Writer of the Year
— 2022, National City & Regional Magazine Awards
Hi. Thanks for visiting my web site.
I’m an award-winning journalist and author who’s covered a wide array of subjects and stories — from politics, business and tech to sports, pop culture and health & wellness. I’m fascinated by life in America in the early decades of the 21st century. Who are we? How did we get here? Who’s doing well and who isn’t? Where are we headed? What would make things better?
Much of my recent work has focused on what I see as the overarching story of the last half-century — America’s widening income and wealth gap, which has caused a political and cultural divide and left us with a fraying sense of the common good.
It’s the theme of my highly praised new book, Triumph of the Yuppies: America, the Eighties, and the Creation of an Unequal Nation (Grand Central Publishing). The book details the massive shifts that took place in America during the 1980s and lays out how materialistic, career-obsessed young urban professionals—much-loathed “Yuppies”— largely invented the world we live in today.
I touch on similar ideas in Common Good, my bi-weekly newsletter about politics, culture and the economy.
I spent nearly a decade as editor of Philadelphia magazine and chief content officer of its parent company, Metro Corp (which also publishes Boston magazine). I happily continue to write for both publications, and others, and in 2022 I was named Writer of the Year at the National City & Regional Magazine Awards.
My previous books include MTV: The Making of a Revolution, a business and cultural history of the groundbreaking cable network, and Fitness Made Simple, which I co-authored with fitness expert John Basedow. My exploration of the maddening state of American healthcare — “My Daughter’s $29,000 Appendectomy” — was included in Best American Medical Writing.
I’ve been a podcast producer and host (haven’t we all?), and I’ve made appearances on CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, NPR, the BBC and many other outlets.
I grew up outside of Scranton, Pennsylvania and currently live in suburban Philadelphia.