Selected Work

One soundtrack at the U.S. Open: Heckling from gamblers

At the first U.S. Open played in a state with legal sports betting, gambling clearly was in the air. But bettors who tried to take advantage of being there in person were in for a rude awakening.

Published in The Washington Post.

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He hit three monster bets — and then the sportsbook wouldn’t pay

One bettor’s six-figure payout was delayed for months because of a practice sportsbooks increasingly use as an insurance policy, according to industry observers.

Published on the front page of The Washington Post.

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Tax hikes could stunt sports betting. Some lawmakers say that’s the point.

Debates over proposed tax hikes for sportsbooks reveal persistent, fundamental disagreements over how the industry should be allowed to evolve.

Published in The Washington Post.

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An old-school Las Vegas bookie takes on a new era of sports betting

Chris Andrews and his right hands at the South Point, Jimmy Vaccaro and Vinny Magliulo, have a combined 147 years of experience taking bets in Nevada — and a philosophy that dates from a time when relationships and a human touch ruled an industry that has rapidly changed.

Published in The Washington Post.

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The over-the-top home offices of full-time sports bettors

Full-time sports bettors do anything possible to gain an edge, including spending many thousands of dollars on home offices that would put TV control rooms to shame.

Published in The Washington Post.

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Betting inside a poke shop, he put D.C.’s sportsbook under attack

The beleaguered District-run sportsbook changed its rules in the name of “health, safety, and the welfare of District residents.” The real reason? A single customer who was exploiting inaccurate lines to make a fortune.

Published on the front page of The Washington Post.

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D.C.’s sportsbook recorded a rarity in June: It lost money

A public-records request turned up more unflattering insights into the District-run sportsbook, including that it paid our more in winnings one month than it handled in wagers.

Published in The Washington Post.

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Betting on Elections Can Tell Us a Lot. Why Is It Mostly Illegal?

The only such market of any size in the U.S. is on the verge of being shut down—even though studies suggest that such markets may predict elections better than polls do.

Published in The New Yorker.

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After a customer said a promo was deceptive, BetMGM offered him $12,000

If BetMGM offered a man who disputed a “risk-free” promotion 12 times what he lost, are the thousands of Americans with similar experiences owed restitution, too?

Published in The Washington Post.

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Watching the Super Bowl? Bettor Beware.

Ahead of a record-setting Super Bowl for betting, the trendiest ways to wager stack the odds against customers even more than usual.

Published in The Wall Street Journal.

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‘The last good website’: Defector in pursuit of a journalists’ utopia

In 2019, the entire Deadspin editorial staff quit in protest. They reunited for a spinoff site, Defector. The startup would be worker-owned, subscriber-based, and value-driven—a blueprint, they hoped, for a profitable and ethical media company.

Published in the Columbia Journalism Review.

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Voicemail: Digital media goes back to basics

Journalists are depending on email to reach readers. Some of the most interesting and successful newsletters resemble 2000s-era blogs: conversational, meandering, and remarkably intimate.

Published in the Columbia Journalism Review.

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As sports betting booms, pick sellers promise can’t-miss riches

Hundreds if not thousands of gambling touts across the country now sell picks, promising an easy road to riches. It’s almost always a bad investment.

Published in The Washington Post.

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Sportsbooks Say You Can Win Big. Then They Try to Limit Winners.

Many U.S. sportsbook operators are seeking to boost profits by weeding out winning customers. Bettors who show signs of savvy are being limited faster and more aggressively than in the past.

Published in The Washington Post.

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Sportsbooks Call Them Risk-Free Bets. Just Don’t Read the Fine Print.

Sign-up perks have been effective at persuading Americans to open betting accounts, but many lead to a rude awakening: Even “risk-free” bets can result in the customer losing every penny.

Published in The Washington Post.

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A Gambling Sharp Breaks Into the NFL

Every gambler tries to see the future. Warren Sharp might be the only one who also helps shape it.

Published in The New Yorker.

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At Sloan Sports Conference, Criticism Mounts over Diversity, Access

Attending the biggest, most influential conference in sports is often a mark of privilege, leading critics to say the event doesn’t just reflect barriers to entering the sports industry, but helps entrench them.

Published in The Washington Post.

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Pets Can Help Fight Climate Change with an Insect-Based Diet

Despite what scientists call the “yuck factor,” bugs could be a sustainable secret ingredient for the booming pet food industry.

Published in The Washington Post.

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Sportsbooks are sweating their billion-dollar marketing bet

Sportsbooks made a gutsy bet: spending billions to acquire customers would pay off long term. Americans have placed $150 billion in legal bets since 2018, yet only FanDuel has turned a quarterly profit. The books are growing tired of losing.

Published in The Washington Post.

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TV Is Making More Documentaries Than Ever — but Skipping the Journalism

It’s become common for big-budget documentaries to give subjects incentives that would be scandalous in any other news medium.

Published in the Columbia Journalism Review.

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A Columnist Fails to Meet the Press

Oregon journalists and political insiders said that during Nick Kristof’s four months on the trail, his campaign often adopted a Trumpian posture toward the media: shielding the candidate from hard-hitting interviews, refusing to turn over documents that might shed light on the residency dispute, blocking a tenacious reporter from attending press conferences, and attacking the motives of respected journalists.

Published in The Fine Print.

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Esquire Loses a Man at His Best

Great editors embody their brands. Granger has used Esquire to stretch the bounds of conventional masculinity even as the culture was forcing us to re-imagine what it means to be a man.

Published in the Columbia Journalism Review.

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The Transformation of David Brooks

Brooks occupies a lonely journalistic space. When he began using his column several years ago to philosophize about personal morality, he says, “I felt like I was wandering off the map into weird territory.” Where to, exactly, remains mystifying.

Published in the Columbia Journalism Review.

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All In: How Gambling Swallowed Sports Media

A devilish dilemma faces sports reporters: break news and send sportsbooks scrambling to update their odds, or wait a few seconds, place a bet first, and give yourself a good shot at winning a small fortune.

Published in the Columbia Journalism Review.

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Leo Celi and the Holy Grail of Personalized Medicine

Dr. Celi and his team at MIT imagine a system in which the collective experience of every possible patient on earth is aggregated and analyzed, making the art of medicine much more scientific.

Published in Chief Healthcare Executive.

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Journalists’ $80 Million Vote

The All-NBA selection puts both players and media in an agonizing position.

Published in the TheWeek.com.

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What Does It Mean for a Journalist Today To Be a Serious Reader?

I spoke with a dozen accomplished journalists of various specialties who manage to do their work while reading a phenomenal number of books, about and beyond their latest project. 

Published in the Columbia Journalism Review.

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How Sports Media Fell Back in Love With Fighting

“The desire to punch other boys in the nose will survive in our culture,” A. J. Liebling wrote in The Sweet Science. The desire to pick fights, however, has proven far easier to tame than our overpowering urge to watch them.

Published in the Columbia Journalism Review.

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