I'm a freelance writer and lifelong resident of Jackson, Mississippi. You might know me as About.com Guide to Civil Liberties (2006-2015), as a blogger for Mysterious Universe or CMUSE, as an award-winning contributing columnist for the Jackson Free Press, or as an author who writes primarily about the history of ideas.

According to 23andMe, I belong to maternal haplogroup HV9 and paternal haplogroup I1. My ancestry is mostly Western European but includes a small amount of West African ancestry—ancestry that is not part of my official genealogical record. I have a second-generation case of Crouzon Syndrome, a rare inheritable craniofacial deformity, and appear to have a naturally-occurring immune deficiency of unknown origin.

I'm interested in contributing to, and learning from, the Open Humans Project.