Death, bugs, moon landings and other things that take up space in my brain

Let's try something new

In late January, I, along with around 300 colleagues, read in the New York Times that as of the following day, we’d be officially unemployed. The travails of The Messenger have been well documented, both through reporting and essays from some of the other veterans of what is now not-so-affectionately called The Mess (or, as one person put in a hilarious bit of gallows humor, “The Fyre Fest of the Media.”)

I’ve been one of the lucky ones. I was a member of the science and technology team, which appears to have been one of the more functional parts of the business. My editors, Dave Ewalt and Claire Cameron, were both incredible and while there was a fair amount of churn, I got to do some actual journalism, producing stories I’m still proud of (unfortunately, our wayward leader Jimmy Finkelstein nuked those stories off the Internet, along with the rest of The Messenger’s archive). I’ve also managed to secure full time employment pretty quickly after the debacle, writing for a trade publication covering the semiconductor industry.

But while computer chips are fascinating, I’ve found myself missing all the other topics I got to cover at The Messenger. I miss writing about insects and anthropology. I REALLY miss writing about astronomy and space exploration and the impossible frontiers that are starting to seem like inevitabilities. And perhaps more than anything, I miss writing about the science of death.

That’s a topic I first got involved with while working on my thesis for my master’s degree. After my first story proved dreadfully boring (nobody needs to read 8,000 words about ant colony optimization ), a friend advised me to just figure out what interests me. Having come terrifying close to death myself after my heart decided to crap out on me in 2020, I began diving into medical journals and found a raging debate about brain death. A condensed version of that thesis ended up running on The Daily Beast and I reported out a follow up for The Mess (again, nuked from space now).

Here’s what I don’t miss: I don’t miss working for nepo baby dilettante morons who can take my health insurance and livelihood away in an instant. I don’t miss working for corporations like Bell Media in my native Canada where I survived countless rounds of layoffs by the skin of my teeth and constantly felt like an integer on an Excel spreadsheet. I’m lucky enough to have a pay cheque, so my bills are paid, and I’m lucky to be working for good people who care about their employees. Right now, I’m in a spot where I can produce journalism for the joy of it, covering only the things that get my motor running.

So that’s what this page is going to be: a one-stop shop for the stories I want to do. It will mostly be science. A fair amount will be about death - I’ve got some features lined up about not just the science of dying but about what happens to those who come so close to that end but somehow get to carry on.

If this makes a few bucks along the way, great. But more than anything, I hope this is fun for me to write and fun for you to read. It’s time to try something new. So what the hell, let’s give this a shot.