Selected Press
Is Pilates Political — The New York Times, July 2025
This historian believes teaching Jewish American history in NYC schools can combat antisemitism — Chalkbeat, June 2025
RFK Jr. says Americans were healthier when his uncle was president. Is he right? — NPR, June 2025
We Are Thinking About Fitness All Wrong — The Cut/New York Magazine, May 2025
“Fitness Flashback: What’s Changed and What’s Stayed the Same” — Women's Health, April 2025
“Here’s What One of Trump’s Grant Termination Letters Looks Like” — The New Republic, April 2025
Every 100 Years America Produces a Robert Kennedy Jr. — The New York Times, February 2025
The Decade That Changed Fitness Forever — New York Times, January 2025
Are Americans Doing Fitness Wrong? — New York Times, January 2025
12 Books Every Fitness Entrepreneur Should Read— Athletech News, December 2024
Inside the 1980s Steroid Ring that Changed Fitness Forever — British GQ, August 2024
Richard Simmons, self-proclaimed ‘pied piper of pounds,’ dies at 76 — Washington Post, July 2024
Beloved fitness personality Richard Simmons has died — NPR, July 2024
Richard Simmons’s Radical Promise: Exercise Is for Everybody— New York Times, July 2024
New BBC Radio 4 podcast strand Extreme launches with Muscle Men — BBC Media, July 2024
RFK Jr Hijacks the “Crisis in Masculinity” (w/Natalia Petrzela) — Conspirituality podcast, March 2024
How the self-care industry made us so lonely — VOX, June 2024
What’s With All the Swole Politicians? — The Nation, August 2023
‘Huberman Husbands,’ ‘Bro Diets’ and the ‘Masculine’ Branding of Fitness Culture — The New York Times, July 2023
Fit Nation — Moms Don't Have Time To Read Books, May 2023
Indoctrination Nation — New York Magazine, May 2023
A History Professor Takes On Hollywood — New York Times, March 2023
How Young Women Fight Loneliness—Walking Together in the Park by the Hundreds — Wall Street Journal, March 2023
An Aspirational Accoutrement — East Hampton Star, March 2023
Americans Have Changed the Way They Exercise. Here’s How Gyms Are Adapting — CNN, March 2023
Gym and Peloton selfies dominate social media, but fitness may be less accessible than ever — Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, February 2023
NEXT BIG IDEA CLUB MUST-READ: Fit Nation — Next Big Idea Club, February 2023
For a fitness historian (and instructor), exercise is political — Los Angeles Times, February 2023
When Did Fitness Become a Luxury Item? — Culture Study with Anne Helen Petersen, January 2023
How is it that Americans are More Obsessed with Exercise than Ever — and Yet, Unhealthier? — BBC, 2023
Fitness Culture is More Inaccessible Than Ever. A New Book Asks Why. — Washington Post, January 2023
‘Fit Nation’ Review: Go, You Chicken Fat, Go! — Wall Street Journal, January 2023
The Birth of a New Brand of Exercise Fetish — The Nation, December 2022
Cult Vibes? — The Dr. Phil Show, December 2022
How America Became Addicted to Exercise — The New York Times, December 2022
‘Channeling the Mama Bear’: How Covid Closures Became Today’s Curriculum Wars — New York Times, November 10, 2022
Fit Nation: The Gains and Pains of America’s Exercise Obsession — Publisher's Weekly, September 2022
How Social-Emotional Learning Became a Frontline in the Battle Against CRT — NPR, September 2022
Both Sickness and Health, It Turns Out, Are Contagious — Wall Street Journal, September 2022
COVID-induced Learning Loss Means Problem for Social Justice — Press Play @ KCRW, September 2022
‘People want to look like action stars’: The Unstoppable Rise of the Marvel Body — The Guardian, August 2022
Why We Keep Falling for Fitness Fads — Vox, August 2022
Reading Roundup: FIT NATION — Society for U.S. Intellectual History Blog, August 2022
How the luxury fitness bubble popped as the pandemic wore on — Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, August 21, 2022
A Millennial Considers Spring’s Midriff-Baring Silhouettes, and Our Ever-Evolving Relationship With Our Abs — VOGUE, February 24, 2022
The Best Ten Podcasts of 2021 — New York Times, December 2021
Best Podcasts of 2021 — VOGUE, October 2021
Championing Mental Health is the Latest Celebrity Grift — The Nation, October 2021
Students Fight Back Against A Book Ban That Has Divided Community — CNN, September 2021
20/20 Season Premiere: The Chippendales Murder — ABC 20/20, October 2021
The Story Behind The Chippendales Murder — Good Morning America, October 2021
The School Culture Wars: ‘You Have Brought Division to Us’ — New York Times, August 2021
Women Are Flocking to Women-Only Gym As a Result of the Pandemic — Women's Health Magazine, September 2021
‘Critical Race Theory Is Simply the Latest Bogeyman.’ Inside the Fight Over What Kids Learn About America’s History — TIME, June 2021
Dark side of the Chippendales: murder, arson, ‘feeling objectified’ — Sydney Morning Herald, June 2021
The Sacred Boom — Marie Claire, June 2021
The Best Podcasts of 2021 So Far — TIME Magazine, May 2021
Podcast Dep’t: Welcome To Your Fantasy — The New Yorker, March 29, 2021
The Best Podcasts of 2021 Are a Combination of Newcomers and Old Favorites — Esquire Magazine, March 2021
Historian lays bare the ‘sordid’ origins of the infamous all-male revue — The Daily Mail, February 2021
The Way We Worked Out — New York Times, February 2021
The Dark Side of Chippendales Revealed in New Podcast — Access Hollywood, February 2021
Welcome to Your Fantasy — true-crime podcast peels back the layers of The Chippendales — Financial Times, February 2021
The week in audio: Welcome to Your Fantasy; Sideways; The Bias Diagnosis — The Guardian, February 2021
This Week in True-Crime Podcasts: Murder at Chippendales — Vulture, February 2021
The shockingly dark history of Chippendales — New York Post, February 2021
Hunks and Homicide: New Spotify Podcast Delves Into the Sordid History of Chippendales — Rolling Stone, January 2021
21 Podcasts to Look Forward to in 2021 — Vanity Fair, January 2021
Nancye Radmin, Pioneer of Plus-Size Fashion, Is Dead at 82 — The New York Times, December 2020
12 Podcasts to Anticipate in 2021 — The Hollywood Reporter, January 2021
Podcasts to Watch Out For in 2021 — DEADLINE, December 2020
Critics Accuse Trump Of Using Race To Divide Americans — NPR All Things Considered, October 2020
The Race is On to Be the Peloton of Weight Lifting — New York Times, August 2020
How Running’s White Origins Led To The Dangers Of ‘Running While Black’ — NPR's Code Switch, July 2020
The Rise of 1980s Fitness Culture in the U.S. — C-SPAN Lectures in History, June 2020
The Evolution of Home Fitness — BBC, May 2020
“Historia del Fitness Casero” — El Mundo España, April 2020
New York City and Fitness — How to Build a Healthy City Podcast, Financial Times, March 2020
All That Jazzercise — Brought to You By... Podcast, Business Insider, March 2020
U-Haul’s no-smokers hiring policy tests the boundaries of corporate wellness — Washington Post, January 2020
The History of the StairMaster — Smithsonian Magazine, January 2020
Trying to Get in Shape in 2020? Here’s the History behind the Common New Year’s Resolution — TIME Magazine, January 8, 2020
The Truth About Spas and Disability — The Face Magazine UK, June 2019
“We Don’t Need Marianne Williamson’s Help” — Teen Vogue, September 12, 2019
“How to Run a Small Town Paper When Your Town is East Hampton” — Here's The Thing With Alec Baldwin, WNYC, September 2019
“If You Didn’t Sharent, Did You Even Parent?” — The New York Times, August 2019
Jazzercise Turns 50, on ALL OF IT WITH ALISON STEWART — WNYC/NPR, June 24, 2019