I'm the chief digital writer for the Columbia Journalism Review
From NPR: "In 2001, after working up to it for years, Tim Friede finally allowed himself to be bitten by a snake. Friede has been fascinated with snakes for as long as he can remember. He used to hunt garter snakes growing up in Wisconsin. As an adult, his
From the New York Times: "It was May 1996, and David Kaczynski, a counselor for troubled youth in upstate New York, sat down to write a letter to his brother Ted. A month earlier, his brother had been shockingly unmasked as the shadowy Unabomber, responsible for a 17-year campaign
From Mental Floss: "It was 1955, and Tucker, 30, was underwater in Bermuda. He was diving at the site of a shipwreck, which he would later learn to be the 16th-century Spanish ship the San Pedro. On the seventh day, Tucker was tugging on a piece of wood 30
From Mental Floss: "Louis Knapp saw the girl in the red parka and decided to stop. It was roughly 3 p.m. on Sunday, December 1, 1946, and Knapp was driving along Route 67A in Bennington, Vermont. He asked the girl where she was going. To hike the Long
From AP: "One of the greatest mountain guides will attempt to scale the world’s highest peak for the 31st time — and possibly the 32nd time as well — and break his own record. Kami Rita, 55, flew to Mount Everest from Kathmandu to lead a group of climbers who
From Modern Met: "For most of her life, Tilley Lockey has been championing the limb different community. The 19-year-old singer, influencer, and host lost both her arms to meningitis when she was just 15 months old. But rather than hide it or try to blend in, Lockey has embraced
From the Washington Post: "She has broken world women’s records in the 75-79 age group for every distance and, at times, beaten the fastest men in that age group.Rice is 5 feet 2 inches tall and weighs 95 pounds. Her physiology is so striking that her maximal
From NBC: "A 2-year-old boy spent the night alone in the remote Arizona wilderness and walked 7 miles through mountain lion territory, authorities said. A huge search operation was launched when the boy disappeared from his home in Seligman, Arizona, about 100 miles south of Grand Canyon National Park.
From The Cut: "A friend suggested Katie and Houston try a form of communication known in the autism world as spelling. Spelling involved not just Houston but Houston and Katie as a team. Katie held in the air an 8.5-by-11-inch board or stencil covered with the letters of
From the New York Times: "The firefighter scooped up the figure slumped on the kitchen floor and dashed for the ambulance waiting on Blake Street. As he moved through the smoky haze, he was struck by a thought that is still with him: It was like nothing was in
From Nautilus: "It’s impossible to know exactly when each of the five mutations happened. When, deep in my marrow, one thing after another went awry, and divided my life. Like all people who have been ill, my life is split into Before and After. Did a mutation occur
From the WSJ: "In the spring of 2023, a London banker-turned-bookmaker reached out to a few contacts with an audacious request: Can you help me take down the Texas lottery? Bernard Marantelli had a plan in mind. He and his partners would buy nearly every possible number in a