The Evolution of Artificial Life in Science Fiction" Ploughshares (Aug 2016)
TEDx talk: "Science Fiction as a Looking Glass: Teaching Students to Save the World" (2017)
My blog, Could This Happen? has dozens of posts about sci-fi.
Click here for full list of publications about sci-fi.
Illustrated by Margarita Miranova (published in Panorama: The Journal of Intelligent Travel, Nov 2016)
Personal & Travel Essays
“Cemetery Conversations with My Dead Dad” Panorama (Aug 2024)
“As a Teacher in a Pandemic, Where Does Work End and I Begin?” Catapult (2022)
“What Orchids Taught Me—On Their Own Time” Boston Globe (2021)
“Subduction Zones” The Smart Set (2020)
"Ashes to Ashes" Panorama: The Journal of Intelligent Travel (2017)
"My Cat is My Life Partner, and I'll Have to Say Goodbye Soon" PawCulture (2017)
"How My Students Have Given Me Hope Since the Election" Catapult (2017)
"How My Dad's Death Brought His Ex Back to Life" Full Grown People (2016)
"Ambivalence About Having Kids Has Pushed Me Down An Existential Rabbit Hole" Full Grown People (2015)
"Why I Broke Up With My Novel to Write a Memoir" LitHub (2015)
"Deliverance: A Holy Bus Journey to Bosnia" BootsnAll (2013)
Essays from Closing the Book:
"A Sort of Homecoming" Barely South Review (2012)
"How I Spent My Free Will" Minnetonka Review (2011)
"Finding Fathers" Ducts (2010)
"Making Luck" Paradigm (2010) (PDF from the book, as the journal is defunct)
"Freedom & Absurdity: The Stranger in the Classroom" Briarpatch (2009)
"Letters to Ray Bradbury" Konundrum (2009)
Complete list of essays here.
from Inside Your Cat’s Mind issue 3 (Fall 2019)
Op-Eds, Reporting, and other Nonfiction
“College Students Don’t Need a Concierge” CNN (Sept 2023)
“A ‘Wicked’ Blizzard Pummels New England” (contributing reporter, WaPo, 2022)
“Portraits from inside the wild, messy, overheating and confounding economy of 2021” (contributing reporter, WaPo, 2021)
“To mask or not to mask? With vaccines and new guidelines, the mask-faithful navigate a ‘weird gray area.’” (contributing reporter, WaPo, 2021)
“Head Home or Hunker Down? The Thanksgiving COVID Dilemma” (shared credit) Washington Post (Nov 2020)
Interview of author Iris Gomez in “Changing Channels” Washington Post (2019)
“Felicity Huffman Gets 14 Days in Jail in College Admissions Scandal” (shared byline) WaPo (2019)
"A Historian's Take on Charlottesville: an Interview with Ashley Farmer" IMPACT (July 2018)
"As a Teacher, I Know Plagiarism When I See It" The Guardian (2016)
"Cycling on Roads Can Make You Lose Faith in Humanity" The Guardian (2016)
Poetry
Self Park, an ekphrastic collaboration of poetry and art with the extraordinary painter Justin Bernhardt (2008)
Click here for a complete list of publications