BUSINESS/POLITICS
I WRITE ABOUT business and politics and sometimes the places where those two intersect.
For instance, these stories and podcasts:
Wild Turkey, Chivas Regal, hot pants, cathode-ray tubes, and countless cartons of cigarettes are key components of the six-part “Southwest vs. American” series script I wrote for Business Wars, a podcast from Wondery. Listen to me ramble about it here.
For The Atlantic, I wrote about how local governments could raise millions or maybe billions of dollars if they just do one simple and very complex thing: Sell their airports.
If you ask me, Tomi Lahren should have bought a black Cadillac and not a white one. But, hey, what do I know about being a conservative commentator with a massive online following? For POLITICO Magazine I profiled the right’s rising star.
It’s the biggest battle in booze, a decades-long fight that’s still ongoing, and you can hear all about it in this scripted podcast I wrote for Wondery.
I spent six months tracking the rapid growth of Turning Point USA — the biggest conservative student group in the country — and meeting repeatedly with its founder, Charlie Kirk, for this feature in POLITICO Magazine.
The cities who own DFW Airport could make a ton of cash if they’d privatize the place. Also, my editor at D Magazine offered me a $100 bonus if that does happen someday.
Why are these Southwest Airlines flight attendants, pictured in 1971, making that gesture? Find out in this Texas Monthly story about the wild ride the airline took during its first months in business in 1971. I’ve written a lot about Southwest Airlines over the years for both podcasts and print. Here is one story that came from my many interviews with Southwest’s legendary leader, Herb Kelleher. Here is a piece on Southwest often overlooked founder, Rollin King. And here is my talking about a scripted podcast I wrote for Wondery on Southwest and Kelleher.
When Jo Hopper’s husband died suddenly an $8 billion battle began with the bank that held her family’s assets.
Do not be like Don Draper. Do find a constructive way to vent your workplace anger. Consider buying some 3D real estate and brain powered toys. I’ve covered all those kinds of topics (and more) in my frequent business and tech writing for American Way magazine and others.
My cover story for the November 2014 issue of Washingtonian looked at the rapidly rising cost of living in the nation’s capital. Housing, day care, and even groceries seem to be more expensive in the Washington area than in most other parts of the country. So how are individuals and families at different income levels in different parts of town making it?
Rodney Brooks is the father of modern robotics and the brains behind the Roomba. Now, with a tablet-faced, two-armed robot called Baxter, he has set out to redefine the role robots play in the American workplace. I told Brooks’ story in the November 2014 issue of Boston Magazine.
Is Bill Dean an engineering dork, a business whiz, or a playboy? Sub-question: Is he all three? For this story in Washingtonian, I met a man who runs a $700-million electrical engineering firm and throws some of the raciest parties in Washington.
Bill Paley brought back the cigars that helped found CBS. What would his famous parents think about him now?
Facebook deactivated my Facebook account once this story about their lobbying operation was published in Washingtonian. (This story won a Dateline Award from the Society of Professional Journalists’ Washington, DC, chapter in 2012.)
Sam Wyly’s billion-dollar fortune was at stake in a $550 million SEC lawsuit. So, too, was the legacy of his deceased brother, Charles, who had been a prominent philanthropist. So when I wrote this piece about the case, why wasn’t Sam worried? (And now that the jury has found Sam and Charles liable, what now? I address that here.)
As the Washington editor for The Land Report magazine, I covered federal land policy. This was a preview of the Obama Administration’s land policy agenda.
Ray Washburne owns the most expensive piece of retail real estate in Texas and sometimes has influential politicians, like the one pictured here, over to his house. After this story ran, he was named the Republican National Committee’s finance chairman and is now part of the Trump Administration.
Joe Bastianich, the stern former co-host of Fox’s MasterChef and author of Restaurant Man, was heavier and far less famous when I met him. But he still knew everything about the business of dining.
Sidney Frank founded Grey Goose and became a billionaire. Also, he liked roasted peppers.
Vacation time gets wasted by workers in this country.