ARTICLES & ESSAYS
In addition to his two books, Trevor has written articles and essays for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, The Atlantic, Men's Health, The Nation, The American Prospect, Boston Magazine, Gastronomica, Transition, and other publications; his work has been anthologized in The Best American Science Writing edited by Oliver Sacks and has received commendation in Best American Essays. Below is a selection of pieces organized by theme.
Science
The Telltale Heart
Many Japanese Buddhists think heart-transplant surgeons are murderers. Some Black Muslims have reason to believe that organ donation is a racist plot. And a growing number of critics think Western doctors are medically advanced but ethically backward. A report from the frontlines of the free death debate.
Transition
Stalking the American Lobster
Government scientists say that lobsters are being dangerously overfished. Lobstermen insist that stocks are plentiful. It's a familiar kind of standoff—except that now a new breed of ecologist has taken to the waters.
The Atlantic
Spreading as Quietly as a Clam
The critter that has been threatening clam lovers this summer is a type of plankton belonging to the genus Alexandrium. For most of us, plankton is little more than ocean dust. But under a microscope, it evokes a scene from "Animal Planet"—or worse, "Aliens."
The New York Times
Politics
Finland is a Capitalist Paradise
The Nordic nations, including a majority of their business elites, have arrived at a simple formula: Capitalism works better if employees get paid decent wages and are supported by high-quality, democratically accountable public services that enable everyone to live healthy, dignified lives and to enjoy real equality of opportunity for themselves and their children.
The New York Times, Sunday Review
The Moor's Last Sigh
Financiers bemoan the dehumanizing excesses of global capitalism and Wall Street has become obsessed with Karl Marx. This shouldn't be surprising—today we wring our hands over globalization, but Marx was already on the case in 1848.
Boston Book Review
China's Blue Collar Blues
Contrary to the conventional wisdom on why the Tiananmen Square protests were crushed, the government's crackdown was as much a rejection of hardline communism as a return to it. Now, top-down economic reform has triggered protest from its victims—a classic Marxist proletariat.
The Atlantic
The Engaging Question
By engaging China in trade and diplomacy, is the United States promoting the eventual emergence of civil society, or is containment necessary to coerce an expansionist Chinese regime into backing off from oppression at home and aggression abroad?
The American Prospect
Food
The Hidden Power of Funky Foods
Some of the foulest edibles are the best for you. Learn to love them.
Men's Health
Sushi for Two
Lobbyists for the sushi and fishing industries insist that tuna is essential to sushi, and that controls on harvesting the fish would threaten traditional Japanese culture. But that’s nonsense.
The New York Times, Opinion
Whale: To Eat or Not to Eat?
A Santa Monica restaurant is facing charges for preparing the world's largest mammals, but Baby Beluga's cousins might be more ethical than beef.
The Atlantic
Boiling Point
First it was veal. Then foie gras. Now animal rights activists, ethical eaters, and even Whole Foods executives are targeting a new evil—your lobster dinner.
Boston Magazine
Culture
How My Electric Car Saves the World
My father would have had a few things to say to those automakers grumbling about government-mandated gas-mileage standards.
The New York Times, Opinion
The Magic of Buddhism
One of the most important Buddhists in the East is completely unknown in the West. And he wasn't into Zen meditation.
Kyoto Journal
Chinese Filmmakers Deserve Better
Please don't give "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" an Oscar.
The Los Angeles Times
Race
The Race to Bomb
Terrorist attacks against civilians are not something invented by Third World fanatics. The "enlightened" West bears responsibility for this development. It was born of the white man's savagery, and it released an arc of violence into history.
The Nation
The Hues of Affirmative Action
The charge that affirmative action devalues the achievements of minorities and could discriminate against whites won't go away. Neither will the fact that legacy children like me, mostly white, continue to benefit unfairly from our own form of affirmative action.
The Christian Science Monitor
Organ Rejection
In the U.S.'s healthcare system, the poor lack the funds and often the insurance coverage needed for organ transplants. But there's also the unspoken, murkier theme of race, which raises unsettling questions about our ability to prolong life.
The American Prospect
War
Strait-jacket
December elections could edge Taiwan closer to a symbolic declaration of independence—and the United States toward military conflict with China. There's one way out.
The Atlantic
Backing Beijing Into a Corner
No American missile defense system could reduce the deterrent of Russia's several thousand warheads. The only major power threatened by new U.S. missile defense proposals is China.
The New York Times, Opinion
What "Pearl Harbor" Teaches Us
On the night of March 9, 1945, wave after wave of American B-29s bombed Tokyo with enough napalm to burn 100,000 civilians to death and a quarter of the city to the ground. Similar raids followed on 66 Japanese cities. You won't see that in Michael Bay's movie.
The Boston Globe
Our Fading Memory of Nuclear Destruction
Amidst the historical debate over the reasons the atomic bombs were dropped on Japan, we are losing something precious: the stories of the survivors, who are starting to disappear.
Medium