Hi, I'm Jess.

I’m a writer, researcher, and audio producer. I report stories about history, food, culture, politics, and science. I also produce narrative audio, and research and fact-check for podcasts, documentaries, books, and other editorial projects.

I write about strange things seriously: mangoes revered during the Cultural Revolution, an archaeologist with 4,500 beer cans, Irish publicans who also bury the dead, a pastry chef who carved a kitchen out of snow at Denali base camp.

My reporting has appeared in Smithsonian Magazine, Atlas Obscura, Narratively, Serviette, Digest, Lady Science, and Hyphen Magazine, and in three books: A Southern Panther: Conversations with Malik Rahim, Appetite for Freedom, and Gastro Obscura: A Food Adventurer’s Guide. For Heritage Radio Network’s Meat and Three I reported and produced stories on disappearing food traditions, Indigenous foodways, and the case for Margaritaville. I lead-produced two episodes and co-hosted the one on pralines and the Angola 3, reported over three years, which won Signal Awards in History and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion and a Gold Davey.

Alongside the journalism I take on research and fact-checking. I’ve done development research for History Channel’s The Food That Built America and sourced material from the National Archives for Letterjoy, which reproduces historical letters alongside the story behind them. I currently research, fact-check, and write for Lost Women of Science, where I also manage a national Wikipedia initiative funded by Craig Newmark Philanthropies and co-organize edit-a-thons with the Smithsonian.

I came to journalism from research rather than the other way around. I spent five years conducting surveys, focus groups and interviews, and coding behavioral data at MDRC, the Columbia University Couples Lab, and the New York State Psychiatric Institute, where I interviewed trauma survivors for PTSD research.

I’m also Outreach Director for BC Voices, which produces a documentary series on the legal history and intimate impact of American women’s rights. I studied history at Barnard College.

If you have a story, project, or research problem, I’d love to hear about it.