Journalism

I've published culture criticism, personal essays, in-depth reported pieces, profiles, editorials and more at CNET, Milwaukee Magazine, Louisville Magazine and elsewhere. Here's a sampling of my work.

Children of Men didn't predict the future: A 15th-anniversary rewatch

CNET | Sept. 4, 2021

"I found it comforting, early in the pandemic, to read about the many plagues of antiquity, because history provides proof the human race will go on. And I found it comforting during the other real-life antecedents to Theo's dystopian future, to know mine wasn't the first generation to fear that maybe this was actually the beginning of the end."

"Perhaps a lifetime of frustration without an obvious cause ("car blindness," the phenomenon is called) was my camel, and the anti-car movement was merely the straw that broke its back."

How I Learned to Hate Cars, and What I'm Doing About It

CNET | Jul. 10, 2023

cheesehead-foamation-factory-made-in-america-2021-wisconsin-cnet-112.jpg

"To curdle means to spoil or sour, to turn something good into something bad. But curdling is also the process of coagulating milk into cheese. A happy accident. The Cheesehead hat is another happy accident, or "dumb luck," as Bruno describes it, an example of the very Wisconsin notion of flipping "spoiled" into a point of cultural (pun intended) pride."

How Wisconsin's Cheesehead hat turned an insult into an icon

CNET | Sept. 8, 2021

Review: Station Eleven's HBO adaptation came at an odd, but good, time

These are the baby apps that helped me survive being a new mom

I don't know why more people haven't watched this perfect Christmas movie

A pink iPhone 13? Apple, please make this happen

The viral hair tool I recommend to everyone

I tried the 'anti-Instagram' app BeReal, and it's actually kinda fun

You need to watch the funniest 'true crime' show on Netflix

CNET

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"The intersection of Chicago St. and Milwaukee St. is a peaceful one. There’s a parking garage, a few office buildings, a café. As Milwaukee struggles to define our identity beyond beer, brats and the Bronze Fonz, we will reasonably take issue with purely relational sobriquets: We’re not Chicago’s little brother, younger cousin or drunk uncle."

Why Chicago Shouldn’t Be Worried About Milwaukee’s Ascendance

Milwaukee Magazine | Jun. 15, 2017

"Each month, everyone’s favorite spot for carbs-on-carbs (Ian’s Pizza, for the uninitiated) releases their “Mad Scientist” pizza. It’s a flavor dreamed up by Ian’s employees and/or the pizza-loving public, concocted in what I can only imagine is a dim-lit, fog-filled Franken-style laboratory."

I Tried It: Ian’s Pizza’s “Polish Moon” Pie

Milwaukee Magazine | Jun. 6, 2019

"Within a month of moving to the suburbs, I was invited to my first Tupperware party. It wasn’t so much a party as an unending parade of multi-functional plastic kitchen accoutrements. It ended with a Russian roulette-style game wherein the next host was chosen against her will. It was the most suburban thing I had ever participated in."

Living in the Suburbs Isn’t So Bad, Right?

Milwaukee Magazine, Jan. 9, 2019

Ilana Glazer's Stand-up is Equal Parts Laugh-out-Loud and Laugh-so-You-Don't-Cry

Writer Dan Kois Visits Milwaukee With his Newly Published Oral History of ‘Angels in America’

Review: ‘Photograph 51’ Avoids Easy Answers & Questions of Likability

An Insider’s Guide to Wauwatosa

‘Netizens’ Brings Cautious Optimism to the #MeToo Age

One to Watch: This Milwaukee Americana Band is Going Places

How Compulsive Organization Nearly Derailed my Wedding

Milwaukee Magazine

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"With vestigial paint streaking her palms and numerous pairs of overalls sacrificed to the mural gods, Richter is not just scrappy, but dedicated. Her Hikes Point mural is a visual history of the neighborhood, brought forward in time by a foregrounded clock that seems to radiate windmill arms of multi-colored triangles and rhombuses."

Muralist Liz Richter Saturates the City in Color

Louisville Magazine | Sept. 23, 2019

"Whether I’m surrounded by the unobscured trappings of late capitalism or a premonition of its eventual demise, the ambiance is at first one of melancholy. Hollister’s aggressive music is silent, giving way to the sad hum of vending machines. The racks at Forever 21 give the disorienting appearance of infinity."

Mall Walking In the Post-Retail Age

Louisville Magazine | Feb. 24, 2020

Think Famous Womanizer Picasso Should Be Canceled? KMAC Has a Better Idea

Louisville Magazine | Dec. 12, 2019

"It’s not just Picasso’s personal life that invites scrutiny, if you ask most art critics with contemporary sensibilities, but his art itself. Picasso’s approach to African sculpture has been called appropriative, even colonialist, and the nude women of Les Demoiselles d’Avignon writhe beneath the male gaze."

"A self-designated 'Kentucky boy' who grew up in Georgetown and came of age on the Bourbon Trail, Hawkins radiates Southern charm with an unwavering grin, a Kentucky-hug drawl and the kind of earnest introspection that self-indicts but never effaces."

Mocktober Is Upon Us

Louisville Magazine | Oct. 23, 2019