I’ve been a journalist for some two decades now with stints at Newsweek, the Christian Science Monitor and the Project for Excellence in Journalism. I have also lived the freelance life with pieces appearing in outlets ranging from the Washington Post Magazine to The Economist to The New Republic.

While I’m now a card-carrying member of the East Coast Media Industrial Complex (bouncing between DC and New York), my roots are still firmly planted in the Industrial Midwest. I grew up outside Detroit and went to college at Michigan State University, where I studied journalism and history.

My work now centers on exploring the country through the lens of the 12 community types of Patchwork Nation, a project I invented and the Knight Foundation has generously funded. The project is the focus of Our Patchwork Nation, available now from Gotham Books.  Patchwork Nation is part of the Jefferson Institute, and independent research and education institution based in Washington DC.

I live in DC with my wife, Christina Ianzito, and our two children. Please feel free to contact me with any and all questions you might have --  except those concerning the Detroit Tigers 2009 collapse. I won’t answer those.