Articles – Carlo Rotella

Articles
Essays and magazine articles
Academic articles and chapters
Reviews
Opinion and editorial
With Alan E. Kazdin
Interviews and commentary

“Jerry Was a Race Car Driver,” Hilobrow (January 25, 2024).
“Crossing Chicago,” Strangers Guide (July 2023).
“Valerie Bertinelli,” Hilobrow (April 7, 2023).
“Out in the Country,” New York Times Magazine (Febuary 19, 2023).
“The Worm Ouroboros,” New York Times Magazine (January 8, 2023).
“The Thrill Is Back,” Washington Post Magazine (July 24, 2022).
“Foreword,” Wherever I’m At: An Anthology of Chicago Poetry (June, 2022).
“Barney Miller,” Hilobrow (April 7, 2022).
“All the Way,” Washington Post Magazine (April 3, 2022).
“Belt Bearers,” Hilobrow (January 13, 2022).
“Boxing Lessons,” Virginia Quarterly Review (Winter, 2021).
“Daena Adams [7 True Stories from Virtual School],” New York Times Magazine (September 9, 2021).
“Mannix,” Hilobrow (April 29, 2021).
“The Queen’s Gamble,” Washington Post Magazine (February 7, 2021).
“Do It Right/Make It New,” Post Road Magazine guest folio (Winter, 2020).
“The Meaning of a Freshman Literature Class,” Washington Post Magazine (October 25, 2020).
“What Joe Biden Could Learn from the Baby-Faced Assassin,” Politico (October 22, 2020).
“The Return of Cheatin’ Songs,” Washington Post Magazine (July 18, 2020).
“The Omega Man,” Hilobrow (February 12, 2020).
“Kung Fu,” Hilobrow (August 23, 2019).
“The Unexpected Power of Your Old Neighborhood,” The New Yorker (May 22, 2019).
“Tone Bar,” Hilobrow (May 8, 2019).
“Otis Rush,” New York Times Magazine (December 30, 2018).
“A Tough Crowd in Doboj,” Literary Hub (October 12, 2018).
“Roy Dotrice,” New York Times Magazine (December 25, 2017).
With Michael Ezra, “Bittersweet,” Boston College Magazine (Fall 2017): 32-33.
“Ball Games and War Games,” catalogue essay for “PlayTime,” an exhibition on games at the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA (October 17, 2017).
Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3
“Smokeless,” Ringside Seat 1:1 (June, 2017): 10-16.
“Charles Portis’s Gringos,” Public Books (April 21, 2017).
“The Pipe Fitter,” New York Times Magazine (February 26, 2016): 47.
“Kimbo Slice,” New York Times Magazine (December 25, 2016): 30.
“Want to Visit the Jazz Age? Try Fight Night in Vegas,” New York Times (December 9, 2016).
“Foreword,” Jack Vance, Cugel: The Skybreak Spatterlight (Spatterlight Press, 2016 [1983]): i-vi.
“Hurtin’ (On the Bottle): Margo Price,” New York Times Magazine (March 13, 2016): 28-32.
“Buddy Emmons,” New York Times Magazine (December 27, 2015): 56.
“No Dragons, No Zombies,” Washington Post Magazine (August 2, 2015): 8-15.
“Everything at Once,” New York Times Magazine (May 31, 2015): 28-33.
“The Inevitable Spectacle of Mayweather vs. Pacquiao,” New York Times Magazine (May 1, 2015).
“Leading With His Head,” New York Times Magazine (November 2, 2014): 22-27.
“The Landscape of Home,” Our Boston: Writers Celebrate the City They Love, ed. Andrew Blauner (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013): 290-300.
“No Child Left Untableted,” New York Times Magazine (September 15, 2013): 26-32, 53.
“Kacey Musgraves’s Arrow Is Pointing Up,” The 6th Floor, New York Times Magazine (September 15, 2013).
“Jack Vance’s Influential Prose Will Live On,” The 6th Floor, New York Times Magazine (May 20, 2013).
“With a Rebel Twang,” New York Times Magazine (March 17, 2013): 36-39.
“Kacey Musgraves Sings Not-for-Grandma Country Music,” The 6th Floor, New York Times Magazine (March 13, 2013).
“Sideman: Lessons from Lefty Dizz,” Boston College Magazine (Winter, 2013): 38-41.
“Hector ‘Macho’ Camacho,” New York Times Magazine (December 30, 2012): 27.
“The Wire at Ten: The Case Against Kojak Liberalism,” Points: The Blog of the Alcohol and Drugs History Society (November 21, 2012).
“Book Notes: Playing in Time,” LargeheartedBoy.com (November 2, 2012).
“Bedtime Story,” Wordplaysound.com (November, 2012).
“The Dogs of South Shore,” The Coffin Factory (September 12, 2012).
“Hollywood on the Charles,” Boston (January, 2012): 39-43.
“So Many Fearsome Contemporaries,” New York Times Magazine (December 25, 2011): 28-29.
“A Darker Shade of Green,” New York Times Magazine (August 15, 2011): 34-38.
“A Wild Mind Loose in Suburbia,” New York Times Magazine (April 24, 2011): 24-29.
“True to ‘True Grit,’” New York Times Magazine (December 12, 2010): 11-12.
“Manute Bol, 1962-2010,” Washington Post Magazine (December 26, 2010): 32-33.
“The Professor of Micropopularity,” New York Times Magazine (November 28, 2010): 50-55.
“Ghosts,” in My Town: Writers on American Cities (U. S. State Department, 2010): 18-23.
“Foreword,” George Kimball, Manly Art (McBooks Press, April, 2011).
“Anytime, Anywhere,” New York Times Magazine (September 19, 2010): 64-65.
“The Long Shot,” Washington Post Magazine (March 21, 2010): cover, 10-17.
“Class Warrior,” The New Yorker (February 1, 2010): 24-29.
“On the Basketball Court with Arne Duncan,” The New Yorker (January 26, 2010):
“Arturo Gatti: On the Ropes,” New York Times Magazine (December 27, 2009): 52-53.
“The Mouse Sled,” Washington Post Magazine (November 22, 2009): 19-20.
“Desperately Seeking Deval,” Boston (September, 2009): 74-79, 134-142.
“The Genre Artist,” New York Times Magazine (July 19, 2009): 20-25. Reprinted as the introduction to Humayoun Ibrahim, Jack Vance: The Moon Moth (First Second, 2012): iii-xii. In German: “Der Genre-Künstler,” Jack Vance: Weltenschöpfer und Wortschmied, ed. Andreas Irle (Edition Andreas Irle, 2016): 391-404.
“Crime Story,” Washington Post Magazine (July 20, 2008): cover, 8-15, 22-26.
“And Now, the Biggest Entertainer in Entertainment,” Play: The New York Times Sports Magazine (June 1, 2008): 56-61, 87. Received the Barney Award from the Boxing Writers Association of America, for the best feature over 2500 words published in 2008.
“When the Gloves Came Off,” Boston (November 2007): 120-123, 134-139. Received the Barney Award from the Boxing Writers Association of America, for the best feature over 2500 words published in 2007.
“Sucker Punch: The Art, the Poetry, the Idiocy of YouTube Street Fights,” Slate (November 26, 2007):
“Pulp History,” Raritan 27.1 (Summer 2007): 11-36.
“The Regulars,” Yale Alumni Magazine (July/August, 2007): 64-66.
“Boxing’s Big Night: What Was It We Saw?” NYTimes.com Play Newsletter (May 10, 2007).
“Shannon Briggs Says Nyet,” New York Times Magazine (April 15, 2007): 36-39.
“The Two Jameses,” The Believer (April, 2007): 49-54.
“Abolitionists of Mars,” Raritan 26.3 (Winter 2007): 71-81.
“The Elements of Providence,” Washington Post Magazine (September 17, 2006): 24-28, 51-53.
“Can A Book of Quotations Include Cher, MC Hammer, and ‘Get a Life’?,” Yale Alumni Magazine (September/October, 2006): cover, 60-66.
“The Kingdom and the Power,” Boston (August 2006): 69-84.
“Into South Shore,” city (3 Book Publishing, 2006): 214-216.
“Breaking the Tantrum Cycle,” Yale Alumni Magazine (September/October, 2005): cover, 40-49.
“Three Landscapes, with Gamblers,” TriQuarterly 121 (2005): 162-171. Listed as a Notable Essay of 2005 in The Best American Essays 2006, ed. Lauren Slater and Robert Atwan (Houghton Mifflin, 2006).
“Mirror, Mirror,” Shadow Boxers: Sweat, Sacrifice, and the Will To Survive in American Boxing Gyms, photographs by Jim Lomasson (Stone Creek Press, 2005): 69-74.
“Youth & Consequences,” Yale Alumni Magazine (January/February 2005): 42-49.
“Un Clown Biologique,” The American Scholar 73.4 (Fall 2004): 50-56. Listed as a Notable Essay of 2004 in The Best American Essays 2005, ed. Susan Orlean and Robert Atwan (Houghton Mifflin, 2005).
“Edge of Greatness,” Yale Alumni Magazine (July/August 2004): cover, 27-33.
“Someone Else’s Chicago,” Washington Post Magazine (March 7, 2004): 32-35, 48-52.
“Linwood Taylor’s Blues,” Washington Post Magazine (August 24, 2003): cover, 12-17, 23-34.
“Champion at Twilight,” Washington Post Magazine (November 17, 2002): 12-18, 27-28. Reprinted in At the Fights: An American Boxing Anthology, ed. George Kimball and John Schulian (Library of America, 2011): 484-499.
“A Distinctly Bluesy Condition,” The American Scholar 71.4 (Fall 2002): 13-29.
“Playing in Time,” Washington Post Magazine (June 30, 2002): 14-18, 27-28.
“Blues, Boxing, and Work,” in “Hard-Hitting Blues,” a special issue on blues and boxing, published by Popmatters…A Magazine of Global Culture (June 2002).
“Affliction,” The American Scholar 71.1 (Winter 2002): 48-51.
“Get Busy, Girlfriend,” Boston College Magazine 62.1 (Winter 2002): 32-41.
“Cusp of Seasons,” Washington Post Magazine Summer Reading Issue (July 30, 2000): 10-13, 23.
“Cut Time,” The American Scholar 69.2 (Spring 2000): 53-64. Reprinted in Best American Essays 2001, ed. Kathleen Norris and Robert Atwan (Houghton Mifflin, 2001). Received two prizes from The American Scholar: Best Essay, 2000; Best Work by a Younger Writer, 2000.
“An Appetite for Hitting,” Washington Post Magazine (February 20, 2000): cover, 12-18, 21-23.
“Hurt: A Boxing Suite,” DoubleTake 18 (Fall 1999): 18-21.
“The Distance,” Transition 79 (June 1999): 4-25.
“The Greatest,” Harper’s (December 1998): 30-32.
“Maker of Champions,” DoubleTake 9 (Summer 1997): 40-46.

“The Literature of Neighborhood,” The City in American Literature and Culture, ed. Kevin R. McNamara (Cambridge University Press, 2021).
“Stuart Dybek and the New Chicago’s Literature of Neighborhood,” Chicago: A Literary History, ed. Frederik Kohlert (Cambridge University Press, 2021).
“The Boston Movie Boom,” The City in American Cinema, ed. Johan Andersson and Lawrence Webb (Bloomsbury, 2019).
“‘I Come in Here So I Don’t Have to Hate Her’: Midland and the Barroom Weeper,” Journal of Popular Music Studies 30.4 (December 2018): 5-10.
“Weird Tales,” Chicago by the Book: 101 Publications That Shaped the City and Its Image (University of Chicago Press, with the Caxton Club, 2018).
“Harry Greb, Gene Tunney, Jack Dempsey, and the Roaring Twenties,” Cambridge Companion to Boxing, ed. Gerald Early (Cambridge University Press, 2019).
“Urban Literature: A User’s Guide,” Journal of Urban History 44.4 (July 2018): 797-805.
“The View from 71st and Jeffery,” The Metropole (Urban History Association), February 14, 2018.
“Introduction” and “Bernard Hopkins, Prefight and Postfight,” The Bittersweet Science: Fifteen Writers in the Gym, in the Corner, and at Ringside, ed. Carlo Rotella and Michael Ezra (University of Chicago Press, 2017): 1-7, 125-150.
“Profiling ‘Money,’” Public Culture 27.1 (January 2015): 7-19.
“The Cult of Micky Ward in Massachusetts,” Rooting for the Home Team: Sport, Community, and Identity, ed. Daniel Nathan (University of Illinois Press, Sport and Society series, 2013): 205-217.
“The Case Against Kojak Liberalism,” The Wire: Race, Class, and Genre, ed. Liam Kennedy and Stephen Shapiro (University of Michigan Press, 2012): 113-129.
“Within Limits: On the Greatness of Magic Slim,” Pop When the World Falls Apart, ed. Eric Weisbard (Duke University Press, 2012): 230-239.
“The End of American Sporting Life,” A New Literary History of America, ed. Greil Marcus and Werner Sollors (Harvard University Press, 2009): 856-860.
“Praying for Stones Like This: The Godfather Trilogy,” Catholics in the Movies, ed. Colleen McDannell (Oxford University Press, 2007): 227-252.
“The Stepping Stone: Larry Holmes, Gerry Cooney, and Rocky,” In the Game: Race and Sports in the Twentieth Century, ed. Amy Bass (Palgrave, 2005): 237-262.
“‘As if to say Jeez!’: Blight and Ecstasy in the Old Neighborhood,” U. S. Catholic Historian 22.2 (Spring 2004): 1-12.
Good with Her Hands: Women, Boxing, and Work,” Critical Inquiry 25.3 (Spring 1999): 566-598.
“The Story of Decline and the October City,” in the Fiftieth Anniversary Critical Edition of Nelson Algren’s The Man with the Golden Arm, ed. Daniel Simon and William Savage (Seven Stories Press, 1999): 423-432.
“Three Views of the Fistic Summits from College Hill,” South Atlantic Quarterly 95.2 (1996): 281-320.
“The Postindustrial Blues: Buddy Guy and the Transformation of Chicago,” a working paper posted on the refereed website of the 3 Cities Project
“Travels in a Subjective West: The Letters of Edwin James and Major Stephen Long’s Scientific Expedition of 1819-1820,” Montana 41.4 (Autumn 1991): 20-34.
“Literary Images of Chicago,” an extended interpretive essay, and two shorter entries, “Chicago Literary Renaissance” and “Federal Writers Project,” in The Encyclopedia of Chicago, ed. James R. Grossman, Ann Durkin Keating, and Janice L. Reiff (University of Chicago Press, 2004): 486-489, 143-144, 288-289.

Review of Dennis Lehane’s The Given Day, Imagine Boston 2030 website (Office of Engagement, City of Boston: August, 2017).
“The Man Who Tells Stories,” review of Ian Frazier, Hogs Wild, New York Times Book Review (July 3, 2016): 19.
“Sense and Sensitivity,” review of Emily Bazelon, Sticks and Stones: Defeating the Culture of Bullying and Rediscovering the Power of Character and Empathy, Yale Alumni Magazine (March/April 2013): 58-59.
“Recycled Newsprint,” review of Judith Brodie et al, Shock of the News, New York Times Book Review (December 2, 2012): 67.
“Are You My Child?” review of Andrew Solomon, Far From the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity, Yale Alumni Magazine (November/December 2012): 56-7.
“True Grit,” review of Charles Portis, Escape Velocity, New York Times Book Review (October 7, 2012): 18.
“Dreaming in Ariekene,” review of China Miéville, Embassytown, New York Times Book Review (June 5, 2011): 43.
Response to Anthony Burke Smith, The Look of Catholics, U. S. Catholic Historian 29.2 (Spring 2011): 88-89.
Review of Frederick Wiseman’s documentary film “Boxing Gym,” Sports Illustrated (November 1, 2010): 18.
“Family Entertainment,” review of Alex Beam, A Great Idea at the Time: The Rise, Fall, and Curious Afterlife of the Great Books, Yale Alumni Magazine (January/February 2009): 52, 54.
Review of Dennis Lehane, The Given Day, Chicago Tribune, September 6, 2008: sec. 5, p. 5.
Review of Jeffrey Lewis, Adam the King, Yale Alumni Magazine (July/August, 2008): 71.
“Extracting Meaning from the World of Violence,” review of Sam Sheridan, The Fighter’s Heart: One Man’s Journey through the World of Fighting and Mark Kreidler, Four Days to Glory: Wrestling with the Soul of the American Heartland, Chicago Tribune, March 4, 2007: sec. 14, p. 4.
Review of Jack Cavanaugh, Tunney: Boxing’s Brainiest Champ and His Upset of the Great Jack Dempsey, Chicago Tribune, Nov. 19, 2006: sec. 14, p. 4.
Review of Bathsheba Monk, Now You See It… Stories from Cokesville, Pa., Chicago Tribune, May 28, 2006: sec. 14, p. 5.
“Answering Call of America’s Weirdness,” review of the TV show “Only in America,” New York Times, September 2, 2005: B3.
Review of Cinderella Man, Journal of Sport History 32.2 (Summer 2005): 289-291.
Review of Michael Leahy, When Nothing Else Matters: Michael Jordan’s Last Comeback, Yale Alumni Magazine (March/April 2005): 57-59.
“Boxing Movies Take a Punch,” on Million Dollar Baby and the genre of boxing movies, Boston Globe, January 16, 2005: N11, N14.
Review of Jane Brox, Clearing Land: Legacies of the American Farm, Chicago Tribune, October 24, 2004: sec. 14, pp. 1, 5.
Review of Michael Mandelbaum, The Meaning of Sports: Why Americans Watch Baseball, Football, and Basketball and What They See When They Do, Yale Alumni Magazine (September/October 2004): 60-63.
“Jelly Roll Morton’s Parole from Hell,” on four books about Jelly Roll Morton and Robert Johnson, Raritan 24.1 (Summer 2004): 151-165.
“A Pug’s Life,” review of Ronald K. Fried, My Father’s Fighter and Brian DeVido, Every Time I Talk to Liston, New York Times Book Review, May 16, 2004: 34.
Review of Michael Johns, Moment of Grace: The American City in the 1950s, Journal of American History, 90.4 (March 2004): 1522-1523.
“Open Ears,” on Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation and Louis Menand, American Studies, American Quarterly 55.4 (December 2003): 749-760.
Review of David Grazian, Blue Chicago: The Search for Authenticity in Urban Blues Clubs, Chicago Tribune, September 14, 2003: sec. 14, p. 3.
Review of Christopher Beach, Class, Language, and American Film Comedy and Chris Messenger, The Godfather and American Culture: How the Corleones Became “Our Gang,” American Literature 75.2 (June 2003): 458-460.
Review of Keith Gandal, The Virtues of the Vicious: Jacob Riis, Stephen Crane, and the Spectacle of the Slum, American Literature 71.2 (Summer 1999): 370-371.

“On Richard Slotkin,” Wesleyan Magazine, November 7, 2023.
“The View from 71st and Jeffery: A Chicago Neighborhood Holds a Mirror to a Struggling Middle Class,” Fortune, May 30, 2019.
“A Shrinking Middle Class is Ruining the Character of Our Neighborhoods,” New York Times, May 19, 2019.
“LaMotta: More Than ‘Raging,'” New York Times, September 22, 2017: A25.
Columns on the op-ed page of the Boston Globe, some of which also appeared via syndication in other newspapers, especially the International Herald Tribune:
“Running Marathon with Age,” April 19, 2010.
“Thicker Than Water, Or Blood,” April 26, 2010.
“The Arias of ‘Eddie Coyle,’” May 3, 2010.
“Answering the Bell,” May 10, 2010.
“Night of the Living Slots Players,” May 17, 2010;
“Prince of Peeves,” May 24, 2010.
“Land of Peculiar Gaits,” May 31, 2010.
“The Guru of Toughness,” July 19, 2010.
“The Ruins of Viking Boston,” August 2, 2010.
“The Growth of a Thoughtful City,” August 16, 2010.
“Binding Boston with a Story,” August 30, 2010.
“Two Blues Greats, Headed This Way,” September 13, 2010.
“Tuition Lost on the Techno-Dependent,” September 27, 2010.
“Italian Americans: The Dons of Suburbia,” October 11, 2010.
“In the Boxing Gym, Violence and Beauty,” October 27, 2010.
“The New Normal: Living Alone,” November 10, 2010.
“The Story of the Crime Drama and the Cellphone,” November 24, 2010.
“The New Champ of Local Color,” December 8, 2010.
“The Gift of Good Stories,” December 22, 2010.
“Quantity Distilled to Quality,” January 5, 2011.
“When the Jobs Leave,” January 19, 2011.
“The Martial Arts Hub,” February 2, 2011.
“Mr. Sugarman’s Class,” February 16, 2011.
“The Rise of Success Freaks,” March 2, 2011.
“A Local Character Resurfaces,” March 15, 2011.
“Home of the Blues,” March 30, 2011.
“A Chalk-Dust Hourglass,” April 13, 2011.
“A Boston Film Without the Stereotypes,” April 27, 2011.
“Standing Up for Yourself,” May 11, 2011.
“The Garden Stage,” May 25, 2011.
“Playing Rough,” June 8, 2011.
“In This Corner,” June 22, 2011.
“Instruction from the Working Past,” July 6, 2011.
“The Gateway to High Fantasy,” July 20, 2011.
“Collisions Await,” August 3, 2011.
“Out of the Park,” September 16, 2011.
“A Serious Need for Free Play,” September 30, 2011.
“The Wire: Why It Still Matters,” October 14, 2011.
“Buoyed By Strangers,” October 28, 2011.
“The Demise of Boxing Journalism,” November 11, 2011.
“The Path Forward,” November 25, 2011.
“Dream Space,” December 9, 2011.
“No, It Doesn’t Matter What You Majored In,” December 24, 2011.
“Contempt to Curiosity,” January 6, 2012.
“Talking Heads,” January 20, 2012.
“Getting My Boston Crab On,” February 3, 2012.
“A Battle Between The Author and The Fact Checker,” March 2, 2012.
“John Carter, for Dimes or Millions,” March 7, 2012.
“Intersection of Rude and Anonymous,” March 15, 2012.
“Poet John Ciardi’s Pearly Bones,” March 30, 2012.
“A 26.2-Mile Meditation,” April 13, 2012.
“Degree of Uncertainty,” April 27, 2012.
“In the Ring with Tough Guys from Lowell,” May 11, 2012.
“Phone Alone,” May 25, 2012.
“Bradbury Made Normalcy Fantastic,” June 8, 2012.
“Class of the Undead,” June 22, 2012.
“Put Down the Phone; Real Life Abounds,” July 6, 2012.
“Playing Community,” July 20, 2012.
“Five (Maybe Six) Toys for a Desert Island,” August 3, 2012.
“Advice for the College Freshman,” August 17, 2012.
“Uncovering a Hidden America,” September 14, 2012.
“A Fighting Chance,” September 28, 2012.
“New Paint, and Hard Work Ahead,” October 13, 2012.
“The Rise and Fall of an Idealist,” October 26, 2012.
“The Uneasy Censor,” November 9, 2012.
“The Doomsayer in his Hot Tub,” November 21, 2012.
“Bluesy Time for the Blues,” December 7, 2012.
“Are Flying Cars Good for Anything Other Than Escaping Zombies?” December 21, 2012.
“A Music Lesson,” January 4, 2013.
“He Beat Mike Tyson,” January 18, 2013.
“Off the Grid in Boston,” February 1, 2013.
“The Shuffle Done Right,” March 1, 2013.
“Building a Community from a Park,” March 15, 2013.
“A Good Cry in Digital Isolation,” March 30, 2013.
“’Screen Zombie’ and Other New Words,” April 12, 2013.
“The Last Responders,” April 26, 2013.
“An Epic Spring in Boston—Literally,” May 10, 2013.
“A Boxing Lesson for College Grads,” May 24, 2013.
“Jack Vance’s Adventure,” June 7, 2013.
“Humanities: The Practical Degree,” June 21, 2013.
“Free Play—It’s Not Just for Kids,” July 19, 2013.
“All’s Unfair in Boxing and Politics,” August 2, 2013.
“First Day of 41st Grade,” August 30, 2013.
“Silent Students,” September 13, 2013.
“On Second Thought, Repeal Casinos,” September 27, 2013.
“Pursuing the Essence of Dwelling and the Soul of Shelter,” October 11, 2013.
“How to Topple a Reputation With One Click,” October 25, 2013.
“Arne Duncan Finally Speaks His Mind,” November 22, 2013.
“The Screen Zombies,” December 6, 2013.
“A Yes Vote for Bombast,” December 20, 2013.
“Lessons Learned in a Pool Hall,” January 3, 2014.
“Football Ad Face-Off: Cars vs. Gadgets,” January 19, 2014.
“Thinking With the Wild Turkeys,” January 31, 2014.
“Nashville Comes to Boston,” February 14, 2014.
“The Reality of ‘Breaking Boston,’” February 28, 2014.
“Up To Our Teeth in Litter,” March 28, 2014.
“In Literature, it’s Boston vs. Boston—Always,” April 11, 2014.
“Frederick Law Olmsted, Poet of the Urban Landscape,” April 25, 2014.
“Burlesque a la Boston,” May 9, 2014.
“Neighborhood Has Always Mattered,” May 26, 2014.
“A Grown-Up Recital, with Kid-Sized Butterflies,” June 10, 2014.
“The Season of Reading Bees,” June 20, 2014.
“Nonna’s Independence Day,” July 4, 2014.
“Adjuncts Should Unionize,” August 1, 2014.
“Where the Data Are Driven By the Tides,” August 15, 2014.
“Good Teachers, Memorable Lessons,” August 29, 2014.
“Good Reading for Tech Crabs,” September 19, 2014.
“A Fearful Parable,” September 27, 2014.
“Why I’m Voting for Casino Repeal,” October 10, 2014.
“This Is Not the Zombie Apocalypse,” October 24, 2014.
“Why We Need Financial Doomsayers,” November 22, 2014.
“Sticking with the Flip Phone,” December 5, 2014.
“Homeless Author’s Improbable Triumph,” December 24, 2014.
“Football is On Top, For Now,” January 2, 2015.
“The Conan-Blues Curriculum,” January 15, 2015.
“The Identity Factory,” February 14, 2015.
“Memory and the Power of Bad Music,” March 9, 2015.
“Nostalgia Night at the Fights,” March 13, 2015.
“Greek Life Makes College Worse,” March 26, 2015.
“A Musical ‘Three Musketeers’ Worthy of Dumas,” April 9, 2015.
“Nursing the Las Vegas Hangover,” May 9, 2015.
Radio commentaries for WGBH FM:
“Walking to School,” March 10, 2010.
“The Previous Owner,” March 24, 2010.
“Movies on Campus,” April 7, 2010.
“Boxing in Casinos,” April 14, 2010.
“Misery and Gym,” April 28, 2010.
“Redeye,” May 10, 2010.
“Frank Frazetta,” May 26, 2010.
“Barber Shop,” June 9, 2010.
“Audiobooks,” June 23, 2010.
“Walking in China,” July 14, 2010.
“The Rude Belt,” July 28, 2010.
“The Moon Is a Bad Place,” November 3, 2010.
“Signs and Wonders,” December 17, 2010.
“Save the Common? Not Without A Fight,” Boston (January, 2009): 53.
“Old Fighters,” Philadelphia Inquirer (July 18, 1998): A13.

The Everyday Parenting Toolkit (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013). Translated into Russian, Polish, Korean, Chinese (in progress), and Spanish (in progress).
The Kazdin Method for Parenting the Defiant Child (Houghton Mifflin, 2008). Translated into Chinese, Portuguese, Romanian, Italian, Korean, and Spanish (in progress). Association of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies Book of Merit Award.
“Children and Stress,” Slate (August 11, 2010).
“Get Off Facebook and Do Something!” Slate (May 31, 2010).
“If You’re Good, I’ll Buy You a Toy,” Slate (March 26, 2010).
“No Brakes! Risk and the Adolescent Brain,” parts 1 and 2, Slate (February 4 and 5, 2010).
Part 1 / Part 2
“Like a Rat,” Slate (November 12, 2009).
“Plan B,” Slate (September 17, 2009).
“Bullies,” Slate (August 11, 2009).
“I Think I’m Worried About My Kid,” Slate (May 29, 2009).
“The Messy Room Dilemma,” Slate (March 27, 2009).
“No, You Shut Up,” Slate (February 5, 2009).
“I Spy Daddy Giving Someone the Finger,” Slate (January 27, 2009).
“Reading is Not Fundamental,” Slate (January 2, 2009).

Recall This Book, July 9, 2020.
“Craft: How Writers, Musicians, Athletes, and Others Cultivate Their Talent,” Townsend Center for the Humanities (UC Berkeley), November 19, 2019.
“Chicago Yesterday and Today: A Conversation with Carlo Rotella,” Public Books, July 1, 2019.
The Interview Show, July 16, 2019.
“Why does South Shore resist gentrification?” Crain’s Chicago Business, June 26, 2019.
With Respect, June 23, 2019.
C-SPAN panel discussion, June 8, 2019.
The Ben Joravsky Show, June 7, 2019.
“Documenting a Divide in South Shore,” Chicago, May 10, 2019.
“A Writer Comes Home,” Chicago Tribune, May 9, 2019.
Morning Shift, WBEZ, Chicago
Fresh Air
Talk of the Nation
Only A Game, National Public Radio
Midmorning, Minnesota Public Radio.
Radio Boston, WBUR, Boston.
Chronicle of Higher Education (Scholars Talk Writing series, March 21, 2018).
Panelist, NEA The Big Read Webinar, November 13, 2012. With Jhumpa Lahiri, Luis Alberto Urrea, and NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman.
“The Hook for the Resell: Creative Individuals, Cultural Institutions, and the Postindustrial City,” keynote address at the annual conference of the New England Museum Association, Springfield, MA, November 3, 2010.