About me

I'm a journalist, author and audio producer based in Appalachia, where Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee meet. I write about drugs and the people who use them, the businesses that profit from them, and the systems we build to care for people.

I spent more than a decade at The Wall Street Journal, reporting from Chicago, New York, Beijing, and across the United States. My career took an unexpected turn in March 2020, when I was expelled from China and returned to America at height of the pandemic. I spent much of the next two years reporting from the road, chronicling a country in crisis.

In the years that followed, I immersed myself in America's twin epidemics of addiction and mental illness, spending time with people who use drugs, people who hear voices and the people who love and care for them. My reporting on fentanyl and psychosis was twice nominated by the Journal for the Pulitzer Prize and has been recognized by the New York Press Club and the Newswomen's Club of New York.

Before joining the Journal, I covered business for the Chicago Tribune and crime for my hometown newspaper, The Day, in southeastern Connecticut. I also report and produce stories for Tradeoffs, a podcast about America's health care system.

I'm currently writing my first book, an investigation into the transformation of marijuana in the era of legalization, forthcoming from Crown, with publication anticipated in 2028.

When I'm not reporting or writing, you'll often find me in the woods. My husband and I are the co-founders of Steel Pioneer Fire Cooking, an outdoor cooking school in northwest Georgia.