Recent Work

My Friend Meet Friend party had a secret agenda: to link my discontinuities. The past and the present, linked. Friends from different worlds I inhabit, linked.

A provocative study suggests that a placebo effect treatment for cancer patients can improve real-world pain levels and resilience.

Maybe you had an imaginary friend in childhood. I did. And 32 years later, in the midst of a global pandemic, he came back again.

What happens when a building of strangers comes to depend on each other to stay healthy? One person’s COVID-19 exposure could endanger others in proximity. We all need to protect each other at the same time.

We find so much comfort in the presence of others, sometimes without realizing it. Even having someone in the next room is a comfort. But when the house is still and there’s nothing else to do, the self confronts. And we would do almost anything to avoid hearing what it has to say.

At night, by candlelight, the world feels enduring, ancient and slow. To sit and stare at a candle is to drop through a portal to a time when firelight was the alpha and omega of our days.

I went 28 days without applying soaps, shampoo or deodorant while I tested out an invisible live bacterial body spray that promised to leave my skin feeling cleaner and more hydrated. Here’s what happened next.