Author, Journalist, Pop Folklorist
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Those who like to malign the sad state the world’s in (and who doesn’t? It’s pretty much everyone’s favorite pastime) often complain that we’re so plugged in to our computers that we’re cut off from each other. And it’s true to an extent–we’ve all seen (or been) a table of friends at dinner, busily texting…
Read more about Celebrating in Cyberspace: Save-the-dates and Saints and Saris, Oh My!
So, cryogenics and anti-feminist princess rhetoric aside, Disney was right about one thing: It is a small world after all. What’s got me thinking that today is Candelaria, or Candlemas, or Hypapante, or whatever you and yours call the religious celebration on February 2nd, if you call it anything at all. Coming 39 days after…
So, it’s fitting, given that the Ganges is the scene of so much transformation, that my own film career started (and ended) on the Ganges. On January 1st, 2007 (are you feeling the liminality yet?) I awoke in the lovely Hotel Ganges View in Benares. A converted nobleman’s palace, the hotel is located above Assi…
One of the amazing things about being in India is that people are actively seeking enlightenment all around you, all the time. And it’s (usually) not in an annoying, “I know more than you do about the meaning of life” kind of way. It’s just that people’s daily routine involves a lot of thinking about…
Read more about The Laughing Yogi in the Fetid River of Life
So, we’re in the middle of the Magh Mela, a vast pilgrimage festival for Hindus which started with Makar Sankrati on the 14th of January (you read it here first!) and ends on March 3d. There are a series of dates within that time that are the most auspicious for bathing in one of the…
So, today I woke up thinking about turtles. But that’s not where the story starts. It starts over a decade and a half ago when I was on a beach on the island of Zakynthos and the toothless, but nevertheless oddly handsome, man renting out beach chairs started chatting up my mom. He told us…
I love covering places that inspire me—from Greece to Nicaragua and everywhere in between—for outlets such as Travel+Leisure, Condé Nast Traveler, InStyle and more. Join me on my trips here.
From parenting to politics to pop culture, I’ve got opinions —and I’m not afraid to share them in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and elsewhere. Learn why I’m a bad mom here.