In 1894, America was in the midst of what was then the largest depression in its young history. Amidst all of the Sturm und Drang of the Second Industrial Revolution, the railroad industry had overextended itself and a flood of… Read More ›
Interviews
The Bones of a Country: One Night in a Dead California Desert Town
Driving the 220 miles of road that lie between the Tehachapi mountains and the California-Arizona border, I started hearing the voice of Tom Joad ring in my ears. This here’s a murder country, he said to me. This here’s the bones of… Read More ›
Fat Tuesdays & Slim Pickins: Talking About Homelessness in New Orleans
With Mardi Gras quickly approaching, I thought it might be appropriate to post a piece I wrote last year about an experience I had with a man who come upon hard times and had reluctantly joined the class of poor unfortunates… Read More ›
Fast Friends & High Times at The Oregon Country Fair
Every year during the second weekend of July, around 45,000 of the West Coast’s crunchiest, eco-friendliest, peace crazed Deadheads and Phish Phreaks descend upon the tiny town of Veneta, Oregon for the Oregon Country Fair, a three day celebration of… Read More ›
Other Voices, Other Towns: Conversations With Complete Strangers
It was a little after 8:30 in the morning. I was sitting out on the concrete patio of a strip mall coffee shop in Dearborn, Michigan, still dead to the world due to the deficit of caffeine and nicotine in… Read More ›
Real People, Fake Weed: A Slice of Life High on Spice
There are few things in this world that feel sketchier than meeting up with a person you’ve never met before in a random gas station parking lot. One of those things happens to be meeting up with a person you’ve… Read More ›
The Family Afterward: West Virginia Four Months After The Freedom Industries Chemical Spill
“Put a marshmallow on it.” he told her. “I’m telling you, fish love the marshmallows. Helps ’em to see the bait underwater. Normally it’s hard for fish to see bait moving around, but the marshmallow gives ’em something they can fix their… Read More ›
“Because The Money’s Too Damn Good to Leave” : A Look Inside North Dakota’s Oil Boom
There is no acceptable English word to describe how hot it was on the day I ran into Toby. When I started talking to him on the corner of South Main and Charleston in Las Vegas’s arts district it was… Read More ›
Virally Suppressed - Muckraking For The Modern World 