All About Me

I am a writer, mostly. When I’m not writing, I’m drawing or making movies. I’m excited about complex systems, such as the food supply chain, hopelessly attracted to challenges, such as crossing deserts, and curious about how things work.

You can see some of my writing by reading my books, Humans in Our Food (2021), Food Routes: Growing Bananas in Iceland and Other Tales from the Logistics of Eating (2019), Meat, Commerce and the City: The Food Markets in Nineteenth Century London (2012), and The New Wizard War (1988).

Before starting my Substack Newsletter, I wrote regularly on Medium.

When not writing, I draw. You can see some of my scribbles here on Instagram.

I am a historian, desert distance runner, author, producer, and food futurist with a lifelong hunger to take on irrational challenges. I’ve been known by my quest to track down the ingredients to dozens of meals in cities around the world.

You may find me speaking at events such as SXSW, Google’s Food Lab, PopTech, and TEDx.

While at The University of Texas at Austin, I’ve taught courses about the history of food and produced five food startup challenge prize events that provided funds for over 80 startups from around the world.

For the past eight years, I led Food+City, a non-profit dedicated to telling stories about the food supply chain through a print and digital magazine and supporting startups with an annual startup prize challenge.

Currently, I’m  working on a book about humans that work in the food system and a documentary film about Maine’s seafood community. View more here.

Highlights & Press Mentions

Rotten Tomatoes, 2023
The Arc of Oblivion Film Reviews

IMDB, 2023
The Arc of Oblivion Film

SXSW, Mar 2023
The Arc of Oblivion Film Screenings

NPR, Feb 2022
This Green Earth

Viewpoints Radio, Jan 2022
Our Resilient Food System

IMDB, 2020
The Long Coast documentary film

Popular Science, April 2020
COVID-19 has exposed serious food-security issues in the US. Technology can help.

Wall Street Journal, February 2019
The Life Story of Your Supermarket Chicken: Food Tracking Goes High-Tech

Boston Globe, March 2019
Interview with Robyn, Food Routes

PBS NewsHour, March 2019
How the New York Pizza Slice Became Universal

NPR, February 2019
The Chicken is Local, But Was It Happy? GPS Now Tells The Life Story Of Your Poultry