All Work

What's left after the shock & fear take up all the air in the room. [Originally published Nov 6, 2024, on Substack] I woke up this morning filled with dread. I didn’t want to find out that overnight, the unimaginable had happened. But it had, in fact, happened. And in its wake, I have spent the day boomeranging between despair and disbelief. I’m not usually one for intense exercise: I’m more of the easy yoga type. But today, I needed to run and tire and sweat — I needed to di

The slave patrols of the American South leveraged domestic terror and racist legal tactics to deny the rights of targeted communities in a deeply prejudicial and inhumane system; Trump’s ICE follows an all-too-familiar historical playbook in 2025 Since President Donald Trump retook office in January 2025, raids conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have increased exponentially across the country, with a growing number of encounters appearing blatantly un

Female con artist Cassie Chadwick leveraged Gilded Age prejudices to scam her way into millions of dollars in what historians now call the “Carnegie Con” In 1905, Cassie Chadwick was convicted of conspiracy against the U.S. government and conspiracy to defraud a national bank. She had conned banks, businessmen, and investors out of millions dollars – at least $35 million today – by claiming to be an heiress to Andrew Carnegie’s fortune. Living a lavish lifestyle on borrowed

In 1946, Stetson Kennedy infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan to share insider information with journalists and the FBI in an effort to take down the KKK from the inside A Florida native who began his career as a writer, Stetson Kennedy is perhaps best known for his successful infiltration of the Ku Klux Klan. Kennedy’s experiences inside the group allowed him to feed valuable information about the Klan’s membership and political movements to authorities and journalists, playing a cr

By speaking for more than 25 hours on the Senate floor, Cory Booker broke Strom Thurmond’s record for the longest speech delivered in Senate history “These are not normal times in our nation,” began Senator Cory Booker on the evening of March 31, “and they should not be treated as such in the United States Senate.” Booker’s powerful opening remarks set the tone for what would soon become the longest speech in U.S. Senate history. Beginning at 7pm , Booker spoke through the n

Rome organized with unprecedented force and creativity against the patrician ruling class in what became known as the secessions of the plebeians. Their tool of choice – mass exodus of the city – marked the first recorded general strike in history. Perhaps one of the most notable chapters of ancient Roman history is the Conflict of the Orders , a period of class struggle which lasted over two centuries, from roughly 495 to 287 BCE. Also referred to as the secessions of the pl

[Written for UCSB's Beat Reporting course in March of 2021.] It’s after 1 a.m . on a Wednesday in February. Strobe lights flash and a bass beat pounds from a backyard on the 68 block of Pasado Road in Isla Vista. Dozens of enthusiastic voices, both women’s and men’s, can be heard over the thudding speakers. Friends shout to one another while others holler along with the booming music as Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone” blasts at full volume. Bottles clink, crash, and clat

[Written for UCSB's Journalism Writing course in May of 2020.] When twin sisters Katey and Kayla Kelly began making plans for their 21st birthday, a parade was not one of their ideas. But on the evening of April 28, they stood outside their family home in Sacramento for hours greeting car after car of friends and family who’d pulled up to drop off gifts and wish them a happy birthday. So many loved ones participated in the “drive-by birthday party,” organized secretly by Kate

[A research piece originally written for UCSB's Magazine Writing course in December of 2019.] The 2016 Presidential Election shocked us...

[A personal history piece written originally for UCSB's Magazine Writing course in October of 2019.] My first intercontinental travel experience was perhaps the most stressful – and now hilarious – twenty hours of my life. What began at San Francisco International Airport with an air of excitement and a trendy faux leather carry-on duffel quickly became a tale of confusion and comical complications. For starters, I had never set foot on an airplane so big that it necessitated