HELLO. I am a writer, journalist and teacher.

I cover insurgencies, global environmental problems, travel, and the geopolitical fault lines that underlie them all, for magazines like Harper’s, Outside, and Condé Nast Traveler.

I specialize in Latin America, particularly Cuba, but have worked from Patagonia to Phnom Penh, and Cape Town to Kazakhstan. I am the author of The Boys from Dolores (2007), about what happened to Fidel Castro’s own schoolmates. It was named to the New York Times “Ten Best” list.

Most Recently…

In the July issue of Condé Nast UK you’ll find my article on Agritourism in the Pacific Northwest. Travel to where the finest organic food is grown.

In April I appeared as a guest of Neil Conan’s on the NPR program Fresh Air to discuss the experience of researching the article “A Wild Country Grows in South Sudan,” which appears in the April ’13 issue of Outside Magazine.

Listen to the podcast here – “South Sudan: A Warn-Torn Nation Transforms To Tourist Destination.”

These are some of my stories.

• A Wild Country Grows in South Sudan
• Agritourism in the Pacific Northwest (PDF)
• Anwar al-Awlaki: The Next Bin Laden
• Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
• Blue Beauty
• Chasing Che
• China Lost & Found
• City on the Edge
• Cuba’s Rising Art Scene
• Dams in Chilean Patagonia
• The Day Fidel Died
• Day of Ascension
• Dispatches – cbc radio: The Cuban State Diet
• Earth Beat – Footprints: Who pinched my ride?
• Fresh Air: South Sudan
• Harper’s Video: The Cuban State Diet
• Hugo’s World
• Immersion Therapy—Interview with Anderson Cooper
• Life Under Alabama’s Harsh Immigration Law
• How to Make Friends with Strangers
• Meet The Neighbors
• New Tactics for an Old Regime in Cuba
• NO DEAL, a look at Obama’s reluctant partners inside Cuba
• Off the Deep End
• Path of Dreams: The Trip of a Lifetime in Uganda
• Playground of the Gods
• Rafting the Yangtze River, China
• Sand Storm: Yemen on the Brink
• Sleepless in Stockholm
• Slow Food and Agritourism in the Pacific Northwest
• The Beautiful Game: Soccer Violence
• The Ancient Ruins Terror Can’t Destroy
• The Boys From Dolores XX
• The Cabin of My Dreams
• The Cuban Money Crisis
• The Filthy, Fecund Secret of Emilia-Romagna
• The Ghost of Shipwrecks Future
• The Real Rebels of Timbuktu
• The Sweetest Villains
• Thirty Days as a Cuban
• Turkey: Archeological Dig Reshaping Human History
• Unnatural Disaster
• Writers Voice: Cuba Present And Past
• YouTube Videos