Welcome.
I'm a 31-year-old journalist in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I write about science, sports, and culture, mostly for people who pay me, but I also write some stuff for free because hey, it's the Internet. Some places where my work has appeared are GQ, Esquire, Philadelphia magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times "Play" magazine (sadly defunct), Slate, Etiqueta Negra, and Deadspin.
I also wrote a book a couple of years ago called Horsemen of the Esophagus for a division of Random House. As of early 2010 I'm working on another book, and I hope to have more to say about it soon.
You should follow me on Twitter. I love Twitter. I'm on Twitter a lot.
Some clips below:
The real meaning of the quarterback's pro-life Super Bowl ad. (Slate, January 28, 2010)
Was it only last season that Marvin Harrison was still catching TD passes for Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts? Now, in the wake of a brazen but mysterious Philadelphia gunfight -- many details of which are reported here for the first time -- the man who holds the NFL record for most receptions in a season may yet find himself with a permanent record of a different sort. (GQ, February 2010)
MORE MARVIN COVERAGE: This was a wild piece with an equally wild afterlife -- as soon as it was posted on GQ.com it started getting picked up by newspapers, blogs, and talk radio. The next day, the newly sworn Philly D.A. said he was taking a fresh look at the Harrison case in large part because of the revelations in the GQ story. Later I typed up some deleted scenes at Deadspin -- basically a notebook dump of some stuff I couldn't fit into the print piece. Here's some of the coverage:
Former Navy admiral and professional hardass Joe Sestak tries to unseat Arlen Specter in the PA Senate race. (Philadelphia, January 2010)
For half a century, the Republican Party has been a joke in Philadelphia. But now a few upstarts have a radical idea: Let's try to get Republican candidates elected! (Philadelphia, October 2009)
Profile of Tim Tebow, Heisman-winning quarterback for the University of Florida football Gators. (GQ, September 2009)
Jason Rohrer's solitary and stubborn quest for a future in which pixels and code and computers will make you cry and feel and love. (Esquire, December 2008; Spanish translation in Etiqueta Negra, October 2009)
Over the course of a century, Wolf Block grew into one of Philadelphia's most famous law firms. So what caused its sudden collapse in March? (Philadelphia, June 2009)
Profile of vaccine advocate Dr. Paul Offit. (Philadelphia, June 2009)
A road trip across the Eastern Bloc with dozens of mustachioed Hungarians, a few jolly Czechs, two Slovenians, four Russians, three gung-ho dudes from the U.S. Department of Energy, and enough highly enriched uranium to destroy a city. (The Penn Stater, January/February 2009)
The strange allure of making your own fonts (Slate, June 2008)
Profile of Vova Galchenko, the best young juggler in the world. (NY Times Play magazine, June 2008)
The last doo-wop deejay. (Philadelphia, May 2008)
The fight to eradicate tuberculosis. (Esquire, December 2007)
Among the super-gluttons, on the front lines of competitive eating. (The Atlantic, May 2006)
Profile of the most flamboyant lawyer in boxing. (Philadelphia, February 2006)
Profile of Brian Tierney, the self-made adman who bought the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Daily News. (Philadelphia, April 2007)
contact: jfagone at gmail dot com