Brendan Borrell

writer

Guest

Contact: Website

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.

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

More from KCRW

Takotsubo Syndrome provides strong evidence for the link between mind and heart

from Second Opinion

A group of reporters recently uncovered a closely held secret: the identity of the Israeli soldier who shot and killed renowned veteran journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in 2022.

from Question Everything

Even when things go right, the outcome may not be what was expected.

from Second Opinion

Can the “chaos” at the Department of Defense be resolved, or is it just how this White House operates? Plus, KCRW examines the political legacy of Pope Francis.

from Left, Right & Center

Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s whirlwind bromance comes to an end. Plus, why are Israel and the UN at odds over a new humanitarian aid group in Gaza?

from Left, Right & Center

Should a state have the authority to override a woman’s wishes regarding her body—not for her benefit, but for someone else’s?

from Second Opinion

For more than a century, there has been a nefarious fascination with engineering society in ways that disadvantage the most vulnerable.

from Second Opinion

Touting the 2028 Olympics as a “no-build” Games, the final venue line-up puts many sporting events at some of LA’s most iconic sites.

from KCRW Features

This week, Charles Duhigg, Pulitzer prize-winning reporter and author of Supercommunicators; How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection talks about why some people are just better…

from Life Examined