Articles by David Roberts

David Roberts was a staff writer for Grist. You can follow him on Twitter, if you're into that sort of thing.

All Articles

  • Unboxing Occupy Wall Street: We still don’t know what it is, and that’s good

    Photo: Martin ReisWhen I first heard about Occupy Wall Street (henceforth OWS), I was dismissive. Worse, I was dismissive in a smug, insider, hippie-punching sort of way. I immediately put it into a box: confused and easily dismissed lefty protests filled with Free Mumia signs, giant puppets, and drum circles. As it turned out, I […]

    David Roberts Politics

  • Friday music blogging: Childish Gambino

    Donald Glover is a stand-up comedian and a comedy writer (he’s written for Community, 30 Rock, and The Daily Show), but he’s probably best known as Troy Barnes, the genial, goofy friend-of-Abed on the show Community. Side note here: you can argue whether Community is the funniest show on television right now (my vote would […]

    David Roberts Uncategorized

  • A case study in how media bias works against clean-air rules

    Political reporter John Broder had a long piece in The New York Times yesterday chronicling Obama’s decision to delay a tighter national smog standard. I have no desire to relitigate that fight, but I do want to pluck out one particular bit of Broder’s piece to illustrate a point. In a recent piece kvetching about […]

    David Roberts Health

  • The push is on to discredit clean energy investment

    When it rains it pours.There’s always been a tension in U.S. culture between two competing narratives. On one hand, Americans like to think of themselves as pioneers, innovators, forward thinkers — the country that invests blood, sweat, and treasure today to create a better future for the next generation. We tell ourselves stories about building […]

    David Roberts Technology