I’m a journalist, radio producer, and co-author of a book about one of my favorite subjects: avocados. Green Gold: The Story of the Avocado's Rise to Fame, co-authored by my brilliant friend and stellar writer-editor-historian Sarah Allaback, is forthcoming in spring 2025 from Counterpoint Press. When not writing about avocados, I edit and create print and audio news feature stories and long form audio documentaries about religion in America. I've contributed to the NPR News shows Morning Edition and All Things Considered, WBEZ Chicago, KALW San Francisco, the podcasts Interfaith Voices and Crosscurrents, Religion News Service and more.
From July 2021 until February 2023 I was the managing editor of Interfaith America Magazine, a storytelling site sponsored by a Chicago-based interfaith organization founded by Eboo Patel. I also helped produce the Interfaith America podcast. The magazine covers religious diversity and shines a light on stories of interfaith bridgebuilding: people working across religious differences to strengthen our democracy and make the world a better place. It happens way more often than you might think. The podcast features thoughtful conversations between Eboo and an array of prominent leaders, artists, writers, and scholars with diverse perspectives and backgrounds.
In 2020 and 2021, I produced three audio docs for a global reporting project on spiritual engagement as a journalist-fellow for the USC Center for Religion & Civic Culture. My profile of Aisha al-Adawiya, nominated for an NABJ Salute to Excellence Award, told how a Black Muslim convert's struggle to claim space and power for women in mosques inspired a national movement and a fatwa. Another profiled two Mennonite musicians who work with male sex workers and wrote a musical about it, and the third told the story of an evangelical pastor and professor who established a master's degree program inside Stateville Correctional Center, a maximum security prison outside Chicago. These pieces, part of the KALW Sacred Steps series, were edited by Cheryl Duvall and Judy Silber with audio design by Tarek Fouda. Our work was recognized with honors from the American Academy of Religion and the Religion Newswriters Association.
From July 2021 until February 2023 I was the managing editor of Interfaith America Magazine, a storytelling site sponsored by a Chicago-based interfaith organization founded by Eboo Patel. I also helped produce the Interfaith America podcast. The magazine covers religious diversity and shines a light on stories of interfaith bridgebuilding: people working across religious differences to strengthen our democracy and make the world a better place. It happens way more often than you might think. The podcast features thoughtful conversations between Eboo and an array of prominent leaders, artists, writers, and scholars with diverse perspectives and backgrounds.
In 2020 and 2021, I produced three audio docs for a global reporting project on spiritual engagement as a journalist-fellow for the USC Center for Religion & Civic Culture. My profile of Aisha al-Adawiya, nominated for an NABJ Salute to Excellence Award, told how a Black Muslim convert's struggle to claim space and power for women in mosques inspired a national movement and a fatwa. Another profiled two Mennonite musicians who work with male sex workers and wrote a musical about it, and the third told the story of an evangelical pastor and professor who established a master's degree program inside Stateville Correctional Center, a maximum security prison outside Chicago. These pieces, part of the KALW Sacred Steps series, were edited by Cheryl Duvall and Judy Silber with audio design by Tarek Fouda. Our work was recognized with honors from the American Academy of Religion and the Religion Newswriters Association.
More about me: I'm a big fan of the online journal Religion & Politics, a project of the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University in St. Louis. I contributed to the journal (tagline: "fit for polite company") and stood in as temporary managing editor in 2019. My 2017 radio documentary, An American Mosque, followed one community's quest to build a mosque in the suburbs of Chicago. It won a Wilbur Award from The Religion Communicators Council. I've also written for Religion News Service and Beliefnet.com, and I've been lucky to work with wonderful editors, beginning in the newsrooms of weekly and daily newspapers in California and New Jersey. My religion reporting has been honored by the Religion News Association and by the Garden State Association of Black Journalists. I'm profoundly grateful for my family (here's an NPR piece I did about my dad), as well as the friends and teachers I met at Princeton University, Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, and Harvard Divinity School.
Photo: California organic avocados, heading your way. Photo by Tammy Zuñiga.
Photo: California organic avocados, heading your way. Photo by Tammy Zuñiga.