Ask Questions First, Shoot Never was published in Alberta Views magazine in the March, 2021 issue and has been nominated for Best Long Feature at the 2022 Alberta Magazine Awards. The First Nations Policing Program was created in 1991 so that Indigenous peoples in Canada could police their own communities. The original vision has been undermined by a lack of funding and resources. I joined an officer with the Blood Tribe Police for a ride along on the Kainai First Nation in southern Alberta.
I wrote a feature for the November 2020 issue of Alberta Views about how a dozen personal artifacts that belonged to Chief Crowfoot, the revered Blackfoot leader, ended up in a British museum. And also about the long process of how they were eventually returned to the Siksika Nation. The story won the silver award in the category of Alberta Story at the 2021 Alberta Magazine Awards.
Gene and Sandy Ralston are a married couple in their early 70s who live in rural Idaho. They also travel all over Canada and the United States to help families recover the bodies of drowning victims. I wrote a feature about The Ralstons for The Guardian that was published in January of 2020.
Terry Coleman, a former cop and police chief, thinks the 21st-century police officer is a social worker. I wrote a feature for the 2019 November issue of Alberta Views magazine that explores what propelled Coleman to this conclusion and how he has helped to change how cops in Canada respond to people in a mental health crisis.
Alberta has an informal research team that is trying to get to the bottom of a mysterious humming sound. I wrote about some of these investigators and about a man from rural Alberta whose life was turned upside down by a persistent hum. You can read the story in the October 2019 edition of Avenue Edmonton.
Well, I did it. I rode a Greyhound bus from Vancouver to Sudbury. I left early Monday morning and arrived late Wednesday night with swollen ankles and a tale to tell. I wrote about the journey, and Greyhound’s abrupt exit from Western Canada in the fall of 2018, for Eighteen Bridges. It’s in the Winter 2018 issue, but unfortunately not online. Send me an email if you’re curious to read it.
I connected with three Albertans who shared their stories about what they considered to be a good and dignified death of a loved one for this feature story for Apple magazine. The story also provides practical information about how to prepare for a good death and was published in Apple’s fall 2018 issue.
Educators with the Kainai Board of Education, which runs several schools on the Blood Reserve in southern Alberta, are applying new concepts in neuroscience to encourage student success. I wrote about my visit to Kainai High School for the September 2018 edition of Alberta Views magazine.
Two brothers, distant relatives of the inventor of the ceramic garden gnome, created a museum in rural Alberta dedicated to the potent emotions of fear and wonder. Read the feature profile of Jude and Brendan Griebel in what turned out to be the very last issue of Swerve magazine—published July 6, 2018.
Remember that old poem Desiderata? Pierre Trudeau would quote it in speeches. I wrote a feature for Swerve magazine about lane swimming and Max Ehrmann’s poem and humanity’s ceaseless drive to size each other up. Here’s a link to Resurfacing, which was published in March of 2018. This article won Best Essay at the 2019 Alberta Magazine Awards.
October 2017. Swerve magazine. Freakin' Eurkea profiles a prolific Calgary inventor who has created a new type of mountain bike for people with disabilities.
June 2017, Swerve magazine. Indoor smoking bans gave rise to informal, periodic breaks throughout the workday. Can we salvage that system of regular breaks as we let go of the smoking that inspired them? Read about the value of smokeless smoke breaks in A Pause that Refreshes.
March 2017, Apple magazine. I spoke with several Alberta sleep experts to map the connection between sleeping and obesity for the feature An Appetite for Sleep.
February 2017, Swerve magazine. Chris Flodberg, an accomplished mid-career oil painter, has embraced his Calgarian-ness. His latest series of landscapes capture the icy, concrete miasma that defines his hometown in winter.
January 2017, Swerve magazine. I profile six Calgarians and chat with an MIT psychologist to understand the art and science of professional reinvention for this feature story titled The Game of Life.
January 2017, Sharp magazine. I try out a new style of boxing gym that has popped up in Calgary and is part of a trend worldwide for the short feature A New Breed of Boxing.
December 2016, Maclean's Colleges Guide. Lakeland College's unusual pedagogical approach hands the reins to students. This short feature focuses on the crop technology students and their 1000-acre farm on campus in eastern Alberta.
September 2016, Leap magazine. Better by Design profiles the engineers and machinists at the Tom Baker Cancer Centre's Medical Physics Design Lab. The Lab presents an interesting nexus where nuts-and-bolts know how meets theoretical physics in an ongoing effort to develop new cancer treatments and advance therapeutic research.
August 2016, Swerve magazine. The Beer Around Here explains how the world's third most popular beverage can coax flavours from the landscape (the idea of terroir) and how Alberta, with its rich agricultural history, is poised to become an influential beer-making region.
May 2016, This Magazine. Small is Good is a profile of CJSW 90.9 fm, Calgary's campus and community radio station. The story also examines how community radio presents a resilient model for media organizations in the digital age.
November 2015, Swerve Magazine. Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow surveys contemporary treatments for baldness, including a possible cure in development by a University of Calgary stem cell biologist.
July/August 2015, Alberta Views. This short profile of High River is an example of a monthly section called Community Action that I wrote for Alberta Views as the magazine's departments editor.
March 2015, Alberta Views. Picks of the Fringe explores the early stages of an initiative to build an appetite for professional Albertan theatre at hundreds of rural theatres across the province.
April 2014, Alberta Views. This literary travel guide takes readers to 30 destinations—from the Oil Sands Discover Centre in Fort McMurray to the Ralph Connor Church in Canmore—that have played a pivotal role in the imaginations and stories of Alberta writers. The travel guide and its authors (Doug Horner and Miranda Martini) were featured on CKUA's ArtBeat. You can listen to the episode here.
August 2013, Swerve Magazine. Good Manners Take a Dip investigates the surprising psychological turmoil endured by Calgary's public pool lane swimmers. The story was nominated for best short feature at the 2014 Alberta Magazine Award Showcase.
November 2011, FFWD Weekly. An Elegy for Bird Dog profiles the closure of a neighbourhood video store that also served as an important cultural fixture in the community. And because of the loss of another significant Calgary cultural institution, FFWD Weekly, the article's online version has also vanished.
July 2011, Alberta Venture. Crime and Partnership examines how the town of Fort Macleod teamed up with a private company to envision how a police college could be built and run using a public-private partnership (P3). The Alberta government eventually shelved the project in the summer of 2012.
March 2011, Alberta Views. What Lies Beneath investigates the growing number of inactive oil wells (over 100,000) that litter Alberta and how there is little regulatory incentive for companies to clean them up.
January 2011, Alberta Venture. Mapping the Future profiles Elizabeth Cannon, a geomatics engineer, on the heels of her appointment as president of the University of Calgary.
September 2010, Alberta Views. Written as part of an internship with Alberta Views, The Guide explores transformational changes at Calgary's two largest post secondary institutions.