Writing
How I Created a Fictional Psychopath
Psychology Today, 8/30/24
Well-researched fiction can illuminate the realities of psychopathy.
Of Psychopaths and CEOs
CrimeReads, 8/22/24
On the rise of entrepreneurs who act like “Greek gods—mercurial, sometimes destructive, and murkily in control of our lives.”
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How to Build a Villain’s Lair
How and Why to Use Your Setting to Create Characters and Plot
How to Make Your Readers Love an Unlikeable Character
Why is America getting a new $100 billion nuclear weapon?
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 2/8/21
It’s unpopular and strategically dubious. Yet the US Air Force is spending big on this new weapon of mass destruction.
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The Pandemic Closed Borders–and Stirred a Longing for Home
Wired, 10/1/20
The dispersed modern family depends on easy travel. Now that it’s much harder, the question becomes: How long is too long to not see a parent?
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The Risks of Building Too Many Bio Labs
The NewYorker.com, 3/18/20
Alarmed by new pathogens, we’re building more labs to study them. Can we do so without raising the likelihood of a catastrophic breach?
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Q&As and Blog Posts on Existential Threats
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 2014-2019
Interviews with authors, experts, and Nobel prize winners on weapons of mass destruction, climate change, cyberthreats, and more.
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Who is Kim Jong-un?
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 5/29/18
Pop quiz: Which of the following statements is true of Pyongyang’s three-Kim dynasty? (A) Kim Il-sung’s cult of personality inspired Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu; (B) Kim Jong-il kidnapped his favorite film director; (C) Kim Jong-un had his half-brother poisoned; or (D) All of the above.
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Can women save the world?
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 6/15/17
Wonder Woman wants to defeat Ares, the god of war, and thereby restore peace to mankind. But the real-life history of women-led peace movements is also exceptionally rich. Why is that?
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Crusades of the clueless: Who will win the war on science?
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 11/1/16
There once was a civilization that led the world in science, but it abandoned its tradition of scientific inquiry and collapsed into closed-mindedness and despotism. My review of The War on Science: Who’s Waging It, Why It Matters, What We Can Do About It, a big, bracing battle cry by Shawn Otto.
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