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  • I blog about travel, culture, art and more for the Huffington Post, one of the most-read blogs on the web, and write a column about travel and luxury lifestyle twice a month for The Street. I'm teaching a travel writing workshop over at the Renegade Writer. I've contributed to American Archaeology, AmericanStyle, Boston Magazine, Business Traveler, BusinessWeek, The Chicago Tribune, The Christian Science Monitor, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Continental, Group Travel Planet, Fast Company, Glamour, Ladies’ Home Journal, Men's Journal, Money, Mother Jones, New York Magazine, Psychology Today, Robb Report, Reason, Sierra Magazine, USA Weekend, The Washington Post, Working Mother, Yankee, Yoga Journal, among other places. I've been a Contributing Editor at Inc., and Editor-at-Large at American Demographics magazine, a New York Times Professional Fellow and a National Press Foundation Fellow. My articles have won awards from the American Society of Journalists and Authors and the American Society of Business Press Editors. I started my career writing books, and am the proud author of Americans at Play, which is about trends in outdoor recreation and travel (New Strategist 1997) and Best of Health, which is about trends in health. (New Strategist, 2000).

Featured Work

  • Into the Wild--Inc.
    The senior managers of Timbuk2, a San Francisco-based manufacturer of messenger bags, gathered on a gently sloping granite ledge at an altitude of 12,000 feet, overlooking the blue-gray shimmer of one of the dozen or so Ice Lakes, slopes of stubby pine trees, and beyond onto ragged peaks. It was the middle of June, but snow still mounded on the ground. A thunderstorm had just skirted the campsite and the wind screamed constantly, cold and fierce. The group was halfway through a seven-day backpacking trip organized by the National Outdoor Leadership School, or NOLS. Accompanying them were two NOLS instructors and me; I'd tagged along to see what would happen.
  • Island of the Midwinter Sun --Men's Journal
    Can a Caribbean island withstand a cruise ship assault?
  • Your Name In Stick Up Lightbulbs: New York Magazine
    How infomercial king AJ Khubani finds the "but wait there's more" products that make millions.
  • Gary Heavin is On a Mission From God: Inc., October 2006
    This story just won a 2007 outstanding article award from the American Society of Journalists and Authors. It's a profile of Curves, the 30 minute fitness franchise, and its charismatic leader, Gary Heavin. There's one Curves for every two McDonald's in the United States, which was reason enough to spend two weeks in Waco figuring out what makes such a simple concept make such big bucks. This story is the first feature on Curves to run in a national business magazine.
  • A Wild Pair--Robb Report
    My profile of a luxury safari lodge in Kruger National Park.
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« Bright Lights, Bigger City --Continental, March 2006 | Main | The Immigration Blame Game »

The Mobility Myth--Reason, April 2006

Reason_1Here is a story debunking the mobility myth that I wrote for Reason magazine's April 2006 issue. Many people believe that we live in "an increasingly mobile society", but the fact is, now more than ever, Americans are more likely to stay put.

What you don't get in the article is the amusing contributor's note, which may be my favorite to date: Alison Stein Wellner knew it wasn't quite normal to move 13 times in 10 years, as she did the decade after she graduated from college. Still, she says, "I didn't think we were off-trend"; she took it on faith that Americans today are increasingly footloose. It wasn't until she looked at the data that she realized such serial relocation was more typical of her grandparent's generation than of her own. In "The Mobility Myth", Wellner tears apart the notion that we're a nation of rootless wanderers. A former editor at American Demographics, Wellner has written on culture and trends for Mother Jones, The Washington Post and many other publications. She lives in Manhattan, for the moment.

 

Here's one funny fact that this note didn't include. Not only did I grow up in Manhattan, but I actually now live in the apartment that I grew up in. (Not with my parents, I might add.) Talk about coming full circle! Rest assured: I no longer have any illusion of being on-trend.


March 22, 2006 in On Culture & Trends |

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