Brendan Borrell

writer

Guest

I've tracked down the maple syrup thieves in Quebec, unearthed the truth behind an 840-pound emerald from Brazil, and narrowly escaped from the world's deadliest bird in Australia.

My work has been published in Scientific American, Smithsonian, Slate, Bloomberg Businessweek and The New York Times. For a couple years, I was a correspondent for The Scientist, and I've worked as a staff reporter for Nature, Scientific American, and theOregonian. In 2013, I was an Alicia Patterson Foundation fellow and traveled to Uganda to investigate an herbal cure for malaria and the strange plague wrought by false tooth disease. My international reporting has also been funded by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, Investigative Reporters and Editors, and the Mongabay Special Reporting Initiative.

Contact: Website

Brendan Borrell on KCRW

Vaccines commonly contain adjuvants — substances that help fire up people’s immune systems.

COVID vaccine: Can immunity-boosting compounds from a Chilean tree help?

Vaccines commonly contain adjuvants — substances that help fire up people’s immune systems.

from Press Play with Madeleine Brand

Meteorites can be quite valuable – hot commodities. Where there’s a commodity, there’s a trade and someone trying to get in on the action.

Hunting meteorites lands a man in prison

Meteorites can be quite valuable – hot commodities. Where there’s a commodity, there’s a trade and someone trying to get in on the action.

from Press Play with Madeleine Brand

Weighing in at a staggering 840 pounds, the Brazilian Bahia Emerald is thought to be the biggest uncut emerald in the world.

An Epic Emerald Fight

Weighing in at a staggering 840 pounds, the Brazilian Bahia Emerald is thought to be the biggest uncut emerald in the world.

from Press Play with Madeleine Brand

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Hundreds of employees and several judges have tested positive for coronavirus — and courts are still open for in-person trials.

from Press Play with Madeleine Brand

In Los Angeles County, COVID-19 has exacerbated racial and economic inequality.

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The CDC says across the entire country, flu activity is minimal . In California , only a tiny percentage of tests have come back positive. Dr.

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Johnson & Johnson says it will ship out nearly 4 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine this week — after the FDA authorized it for emergency use on Saturday.

from Press Play with Madeleine Brand

Many Angelenos are camping out on a sidewalk overnight to be first in a daily unofficial standby line for leftover COVID-19 vaccine doses.

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Northridge’s long-time Skateland roller rink will reopen as a homeless shelter by November 2021, if all goes according to plan.

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If it wasn’t obvious before, COVID-19 has made it crystal clear: Deep racial disparities result in varying medical outcomes.

from KCRW Features