Home Resume

Writer / Editor / Content Creator

I'm a writer, editor, storyteller, cultural curator, and dance floor instigator living in Los Angeles.

I'm also a Chicago native who's been working in the cannabis industry since 2017 as a brand strategist, content writer, and communications consultant. 

From 2016 to 2018, I covered politics, music, and culture debates as a news editor at The Tylt. I was also Writer-At-Large for Cuepoint, the music section of Medium.

I've taught at yoga studios, high schools, and community colleges. I've also curated performance events from flash mobs, tributes, talent shows, and dance-offs to cabaret variety hours and fundraisers for liberal causes. 

I love identifying meaningful, shareable stories, collaborating with creative teams, and finding opportunities to use my powers for good. 

You can view my résumé here—or check out some of my bylines below.  

/ Politics & Culture /

Oxygen Official Site •

Did The Cops Try To Kill James Brown? Unresolved Questions From The Godfather of Soul's Car Chase

“I never fired at them, or even pointed a gun in their direction, and they still shot at me over and over again,” said James Brown, about his 1988 run from the police, to Al Sharpton. James Brown is lauded as “The Godfather Of Soul” and “The Hardest Working Man In Show Business.” He created funk and in many ways invented modern music. But by the late 1980s, the superstar had fallen on hard times.
Oxygen Official •

Why Is Trump’s Name Invoked In 1 In Every 5 Hate Crimes?

The data around hate crimes reveals some disturbing patterns, among them how our 46th president is sometimes hailed as a patron saint during attacks on Americans of color. A fifth-grader told a Muslim student he supported Donald Trump “because he was going to kill all of the Muslims if he became president.” White high school students in Connecticut taunted Black and Latino teenagers from a rival school by chanting “Trump, Trump, Trump!” A San Francisco Bay Area Assyrian-American woman was harassed on public transportation and told “Trump might deport you.”
Built In Chicago •

Take This Job & Love It: Three Chicago Workplace Cultures Disrupting The Daily Grind

A good company culture is hard to find — just ask the nearly 70% of American workers who describe themselves as disengaged. Most of us have at some point endured a dysfunctional work environment, harassed by nagging Lumberghs, feeling disrespected, dispensable, and skeptical about the very idea of “company culture.” But creating a genuinely thriving company culture is no hollow exercise. Over at Forbes Magazine, Josh Bersin recently proclaimed culture “the hottest topic in business today.”
SheKnows •

Lies My Yoga Teacher Told Me

If you’ve done any time on the mat, you’ve at some point been told to surrender your toxins or melt your heart or make your inner body bright. And though I never asked my students to honor the goddesses that live in their inner thighs, even I cringe recalling some of the silly, nonscience-based claims I subjected people to in my youth. But there were lines that even as a rookie yoga teacher I knew not to cross. For instance, I never told my st

/ Music /

Medium •

Paean to Prince: 15 Fascinating Facts About His Purple Majesty

Like most of America, my Prince infatuation began in 1983 with his transcendent, still-awe-inspiring early 80s hits: “Little Red Corvette,” “Delirious,” and “1999.” (I had no idea he’d released four albums previously, and I’m sure I owed my Prince exposure to MTV finally playing videos by Black artists). I vividly recall sitting in a tree in my front yard with a fellow Prince fanatic, trying to calculate how old we would be in 1999, the age of 27 so incomprehensible to our fifth-grade selves.
The Chicagoist •

Carrie Brownstein Calls Fandom 'Sacred' At Sold-Out Book Talk

Carrie Brownstein may now be more widely known for her award-winning comedy show Portlandia than for being one-third of the legendary feminist rock band Sleater-Kinney. But her audience Friday night at the Museum of Contemporary Art leaned heavily towards Team S-K. Brownstein’s fans are serious devotees: tickets to her MCA talk sold out in a record-breaking nine minutes. The event was part of In Sight Out, a Pitchfork and MCA co
Cuepoint •

The Maneater Manifesto

I throw a Hall & Oates tribute party every year, and every year I get eye rolls and disbelief: “Seriously?” People insist that I “can’t really like them” and dismiss their output as elevator music. Or they assume I’m celebrating them in an ironic, hipsterish, so-dumb-it’s-fun manner—as if I’m throwing a Backstreet Boys or Vanilla Ice tribute. But Hall and Oates are no guilty pleasure. They are a pleasure in which we should all take great pride.
Medium •

The Confessions of Carrie Brownstein

For Gen Xers like me, Carrie Brownstein is first and foremost the high-kicking, larger-than-life guitarist and co-vocalist of Sleater-Kinney, an overtly feminist band that roared out of the Pacific Northwest in the late 90s like a sonic tidal wave, leaving a ruined swath of mainstream stereotypes about “women in music” in their wake. But Brownstein wasn’t just a member of what critic Greil Marcus dubbed “America’s greatest rock band;” the smashing success of Brownstein’s award-winning sketch com
Cuepoint •

Cool Christmas Music That Doesn’t Suck

Recorded in 1977 for Crosby’s “Merrie Olde Christmas” TV special, this amazingly bizarro duet almost didn’t happen. Just before filming was about to start, Bowie informed the show’s producers that he hated “The Little Drummer Boy” and asked if he could sing something else. They scrambled to write a counterpoint melody for him, and produced this charmer in under two hours. From Bing’s awesome old-guy cardigan to the duo’s cornily fantastic dialogue, this whole video is gold. I’m usually averse t
Cuepoint •

What I Learned about Lou Reed from One Night in a Velvet Underground Tribute Band

October 27 marks the two-year anniversary of Lou Reed’s death (peace be upon him) and the Internet rightly overfloweth with tributes to his genius. Because everybody worships the Velvet Underground, right? Critics and pop music fans alike genuflect before them as one of history’s seminal rock bands. Even your mom knows and loves “Sweet Jane” (even if she was introduced to it via the Cowboy Junkies cover). Somehow, this dark, avant-garde crew, who disdained mainstream culture, whose front man san
Medium •

How Soft Rock Saved My Life

I used to be like you, Cuepoint readers. I knew the names of all the up-and-coming indie bands. I could tell you which group had just been signed to Merge Records or Jagjaguwar, who had recorded a Daytrotter set. All my rocker friends despised mainstream music and listened to bands that didn’t even exist yet. And now? Now I have no clue what’s going on in indie music. I’m too busy marveling over deep cuts from early Hall & Oates albums, compiling 80s Miami freestyle jams, or cataloging all of P

/ Cannabis & Psychedelics /

Rantt Media •

Could Cannabis Be One Of Our Best Weapons Against The Opioid Epidemic?

It’s been called the “epidemic of epidemics” for good reason: the opioid crisis is the deadliest drug scourge in US history. In 2016, 11.5 million Americans abused opioids, and another two million were fully addicted. 175 Americans fatally overdose on opioids daily. Experts predict that death toll will rise, and that the epidemic could kill more than half a million people in the next decade. A crisis of this magnitude requires action on multiple fronts: reducing the number of opioid prescription
High Times •

Why the Women of Broad City are the Stoner Heroines We’ve Been Waiting For

Stoner Heroes have been with us since the release of Easy Rider in 1969. The archetype arose with the ’60s counterculture, but much like cannabis itself, the trope evolved into an array of countless strains. When Cheech and Chong’s "Up In Smoke" was released in 1978, it not only invented the stoner comedy genre, it expanded the archetype of the lone Stoner Hero into the even-more-iconic Stoner Duo.
Cannabis Culture •

Ophelia Chong's StockPotImages Empowers New Direction in Cannabis Photography

Ophelia Chong needed information about medical marijuana. She was researching its health benefits on behalf of her sister, who suffers from an autoimmune disease. But as Chong looked online, she noticed something: cannabis content featured virtually no images of Asian people. People of color were largely missing, or portrayed with problematic stereotypes. Seniors and LGBTQ people were also conspicuously absent, and the images of women were all too often sexualized. “No one
Civilized •

When Weed is Your Wingman: Why Cannabis-Friendly Dating Spaces are a Must

Skeptics have derided the concept of cannabis-centric dating as just another CBD bone broth popsicle (i.e., a grass-fed gimmick that no one asked for), and I must admit that I was one of them. In 2019, why would cannabis enthusiasts need their own dating site? Weed has gone so mainstream these days that John Boehner is selling it. It’s sanctioned for medical or adult use in more than 30 states, the majority of Americans support legalization, the pernicious myths of prohibition have all mostly be
DoubleBlind Mag •

Shrooming at the Symphony: How Does Music Affect the Psychedelic Experience?

The American psychedelic movement feels inextricably linked with popular music—whether through the musicians themselves (Pink Floyd, the Grateful Dead, John Coltrane, the Flaming Lips) or the countless musical genres the movement helped inspire. So I was astonished to learn that psychedelic therapy in clinical settings has almost universally incorporated none other than classical music. To me, tripping to Bach and Brahms seemed like a starfish-and-coffee pairing that made no sense. Why not genre
DoubleBlind Magazine •

Home Mycology: Best Mushroom Grow Kits

There’s a whole new cohort of curious folks out there who would love to explore psychedelics or microdose mushrooms but haven’t, simply because they don’t know where to start. They’re not sure where to buy mushrooms, or how to access a safe, reliable supply in the wild (and rightly so: Gathering wild psychedelic mushrooms is for actual mycology pros only). Growing mushrooms at home can be an appealing option, but one that comes with its own set of challenges. Figuring out how to grow mushrooms f
DoubleBlind Mag •

How to Find The Best Ketamine Clinic and Therapist For You

Ketamine clinics are opening across the country—but they range in quality widely. Here’s what to look for. Ketamine has been one of the most widely used anesthetics on the planet since the 1960s. So when Yale University School of Medicine researchers discovered in 2000 that ketamine could swiftly relieve symptoms of depression in some patients, numerous ketamine clinics sprang up offering treatments. Mental health experts and ketamine advocates, however, have warned against unscrupulous health

/ Clients /

Frigg: Stress Less Beauty

Storm King Art Center

The Whistler

Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago

/ Curation & Happenings /

Medium

Dope Design: On Creating a Top-Shelf Cannabis Event

When we first pitched “Dope Design” as a concept, folks were skeptical—understandably so. The challenges of assembling a high-level design event that centered cannabis visual culture were two-fold: stigma and representation. First, cannabis design strikes many as an oxymoron. Because of its criminalized history in America, cannabis visuals were often coded for an underground audience. Clumsy leaf logos, Rastafarian flags, and lurid visuals dominated the visual landscape. Second, cannabis even

Bowie Flash Mob

I produced a flash mob in honor of David Bowie Is, the first exhibition devoted to David Bowie's extraordinary life. That four-minute art stunt took a year of preparation: recruiting more than 30 mobsters, editing five different songs into a fitting tribute, creating accessible choreography, secretive rehearsals, failed sound system tests, and too many emails too count. But on opening day, my co-conspirators and I marched out onto the plaza of Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art and did the damn thing.

When the staff at the David Bowie Archive got wind of the flash mob, they loved it, and requested all the materials documenting the event for inclusion in the Bowie Archive. ⚡

The Fabulous Ladies of Fitness

FLOF is a DJ / dance collective formed for one mission: building bridges to the dance floor.

Conventional dance floors can be super alienating, for women in particular. My friends and dreamed of a dance party that melded yacht rock, 80s R&B, golden age hiphop, and singalong anthems, with no need for sexy posturing or pressure to play currently charting hits.

We wanted to inject some comedy onto the dance floor, so we offered optional led ironic cardio dance routines throughout the course of the night. While the FLOF  audience is always welcome to just watch and laugh, we are perpetually both amazed and delighted at how many people join in. 🎧