Articles 2025
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Natural, Artificial, Ethical? How Synthetic Biology Is Overturning Old Categories
Coller Venture Review, 2023
For a half century we’ve been telling ourselves a story about technology as a fall from grace, about artifice as the source of human suffering and environmental ruin – even as we consumed more and more of its products. The idealistic scientists and entrepreneurs building the new biology tell a different story, a story of life and renewal. -
Gadgets and Gizmos That Inspired Adam Smith
Reason, July 2023
Adam Smith appreciated the beauty and allure of intricate systems.
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The Brilliance of Guo Pei
American Purpose, May 01, 2023
Questions of appropriation and cultural legacy are explored in Chinese couturier Guo Pei’s challenging and extravagant dresses.
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Notes on Progress: Artificial flavoring
Works in Progress, April 06, 2023
"Artificial" didn't scare Americans in the 19th century. Why does it scare us now?
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Aviators Make Biden an All-American Badass
Foreign Policy, March 24, 2023
The sunglasses are a symbol of loyalty, persistence—and the U.S. president.
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Synthetic Meat Will Change the Ethics of Eating
The Wall Street Journal, December 23, 2022
Consumers will soon be able to dine on chicken and other animal proteins grown in a factory, upending the way we think about nature and technology
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What Shopping Did for American Equality
The Wall Street Journal, December 08, 2022
From five-and-dimes to suburban malls, the experience of browsing and buying has helped to define public life
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‘Status and Culture’ Review: Making the Cut
The Wall Street Journal, October 07, 2022
Review of Status and Culture: How Our Desire for Social Rank Creates Taste, Identity, Art, Fashion, and Constant Change by W. David Marx
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Marc Andreessen’s Housing NIMBYism Is Losing Ground
Bloomberg Opinion, August 09, 2022
The investor and his neighbors want to block multiunit construction in America’s most expensive town. But California’s reforms are gradually overriding such local opposition.
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Can the US Housing Crisis Be Fixed By Abolishing Zoning?
Bloomberg Opinion, July 31, 2022
A conversation with author M. Nolan Gray on the social and economic costs of urban zoning and what American cities can learn from Houston.