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

More from KCRW

“Everybody's gonna have their own crayons, their own papers, school supplies, things like that. Sharing is out this year.

from KCRW Features

The City of LA is forming a new partnership with the state of California to eliminate all rental debt for low-income households financially impacted by the pandemic.

from Greater LA

LAUSD’s 2021-2022 school year kicked off today.

from Greater LA

It’s hard enough to be a mom outside of a pandemic.

from Press Play with Madeleine Brand

KCRW’s Global Beat is a new series highlighting emerging artists from around the world.

from KCRW’s Global Beat

KCRW’s Global Beat is a new series highlighting emerging artists from around the world.

from KCRW’s Global Beat

President Biden announced in May that the United States would ship 80 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to dozens of countries.

from Press Play with Madeleine Brand

“It’s the death of all hope,” Dr. Dean Shezai says of the Taliban’s takeover in Afghanistan. “When you build hope for millions of women and then overnight take it away.

from KCRW Features

Host Jonathan Bastian talks with Harvard psychologist Deirdre Barrett about our collective fascination with dreams and how COVID dreams have changed over the last year.

from Life Examined