Who in their right mind would bring an expert in "trash talk" to speak in a corporate setting?! It's a fair question, but also an incomplete one. There's a reason my latest book has been covered in outlets like Fast Company, the Wall Street Journal, Scientific American, and Inc. Magazine, and why I've been invited to share thought leadership on podcasts like Adam Grant's ReThinking. And that's because, ultimately, what we're talking about when we talk about trash talk is the ability to perform under pressure — and it's those lessons of resilience, grit, and peak performance, which I absorbed from hundreds of conversations with athletes, performance psychologists, neuroscientists, and military officers, among many others, that are applicable to audiences and teams everywhere.By pairing hilarious stories of competition and smack talk with practical ways to apply the lessons from top competitors to our own lives, we can find the path toward reaching individual peak performance, building mental toughness, and leading teams to reach their full potential. I'd love to speak at your next meeting, conference, or retreat.

Contracted by Apple's Retail Engagement and Marketing team to work with cross-functional teams that strategize and execute internal communications across a variety of platforms and touch points to a global audience of retail-store and contact-center employees.

Author of new book for Public Affairs, an imprint of Hachette, about the enduring human impulse to talk crap to one another, especially when in competition: "Trash Talk: The Only Book About Destroying Your Rivals That Isn't Total Garbage." As a modern cultural phenomenon, trash talk has often been treated as frivolous, but that dismissive attitude has flattened — or missed entirely — something that has been a feature of human behavior since David put down Goliath and Homer whispered his smack-talking deities into existence. For this book, my trash-talk reporting journey has crossed time, culture, and geography. It has taken me to playground basketball courts, cricket grounds, Roast Battle stages, UFC mega fights, wrestling rings, and military survival schools (where soldiers learn to metabolize extreme levels of stress and perform under the most intense pressure), and has led to hundreds of conversations with athletes, referees, sports reporters, performance psychologists, debate coaches, comedians, neurobiologists, social scientists, cultural critics, historians, marketing gurus, content-moderation experts, linguists, moral philosophers, political strategists, high-ranking military officers, and more. For better or worse, talking trash is inescapably part of who we are as human beings. It’s high time we actually paid attention to the practice and tried to understand not only how it works, but also why it matters. Published December 5, 2023.

As the executive editorial director (and formerly the head of editorial) for The Atlantic's in-house branded content studio, I oversaw, top-edited, and provided creative and story direction to a team of writers and reporters involved in every stage of content creation, from ideation and pre-sale to pre-production and execution. I'm especially proud of my ability to spot and develop talent. Re:think works with a wide range of clients, from Allstate and Lyft to Nest and Netflix. The studio's award-winning offerings include feature articles, audio stories, multimedia programs, documentaries, and more.

In addition to authoring a book about American stadiums (see below), I have written for GQ, Slate, the Wall Street Journal, Men's Journal, Town & Country, Rolling Stone, The Ringer, and the Los Angeles Times, among other publications, covering everything from identity theft to the World Series of Birding to the New Orleans Police Department on Mardi Gras. (That last piece, written for GQ, was named Notable in "The Best American Travel Writing" anthology.) Meanwhile, as a freelance creative, I have conceived of, written, edited, and otherwise spearheaded custom content programs and brand materials for an array of outlets, including Wired, Glamour, Vogue, Self, Golf Digest, Forbes, Travel & Leisure, Vanity Fair, and The Atlantic—and on behalf of many dozens of outside brands. I have also, on occasion, crafted awards-ceremony scripts.

I wrote a book! But not just any book. A book with a really long subtitle: "The Arena: Inside the Tailgating, Ticket-Scalping, Mascot-Racing, Dubiously Funded, and Possibly Haunted Monuments of American Sport." A finalist for PEN/ESPN's 2018 Award for Literary Sportswriting, "The Arena" was lauded by critics—including in the New York Times Book Review and the Wall Street Journal—and featured by media outlets across the country, from NPR, NBC Sports, and ESPN Radio to GQ, the Washington Post, and Men's Journal, among many others.

In my time at The Observer, I wrote long-form feature and cover stories (including a bombshell 2013 profile of Carmelo Anthony, which broke the news that the star forward was going to test the free-agent market), countless front-of-book dispatches, and launched "Liquid Lunch," a biweekly wine-and-spirits column. As deputy editor, I was responsible for editing a range of columnists, staff reporters, and freelancers, who focused on a diverse array of topics, from media and technology to restaurant reviews and pop culture.

Working with some of the industry's leading editors and writers, I reported and fact-checked feature-length magazine stories for the monthly publication. In this time, I additionally served as a contributing writer for the print mag and GQ's website, covering sports, spirits, travel, and more.

As a member of the GQ Design Group, I helped pioneer branded content at Conde Nast—at a time when "branded content" wasn't even a term, really—developing and executing articles and other special sections on behalf of brands like HBO, Nautica, Gillette, Men's Wearhouse, and many more. Additionally, I worked with the sales and marketing teams, writing copy for and branding all sales books, sales proposals, merch events, GQ invites, promotional websites (a la GQ Connects and The Gentlemen's Fund, RIP), marketing newsletters, and in-book promotional pages.

A bit of extracurricular fun. Along with two talented friends, I created, co-edited, and contributed both short humor pieces and longer feature articles to Uncle, a Brooklyn-based humor and culture magazine aimed at promoting the creative and experimental works of emerging writers and artists. The magazine lived both online and via hard copies, enjoying a three-issue print run.

In my time at the Advocate, I was promoted from staff writer to editor of the Boston-based publication, which boasted a readership of 65,000. As editor, I managed a team of staff writers, columnists, and freelancers in a deadline-oriented newsroom, assigning and editing stories, overseeing layout and production, and writing display copy, headlines, and editorials. As a staff writer, I covered local news, arts, and sports.

For the weekly newsmagazine show NOW on PBS, I worked closely with hosts David Brancaccio and Maria Hinojosa, coordinating anchoring duties and production schedules, while also assisting in research and fact-checking of production stories and interviews.

As a generalist reporter, I covered politics, education, business, transportation, and civic affairs for the weekly paper, publishing more than 50 feature and news stories.

As an editorial assistant at the legendary literary journal, I read manuscript submissions and helped with proofreading and fact-checking. Additionally, I helped transfer The Review's interview series, Writers at Work, online as part of the DNA of Literature project.