My name is Joe, a Scorpio millennial originally from rural southern Wisconsin, complete with cows, raspberry fields and star-filled skies. I graduated from the University of Wisconsin in Madison with a degree in journalism and mass communication in 2008, and moved to Chicago shortly thereafter.
I work as a writer and reporter and most recently worked as a senior reporter focused on food and water issues at The Huffington Post. I’ve also dabbled in pop culture writing. My work has also been featured in the Village Voice, Fodor’s, Gapers Block, Windy City Times, Chicagoist and elsewhere. I formerly waited tables at an actual sit-down rural Pizza Hut and spent a strange week working as a magician’s assistant.
I live in west suburban Chicago with my partner Stefin, two cats and a (too) large record collection.
These are a few of my favorite published works:
- It isn’t easy being a ‘humane’ slaughterhouse (HuffPost, 5/13/17)
- No, food stamp users aren’t buying ‘lots’ of soda (HuffPost, 1/18/17)
- These lesbian farmers aren’t here to take over America — they want to grow it (HuffPost, 9/14/16)
- The slow-moving disaster happening at farms around America (HuffPost, 7/28/16)
- The hidden cost of cheap pizza (HuffPost, 6/3/16)
- 20 years later, considering the legacy of ‘Jock Jams,’ the ‘Red Bull of Music’ (HuffPost, 7/24/15)
- Chicago Public Schools under fire over dirty conditions, rotten food (HuffPost, 10/8/14)
- Yes, even rock stars like Dum Dum Girls freak out when they meet their idols (HuffPost, 7/22/14)
- Chicago teen: ‘When you’re in Englewood, that is the wrong place’ (HuffPost, 6/27/13)
- It’s not easy peeing ‘T’: Trans activists strive for safety and equality (Gapers Back, 6/22/11)
- Hunx and His Punx: A ‘bad boy’ take on ’50s girl pop (EDGE, 4/26/11)
- An interview with Mink Stole (Chicagoist, 8/11/10)
- Move over, metrosexuals: Meet the straight bears (The Village Voice, 6/22/10)
- For gay Iranians, a matter of life or death (EDGE, 6/20/09)
I spoke on a 2013 “Print to the Future” panel moderated by Alison Cuddy at Revolution Brewery. Other speakers included Ed Marszewski, Mara Shalhoup and Charles Whitaker. Watch highlights here:
And here I am talking about the moment I fell head over heels with my adopted-hometown, Chicago, as part of HuffPost’s Moment I Knew series in 2012:
