https://www.erikahayasaki.com/contact daily 0.75 2023-10-27 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51967e31e4b0e17712886669/c5a84edb-324e-4b26-9447-658832795001/last+books.jpg Contact - Make it stand out Photo by Portia Marcelo. https://www.erikahayasaki.com/on-writing daily 0.75 2025-08-31 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51967e31e4b0e17712886669/a7b2bf6f-4b10-478a-80ef-543b24be18e5/Screen+Shot+2022-07-20+at+9.39.41+PM.png On Writing - Make it stand out Photo by Portia Marcelo. https://www.erikahayasaki.com/erikahayasakicom daily 1.0 2025-10-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51967e31e4b0e17712886669/0af28903-0c61-4a87-afb1-03c007871ed9/EricaHayasaki_011_CROP1_HighRes.jpg About - Make it stand out Photo by Emily Davis. https://www.erikahayasaki.com/longform daily 0.75 2025-10-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51967e31e4b0e17712886669/fabfe19f-3113-461a-b7f7-eaf9862a7b97/Screenshot+2025-03-16+at+12.04.21%E2%80%AFPM.png Longform - The Doctor, the Biohacker, and the Quest to Treat Their Long COVID Five years after the COVID-19 pandemic first swept across the planet, as many as 20 million Americans and at least 400 million people worldwide currently suffer from long COVID, a debilitating condition that still has no approved treatment and is often misdiagnosed and misunderstood. In their desperate search for answers, two men are bonded by their quest to feel like themselves again. Men’s Health, March 2025 issue. Narrated for audio at Apple News. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51967e31e4b0e17712886669/c4502ba9-ff80-4966-936b-39e3797f22c9/Screenshot+2025-05-14+at+7.39.26%E2%80%AFAM.png Longform - The Real History of the Complex Relationship Between Chinese and Black Americans in the Mississippi Delta The remarkable success of the movie “Sinners” has sparked a renewed interest in how the two communities wrestled with life under Jim Crow. Smithsonian Magazine, May 2025. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51967e31e4b0e17712886669/6890c034-0c3c-4bc7-be61-51f24da961dd/Screenshot+2025-07-21+at+9.47.31%E2%80%AFAM.png Longform The New York Times Magazine, July 26th issue. Narrated for New York Times Audio. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51967e31e4b0e17712886669/1597084209625-1JYERCQGYOEOEJMM65F7/Screen+Shot+2020-08-10+at+11.28.49+AM.png Longform - How a Self-Taught Hacker Escaped a Cult Image credit: Glamour. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51967e31e4b0e17712886669/1505620850855-11N3J4RMWKY1RHD43YI5/End+Pain+Photo.png Longform - How a Gene Could Become a Volume Knob for Pain Her skin is perpetually on fire. He can't even feel a bone break. Together they might hold the key to ending America's opioid epidemic. WIRED magazine (May 2017 cover story). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51967e31e4b0e17712886669/54303991-4f8c-40a4-adf2-1e8fae045b11/Screen+Shot+2022-08-19+at+4.13.18+PM.png Longform - Better Living Through Crispr Growing Human Organs in Pigs, WIRED. April issue, 2019. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51967e31e4b0e17712886669/1368921534040-UONY2NP5YNRAX00PSS0Z/alone_web+%282%29.jpg Longform - He Died in Vast Isolation Photo: Carolyn Cole/LA Times. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51967e31e4b0e17712886669/d3d5b50e-6aba-42b6-966c-b2f5b580bbc8/Screen+Shot+2022-08-19+at+4.17.26+PM.png Longform - Can Your DNA Tell You the Healthiest Way to Live Your Life? The Atlantic, June 29, 2017. Genetic-sequencing companies are going beyond ancestry and disease risk to offer specific lifestyle recommendations. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51967e31e4b0e17712886669/1588787189437-5SHMAIUGL201AZY9C125/Screen+Shot+2020-05-06+at+10.46.01+AM.png Longform - The Hollywood Vigilante Hunting child predators with actress Marisol Nichols. Marie Claire, May 2020 issue. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51967e31e4b0e17712886669/1480452599312-AP7L8JRNOP3I1BWVVATX/image-asset.png Longform - Traces of Times Lost Image credit: Minnikova Mariia / Shutterstock / Zak Bickel / The Atlantic https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51967e31e4b0e17712886669/c390f5dc-c446-4c51-bc21-e6a4ebd049d9/Screenshot+2024-08-08+at+12.42.09%E2%80%AFPM.png Longform - A Merciless Sun A year ago, Kekoa Lansford watched from a hilltop as the Maui wildfires incinerated his hometown. While others fled to safety, he ran into the flames to save as many lives as he could. Today, the scars from that blaze—one of the deadliest in the U. S. in more than a century—remain. Where do Kekoa and the rest of the survivors go from here? Men’s Health, September 2024 magazine issue. Narrated for audio at Apple News. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51967e31e4b0e17712886669/e9beba4a-26e1-47b8-b1eb-cf981e9e33e7/Screen+Shot+2023-12-14+at+3.53.20+PM.png Longform - Rebirth of a Champion After more than a year away from tennis, Naomi Osaka is returning to the court. But this time, the four-time Grand Slam champion is a mother, an executive, and more sure of herself than ever before. InStyle magazine cover profile, December 2023 issue. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51967e31e4b0e17712886669/1368921627711-XI4YXXN0TZ15YC9TDG79/lovestories+%281%29.jpg Longform - Love Stories Buried No Longer Photo Carolyn Cole/LA Times. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51967e31e4b0e17712886669/1625851783697-KWP21D3ADB3EF623FZXD/Screen+Shot+2021-07-09+at+12.28.53+PM.png Longform - The Police Called It An Accident. She Turned to 1-800-Autopsy. The close ties between coroners and law enforcement have fueled an usual and unregulated industry: for-profit forensic examinations. The New York Times Magazine, Sunday, July 11, 2021 issue. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51967e31e4b0e17712886669/1431928853669-36GI22K4RW0LP7HMZA1N/image-asset.png Longform - The End of Eyewitness Testimonies As science seeps into the courtroom, memory-as-evidence fades into the background. Newsweek, Nov. 19, 2014 issue. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51967e31e4b0e17712886669/1368921328666-RLTMRYFE2OK498YIFC3G/scan0001+%282%29.jpg Longform - The Daughter Her father shot them all. And she forgave him. Los Angeles Times Magazine cover story, Oct. 29, 2006 issue. Also honored by the Association of Sunday Feature Editors Awards. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51967e31e4b0e17712886669/977d80cd-25f2-4e5d-ba7a-143f677a6172/Screenshot+2024-08-08+at+12.52.25%E2%80%AFPM.png Longform - How can Maui survive future wildfires? History offers some clues. A year after the deadliest U.S. wildfire in over a century, Native Hawaiian survivors are advocating for change. National Geographic, August, 7, 2024. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51967e31e4b0e17712886669/1596940932352-03WSTBCCBK24QOVWGW75/Screen+Shot+2020-08-08+at+7.30.48+PM.png Longform - Daughters of the Bomb My reckoning with Hiroshima, 75 years later. On the 75th anniversary of the A-bomb, a Japanese American writer speaks to one of the last living survivors – and traces connections from Malcolm X to the fight to end nuclear war. Narratively & The Guardian, August 2020. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51967e31e4b0e17712886669/1614123413793-BII5DP09RE7JMLBSLOEV/Screen+Shot+2021-02-23+at+3.27.57+PM.png Longform - How to Remember a Disaster Without Being Shattered by It Margaret McKinnon survived a mid-air catastrophe, then became a major researcher of memory and trauma. Now she’s studying how the pandemic will haunt us. WIRED, April 2021 issue (honored as notable selection in The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2022). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51967e31e4b0e17712886669/1588786749871-AX9KN2AQOY03EXMMBTAC/Screen+Shot+2020-05-06+at+10.38.27+AM.png Longform - An Act of Love and Desperation Chloe Le got a mild case of COVID-19. Her husband, Ted, ended up in the ICU. Chloe spent weeks in a race against a bottlenecked system, trying to donate her plasma to Ted and hopefully save his life. The Atlantic, May 5, 2020. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51967e31e4b0e17712886669/1614123156856-AKGG0R1X98XDAYDJY70X/Screen+Shot+2021-02-19+at+8.49.18+PM.png Longform - Amazon’s Great Labor Awakening Covid-19 has cemented the e-commerce giant’s hold on the economy — but it has also spurred employees all around the country to organize. The New York Times Magazine, Feb. 22, 2021 Cover Story. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51967e31e4b0e17712886669/4eb8a5e5-395f-45ca-ac43-ece8c7dea06b/Screenshot+2024-08-22+at+9.38.10%E2%80%AFAM.png Longform - Her Community Burned in the Maui Fires. Now She’s Helping the Island Heal. When Adri Haia’s hometown was decimated last year, she made it her mission to bring Lahaina back to life, Elle, August 2024. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51967e31e4b0e17712886669/1588787518660-2IIFPW3IEK1IFJS957UM/Screen+Shot+2020-05-06+at+10.51.42+AM.png Longform - Death Surrounds Her Photo: Jeff Rhode. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51967e31e4b0e17712886669/1368921479029-J5TF189VNAGRV3JKIJQK/nourlisa+%281%29.jpg Longform - Story of the Scarf Still Waits to be Told Photo Carolyn Cole/LA Times. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51967e31e4b0e17712886669/1473473956120-KJ8E9QSA5U0VAAN4TP2A/image-asset.png Longform - How Poverty Affects the Brain New research reveals the connection between stress, poverty and brain development in children. Newsweek, Sept. 2, 2016 cover story. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51967e31e4b0e17712886669/9d9ced44-3885-4b98-bbad-03853de45a92/Screen+Shot+2022-08-19+at+4.11.48+PM.png Longform - When Your Body Ages Too Fast We’re starting to understand more about Werner syndrome, a genetic disorder that makes people age too quickly. Could treating it help us all age more slowly? Mosaic/Slate, May 2019. (Supported by the Alicia Patterson Foundation Grant for Science and Environmental Reporting) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51967e31e4b0e17712886669/1b59be50-61f4-40a9-8473-6c837c733e9f/Screenshot+2024-05-18+at+9.01.02%E2%80%AFAM.png Longform - This Grim but Revolutionary DNA Technology is Changing How We Respond to Mass Disasters From his current home in Northern California, Raven Imperial spent days not knowing what had happened to his family in Maui. WINNI WINTERMEYER https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51967e31e4b0e17712886669/1431929845765-DWFYPT02G4YI2GXY3554/image-asset.png Longform - How Many of Your Memories Are Fake? When people with Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory—those who can remember what they ate for breakfast on a specific day 10 years ago—are tested for accuracy, researchers find what goes into false memories. The Atlantic, Nov. 18, 2013. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51967e31e4b0e17712886669/65dad066-93a5-4ab2-bec7-4239fe2bd750/Screenshot+2025-07-04+at+8.48.15%E2%80%AFAM.png Longform - The Fire of Freedom At 20 years old, Fausto Lopez was one of thousands of heroic firefighters who fought the Los Angeles wildfires—some of the most destructive in California history. But amid the black smoke and fierce winds, he also faced a bigger battle: for a second chance at life. Men’s Health magazine, July/August 2025 issue. Narrated for audio at Apple News+. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51967e31e4b0e17712886669/3f95a4c6-8348-4d15-8562-5c7f3178d016/Screen+Shot+2023-10-26+at+12.12.30+PM.png Longform - The Lurker It didn’t matter if she knew you — if you were a professor and Asian American, you were a potential target. The Verge, Oct 25, 2023. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51967e31e4b0e17712886669/1443889623102-42OXHTPHU42HELDQAXRL/image-asset.png Longform - A Criminal Mind Image credit: California Sunday Magazine. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51967e31e4b0e17712886669/1505627112864-MI3ZJQM8HH9V4F4IN15V/Screenshot+2017-08-15+16.26.37.png Longform - How Motherhood Affects Creativity Illustration by Hein Koh. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51967e31e4b0e17712886669/f5737309-8805-4331-868a-b938217e1a8b/Screenshot+2024-08-22+at+8.24.14%E2%80%AFAM.png Longform - She Survived the Maui Wildfires. She Couldn’t Survive the Year After. Edralina Diezon was working as a janitor and sending money to her family in the Philippines when wildfires destroyed everything she had. The road to rebuilding her life proved to be perilous. The New York Times, August 21, 2024. Listen to story via NYT Reporter Reads. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51967e31e4b0e17712886669/1368921396820-8NXR94MT9M7YOOBAX1L3/vatech+%281%29.jpg Longform - A Deadly Hush in Room 211, Then the Killer Returned Photo: Associated Press. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51967e31e4b0e17712886669/1596940312320-S8ERPFFUTHKCMVB0MKQP/Screen+Shot+2020-08-08+at+7.29.54+PM.png Longform - Covid-19 and the robot takeover of human jobs Machines were supposed to take over tasks too dangerous for humans. Now humans are the danger, and robots might be the solution. MIT Technology Review: July 2020 issue. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51967e31e4b0e17712886669/1482437197862-I42BVDWMSLSM1K7F5J8E/Erin+pic.png Longform - The Investigator Photographs by Dru Donovan/California Sunday Magazine. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51967e31e4b0e17712886669/1436856701672-HCJTBHJ9QOEG5UZFLXYV/Screenshot+2015-07-13+23.46.45.png Longform - This Doctor Knows Exactly How You Feel Photo: Mark Ostow for Pacific Standard. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51967e31e4b0e17712886669/fdb81d46-116d-44aa-ac8a-eeb9a4c18c53/Screen+Shot+2023-11-09+at+1.09.54+PM.png Longform - Twin Destinies Twin Destinies Laura and Mari, sisters separated as infants, grew up an ocean apart but with the same penchant for style. Elle magazine. November 2023 issue. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51967e31e4b0e17712886669/1431930113642-SE8XW7MOW71H6F3VXTDN/Picture+1.png Longform - The Girl Who Wouldn't Die On a moonlit ride through L.A. with Mike, Vince, and Eddie, things go bad. The Big Roundtable, August, 13, 2013. Honored by the Society for Features Journalism Narrative Writing, 2014. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51967e31e4b0e17712886669/0182356c-eba5-4803-b016-97822e9c44e4/Screen+Shot+2022-08-19+at+4.02.15+PM.png Longform - Has This Scientist Finally Found the Fountain of Youth? Editing the epigenome, which turns our genes on and off, could be the “elixir of life.” MIT Technology Review. August 2019 issue. (Supported by the Alicia Patterson Foundation Grant for Science and Environmental Reporting). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51967e31e4b0e17712886669/1431928040814-OAJHO6G0XE3XUQ7CICG5/image-asset.png Longform - Living With Being Dead Image credit Matter. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51967e31e4b0e17712886669/1484769605387-O4G4DQ661EJJGLLVJZT9/image-asset.png Longform - Is AI Sexist? Image credit: Foreign Policy. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51967e31e4b0e17712886669/1368922210591-6TEPP4ZD43O7MIX9WZUC/sept11_web+%282%29.jpg Longform - A Mother Never Forgets Photos by Jennifer Altman, for the Los Angeles Times. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51967e31e4b0e17712886669/1431930345091-BOOLIEQRSSOI8G9NTEMG/image-asset.png Longform - Make it stand out Image credit: Longreads. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51967e31e4b0e17712886669/cd943575-edcf-41b6-8f2d-ef87798ad8e3/Screenshot+2024-08-08+at+12.36.24%E2%80%AFPM.png Longform - For Maui Wildfire Survivors Who Moved to Las Vegas, Another Climate disaster Awaits: Extreme Heat. A year after the fire some try to rebuild life in the city known as the ‘ninth Hawaiian island’ – as temperatures top 117F. The Guardian, August 8, 2024. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51967e31e4b0e17712886669/00459389-bcb4-486d-9400-fb201d08ef8e/Screen+Shot+2022-09-13+at+7.44.49+AM.png Longform - How Book Bans Turned a Texas Town Upside Down How Book Bans Turned a Texas Town Upside Down In a political environment where book-banning efforts are being used to drive voter sentiment, librarians find themselves on the front lines. The New York Times Magazine, September 11 education issue. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51967e31e4b0e17712886669/1531251260771-8FD3XSVQRVYMJ7OC2L6Q/Screenshot+2018-07-10+12.33.19.png Longform - Identical Twins Hint at How Environment Changes Gene Expression Studying twins has long offered insight into the interplay of nature and nurture. Epigenetics is the next frontier. (Supported by the Alicia Patterson Foundation Grant for Science and Environmental Reporting). The Atlantic, May 15, 2018. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51967e31e4b0e17712886669/1461111195025-EPL0M5ETYULWUX367SDK/Screenshot+2016-04-19+17.10.41.png Longform - In a Perpetual Present Image credit: Wired. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51967e31e4b0e17712886669/d21db102-4373-4e44-9e3e-d56768f06db3/Screenshot+2024-05-18+at+9.09.17%E2%80%AFAM.png Longform - A Maui Love Story On August 8, 18-year-old Lahaina residents Lanz Aguinaldo and Isabella Lynch woke up to the deadliest U.S. wildfire since 1918. They would end the day clinging to a tree on Maui's roiling shore. Erika Hayasaki reports on the many failures that led there. In print in New York Magazine, Jan. 1, 2024 issue & online at The Cut. Narrated for audio at Apple News. Anthologized in the Best American Science and Nature Writing 2025 book series. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51967e31e4b0e17712886669/20bc55dc-a3ec-4bf9-814f-4fd1b128a043/Screen+Shot+2022-08-19+at+4.16.52+PM.png Longform - Could the Experiences of Our Ancestors be "Seared Into Our Cells?" Slate magazine. June 27, 2018. A science journalist responds to Carmen Maria Machado’s short story “A Brief and Fearful Star.” (Supported by the Alicia Patterson Foundation Grant for Science and Environmental Reporting) https://www.erikahayasaki.com/teaching-1 daily 0.75 2025-06-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51967e31e4b0e17712886669/1505618375541-9JZF93YZ0J8O7KY1WL10/Screenshot+2017-09-16+20.14.55.png Teaching - Make it stand out Photo by Bob Newsom. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51967e31e4b0e17712886669/43d8e024-b0a6-4601-b0ef-851bc17fea42/Screen+Shot+2022-06-17+at+8.22.31+AM.png Teaching - Make it stand out GQ Magazine https://www.erikahayasaki.com/books-1 daily 0.75 2025-06-11 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51967e31e4b0e17712886669/4d8abee9-c6bc-4e4f-a7d3-db5e0881eb6b/BestAmericanScienceandNatureWriting2025.jpg Books Anthologized in The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2025: A Collection of the Year's Most Insightful Essays on the Natural World, Climate Change, and the Wonders of Science, Curated by Susan Orlean. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51967e31e4b0e17712886669/0c100e4e-a342-46dd-8d59-463fb89e578c/Screen+Shot+2024-01-23+at+2.40.09+PM.png Books - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.erikahayasaki.com/interviews daily 0.75 2025-08-31 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51967e31e4b0e17712886669/c3f2c961-3ac4-42fe-b847-a8f5cc78458d/EricaHayasaki_010_CROP1_HighRes.jpg Interviews - Make it stand out Photo by Emily Davis.