I am a writer, historian, and theorist working at the intersection of culture, consciousness, and the environment.

My books explore the everyday textures, rituals, artifacts, and architectures of modern life. From objects, such as a piece of coal recovered from the Titanic, to practices, like the therapeutic sweating of hot yoga, my writings examine the deep entanglements of our material and symbolic worlds. My interests have taken me into the history of energy, technology and science, media studies, ecology, the novel, whale oil, and advertising.

My newest book The Colonial Climate: Remaking Nature in San Diego comes out in Winter 2026. It relates the quirky and fascinating story of how climate was geo-engineered in Southern California over 175 years across the domains of art, science, and political economy.