Jason Daley

Welcome to my long overdue website. My most recent and popular clips and some random thoughts can be found in the posts below. To view specific clips such as Environment or Humor, please click on the Categories bar to the right. There are older articles on the page titled Archive Clips and a sampling of my piss-poor photography skills on the Selected Photos page. Enjoy, and let me know if you find any misspellings, broken links, or have suggestions on improving this site.

This is my second year doing the Science Confirms the Obvious package for Popular Science, and this time around I was careful to really explain why these seemingly silly studies are being done. Sadly, there’s never enough words in these packages to do the research justice, but I’m consistently amazed at how complex what we think of as no-brainers, like giving water to farm ducks, can be. Sure there are research projects that are just, dumb, but I think all of the studies covered in this piece have more than justified themselves, even if the headlines describing them haven’t.

By far my favorite gig as a freelancer was writing Outside’s Wild File Q&A column. Sadly, assignments involving critters and in-depth research are few and far between these days. So I relished the chance to track down animal tidbits for MSN Travel in the UK for an online slideshow called Travel’s Deadliest Wildlife. I’m always concerned about sensationalizing the dangers animals pose to humans since many of those fears are totally irrational. That’s why I took great pains to track down critters that really do pose a threat, though most of them will leave you alone if you don’t step on them or poke them with a cricket bat. I’ve looked into this topic before, and it’s amazing that even in this information age we still can’t get a good handle on how many people are killed each year by snakes or scorpions or rabid dogs. I tracked down the best numbers available, but even the researchers will admit they’re only guesses.

As for the slide of the “elk,” there’s some confusion. What we call moose in North America are called elk in Europe. What we call elk are called… I have no idea what they call them in Europe. In any case, some cross-continental guessing led to an incorrect photo. Apologies to Bullwinkle.

This is my second year researching misleading health headlines for Popular Science. Among this years gems–Bras Cause Cancer, Bacon Gives Kids Cancer, and Thinking Makes You Fat.  Though this article is more or less a humor piece, it points to a serious problem. Health information is currently treated as lifestyle or trend news by most news agencies and is not given the weight or consideration it deserves. Not only is the media full of contradictory and light-weight stories on health, it actively warps research findings to create sexy and misleading headlines. But the problems with getting accurate health info go much deeper than the typical hack jobs done by mainstream journalism. The former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine has questioned the overall accuracy of medical research, and critics worry that some research is tainted by sponsors, suppressed for political and commercial reasons, or simply poorly conducted. It’s all overwhelming and I have no idea how to straighten things out. My advice–don’t get sick and you won’t have to deal with the information train wreck.

For writers, most of what we produce goes out into the world and the response is… the chirping of crickets. Feedback usually comes in the form of angry letters from readers or a “you screwed up,” screed from an editor. Even online comments are mostly spammers selling Viagra or ESL students practicing their declensions. So any recognition a writer gets is appreciated, especially when it comes from colleagues. Two of my pieces from the past year recently won awards from the Society of American Travel Writer’s Central States chapter. It may not be a National Magazine Award, but it’s nice to know at least some of my work is on the right track.

How To Prevent a Monkey Attack, World Hum–First Place, Best Travel or Consumer “How To” ArticleA

How I Lost 5,400 Pounds While Packing for the Trip of a Lifetime, Backpacker–First Place, Best Ecology/Conservation/Preservation Article