Writing

 

 

In search of Fenn’s treasure: A 5-day quest for $2 million hidden in the Rockies (optioned for TV)

Tiny Desk: How NPR’s concert series earned a cult following

Zombies: A geo-political history

What I learned analyzing 7 months of Donald Trump’s tweets

What I learned reading 4,000 Trump and Clinton tweets

Inside the underground business of home-grown weed consulting

How one man found 83 messages in bottles

What it’s like to be a professional Santa Claus

The actors and actresses who most consistently appear in terrible movies

Why big-budget films are getting worse

How public restrooms have bred fear for centuries

An analysis of America’s hate groups

The case for allowing 16 year-olds to vote

How one man repopulated a rare butterfly species in his backyard

The tech behind “vote trading” platforms

Donald Trump is the only U.S. president in history with no military or political experience

Today’s teens are less tech-obsessed than their millennial predecessors

What data on 3,000 murderers and 10,000 victims tells us about serial killers

Life as one of America’s 4,788 Trumps

American tourists in Iceland now outnumber Iceland’s population

Republicans and Democrats think their states are great for totally different reasons

 

 

 

The Man Who Got No Whammies (optioned for film)

The Invention of the Slinky (optioned for film)

The Invention of the Aeropress

The Father of the Digital Synthesizer

The Inventor of Auto-Tune

How Mickey Mouse Evades the Public Domain

The Rise and Fall of Professional Bowling

The Strange Life of Lord Timothy Dexter

Evicted in San Francisco

The Richest Photographer in the World

The Woman Behind Apple’s First Icons

Life as a LEGO Professional

The Underground Economy of Dolores Park

The Secret Life of San Francisco Street Performers

The Genius of Moondog

Homeless in San Francisco: Nate the Great

The Rise of the $8 Ice Cube

The Business of Building Roller Coasters

The Business of Fake Diplomas

Mapping the Steepest Streets of San Francisco

A Profile of Infamous Media Hoaxster, Alan Abel

 

 

 

How the Father of Claymation Lost His Company

How Esurance Lost Its Mascot to the Internet

The Bizarro Life of Cartoonist Dan Piraro

The Time Everyone “Corrected” the World’s Smartest Woman

The Art Forger Who Became a National Hero

Who Owns the Copyright to ‘Happy Birthday’?

 

 

 

Life in the Silicon Prairie: Tech’s great migration to the Midwest

The Great Beanie Baby Bubble of ’99 (and what it tells us about Bitcoin)

The failed quest to bring smells to the internet

How the sharing economy makes us trust complete strangers

How the king of fake news built his empire

The rise and demise of American Airlines’ lifetime pass

On Sears and the politics of patents

The botched Coca-Cola heist of 2006

The 30-year-old retirees

Profile of Alex Tew, founder of Calm.com

The $336m failure of Fab.com

Profile on ClassPass founder, Payal Kadakia

The invention of Hot Cheetos

The man who sold shares of himself

 

 

 

Why You Should Love Hipster Entrepreneurs

 

 

 

The Dancing Robot That Took Over San Francisco

The Business of Fake Hollywood Money

The Invention of the Slurpee

The Typo That Destroyed a NASA Rocket

The Rise and Fall of the Fireman’s Pole

How Cotton Candy Was Popularized By a Dentist

The Evolution of Potty Training Tech

 

 

 

How Much Does It Cost to Book Your Favorite Band?

 

 

 

The Pen Pal Romances of WriteAPrisoner.com

 

 

 

Why Portland has so many strip clubs

The most expensive cars ever sold: A data analysis

 

 

 

Millennials have very little confidence in most major institutions

Americans seem more interested in the inauguration protests than the inauguration