There are interesting people doing incredible things just about anywhere. My job is to find them and write about it. Along the way, I’ve hunted meteorites in Kansas, taste-tested cloned bacon in Indiana, and chased down copper thieves causing an alarming amount of dropped calls in Texas. I’ve also spent way too much time making pit stops at McDonald’s. But that became another story entirely…
Currently, I am the features editor at Men’s Health. Previously, I was a senior writer at Fast Company and senior editor at Men’s Health. My work has also appeared in the pages of Wired, Bloomberg Businessweek, New York Magazine, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Runner’s World, Outside, EatingWell, Details, and Slate — and been included in the Best of Technology Writing, Best Food Writing (twice), and Best American Sports Writing. Ever wonder what the end of the world might actually look like? Or how to build a posh igloo in the middle of the desert? These are the kind of bizarre questions I love to answer.
In 2012, I received the James Beard Foundation Award for Food Politics, Policy and Environment for exploring the new market and potential hidden costs of America’s obsession with guilt-free sweetness. I’ve also earned a 2013 nomination for writing about how to eat your way out of trouble with invasive species, and a 2015 nomination for investigating Monsanto’s quest to go organic.
Ben Paynter 