Cohen's Clip List

Here is a selection of my writings on-line, many but not all of which are about science, technology, and nature - Ben

B.R. Cohen's Days at the Museum, a short series of dispatches from the Smithsonian.

B.R. Cohen's Annals of Science, a series of short stories about science and history and sometimes strange people.

"I Dream in Malcolm Gladwell", over at The Morning News (January 2009)

"An Anti-Environmentalist Writes His Next Column While Eating Take-out and Driving His Hummer", at McSweeney's (September 2008)

"Bisphenol-A: The One Act Play", at Dave's Science Creative Quarterly (May 2008)

"Too Much Culture But Not Enough To See", a guest post over at The Education of Oronte Churm (February 2008)

"Hot Chocolate is the Loneliest Life" (December 2007)

"On 'The Accident'", a guest post over at The Education of Oronte Churm (August 2007)

"Muscle and Flow", a contribution to the Convergences series by Lawrence Weschler (July 2007)

Blacksburg and Biography, written after April 16th about formative years in Blacksburg. Appeared at The Morning News (May 2007)

Interview with Environmental Journalist, Berkeley Professor, NYT Magazine Writer, and Agro-Ethicist of sorts, Michael Pollan, from The Believer (April 2007)

Interview with Philosopher and Historian of Sexuality Arnold Davidson, from The Believer, May 2006

"How Long Does it Take to Dress Your Monkey?"

"Hoping for a Safe Return" -- A saga of tax returns, the IRS fine print, and kidnapping (You can hear this too, being read for PRI's Weekend America)

"World-Historical Cheneys", also appears in Mountain Man Dance Moves , the McSweeney's Book of Lists

Interview with the Grandmother of the Philosophy of Biology, Marjorie Grene, from The Believer, March 2005

Songbook Essays: Phish's "Bathtub Gin", an essay, the best on this page, maybe second best, ostensibly about the Bathtub Gin played at Radio City in Spring 2000, but also an autobiography

"Historical Theories Gone Wild!"

"To Die Softly", an essay on the action film genre -- this is a review of the action sequence in My Dinner with Andre which appeared at The Morning News

"On Tour with Bob Edwards", an essay about the last Bob Edwards tour. What a ride. A lot of us are still reeling.

"How He Spent his Summer Vacation", an interview with my friend Jonson Miller, Peace Activist and Summer [2003] Jail Inhabitant

"Elephants Make Poor Salads"

"If Game-show hosts were guests on their own shows" (pseudonymously)

"My Favorite Quarters"

"Having Not been Paying Attention Since 1586"

"Notes from the Scene"

And here is some academic work available on-line - Ben

"The Once and Future Georgic: Agricultural Practice, Environmental Knowledge, and the Place for an Ethic of Experience," Agriculture and Human Values 26 (3) (2009): forthcoming [on-line first]

"What Makes a Difference? Science and Epistemic Authority in the Early American Republic," Historically Speaking 10 (January 2009): 23-24

"Why Blog the History of Science?" History of Science Newsletter (October 2008): 3-5

"Virginia's Modern Environmental History," in Encyclopedia Virginia, Virginia Foundation for the Humanities (2008)

"Surveying Nature: Environmental Dimensions of Virginia's First Scientific Survey, 1835-1842," Environmental History 11 (January 2006): 38-69

"The Element of the Table: Visual Discourse and the Pre-Periodic Representation of Chemical Classification," Configurations 12 (Winter 2004): 41-75