My piece on Laura’s Law – the involuntary outpatient commitment statute being implemented in California – is out in this month’s issue of Pacific Standard. There are two things that I want to note: 1) This is not a comprehensive or wholly unbiased take on involuntary outpatient commitment. This is the story of one county — the … Continue reading On big stories with narrow perspectives
The New Yorker and Mother Jones both have longform pieces out this week on “the Columbine Effect” — that is, the tendency of would-be school shooters to draw inspiration and practical lessons from previous high-profile killings (of which there are, obviously, a growing number). And I think it’s worth comparing the two theses. The Mother Jones piece focuses on … Continue reading Two (wait, three) piece on the psychology of mass shootings
Photo credit: Gary Hannabarger / Corbis Just finished reading Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself, a book-length conversation between David Foster Wallace and David Lipsky, a journalist who profiled Wallace for Rolling Stone during his Infinite Jest tour back in 1996. Wallace committed suicide in 2008, at the age of 46. The transcript of … Continue reading David Foster Wallace: Peeking into the mind of a genius…
Science & Story 