[some stuff i wrote]
[essays / book reviews]
Pat Robertson's Africa
Africa is a Country + The Elephant / June 22, 2023
Freakonomics Was Neoliberal Bullshit
Current Affairs / June 16, 2023
The US is making Africa's hunger worse
Al Jazeera English / December 16, 2022
The Wartime Roots of the Global Fast Food Boom
The Conversationalist / September 1, 2022
What's the matter with private equity in Africa?
Africa is a Country / June 10, 2022
A crop that changed the world
Africa is a Country + The Elephant / June 1, 2022
What's good for investors isn't good for Africa
Africa is a Country / May 30, 2022
Who Actually Owns Corporations, Anyway?
Current Affairs / December 13, 2021
The new US nutrition aid strategy undermines Africa's hungriest
Al Jazeera English / December 10, 2021
Probing the depths of the CIA's misdeeds in Africa
Africa is a Country + Jacobin / October 15, 2021
African agriculture without African farmers
Al Jazeera English / October 9, 2021
9/11: the novel
Current Affairs / June 8, 2021
Pariah nations and the illusion of isolation
Current Affairs / May 9, 2021
The true story of the Rwandan genocide
Current Affairs / March 30, 2021
What fast food tells us about the world
Current Affairs / January 25, 2021
Structural adjustment comes home
Africa is a Country / September 10, 2020
The blankest spot on Trump's world map
Africa is a Country + Jacobin / June 26, 2020
John Bolton's African power play
Africa is a Country / December 21, 2018
When Melania Trump went to Africa
Africa is a Country / May 5, 2018
How the fast-food industry courted African American customers
The Washington Post / June 11, 2018
Constructing markets for value chains: for whose benefit?
European Centre for Development Policy Management / January 5, 2014
[long investigations]
... or the stories that took a really deep look.
Revealed: How Development Banks Underwrote Fast Food's Global Takeover
DeSmog / April 19, 2024
From South Africa to Ukraine, five industrial chicken companies that supply KFC have benefited from financing from the World Bank Group and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
How the State Created Fast Food
Current Affairs / January 25, 2022
At every turn, governments have aided the globalization of fast food. It's why fast food is a metaphor for our times, the perfect encapsulation of the neoliberal era.
After 30 years and 15 billion dollars, polio is almost completely eradicated. How? (Dutch)
De Correspondent / December 17, 2017
With Robert Fortner, a (critical) look at how polio became the single biggest priority in global health, against the objections of many. In a strange twist of fate, this one was only published in a language I don't understand, but it's readable with Google translate.
Bill Gates won't save you from the next Ebola
HuffPost / May 1, 2017
Reported with Robert Fortner, a look at how the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the World Health Organization, turned to the Gates Foundation during the 2014 West African Ebola epidemic.
Excess baggage
Orb / November 23, 2015
A look at how Filipino immigrants with children have fared in two European countries. Reported on three continents, the multimedia version, which I co-reported with Pierre Kattar, took first place in the White House News Photographers' Association Eyes of History multimedia contest.
Where the grass is greener
Orb / November 23, 2015
A look at how the meat boom in China inspired an environmental catastrophe in Central Brazil. We also published a version in Portuguese.
Revealed: How Development Banks Underwrote Fast Food’s Global Takeover