He has written extensively about education, poverty and politics, including cover stories in the New York Times Magazine on the Harlem Children's Zone, the post-Katrina school system in New Orleans, the No Child Left Behind Act, and charter schools. He has worked as an editor at the New York Times Magazine. He returned to This American Life in the early 2000s, where he reported, more recently, on the parents enrolled in the Harlem Children's Zone's Baby College.[4] His writing has appeared in Slate, GQ, Esquire, and The New Yorker. He lives with his wife and son in New York City and Montauk, New York.