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What do your parents think about what you do?
This is an odd query, really, since I’m a 33-year-old adult. As a grown-up human who pays her own bills and folds her own laundry and cooks her own meals, I think it would be strange to sit around mulling over what my parents may or may not think about what I do. I get that parental approval is something we’re biologically programmed to chase (often to no avail), but it’s definitely not a current focus of mine, and it hasn’t been for some time.
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Is your boyfriend the most understanding dude on the planet?
Yes! He’s an impossibly supportive, progressive mother fucker. And he’s pretty cool, too.
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Do you ever get nervous about going undercover?
Yes! In fact, I use the level of anxiety I feel about a given project as a measure of how compelling the story is likely to turn out. Luckily, I’m really well versed in the art of pitching/committing to something I’m excited about and then not thinking about it again until I absolutely must.
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Where do you get your ideas?
All sorts of places, but usually they surface in the shower, or while I’m running on the treadmill. I like to think I keep my ear to the proverbial streets, yo. Maintaining relationships with interesting people is also a critical aspect of the idea generation process. That’s right, people like YOU are the key. So if there’s a gem of an idea percolating on the back of your brain, contact me!
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What’s the most difficult part about going undercover?
Going undercover often requires adopting a completely different persona, which is challenging unless you’re an actor by trade. Playing a role believably requires careful forethought, a healthy dose of moxie, and practice. But you can never prepare enough for these things, so you’re destined to make a few mistakes when you’re in the thick of it. The toughest part is thinking on your feet to fix any number of unpredictable situations.
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Do you feel bad about deceiving people while researching a story?
The short answer is: No. It’s never my intention to hurt anyone, or to get anyone in trouble. I almost always use pseudonyms to protect characters’ real identities. One exception is the plastic surgery feature, in which I name the doctors. Some might consider it unethical to reveal what a doctor says without knowing they’re being recorded. I would argue that a medical professional should be able to stand behind every single thing they say to a prospective patient during a scheduled consultation. The law agrees with me.
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Have you ever gotten death threats?
Yes. I received a series of threatening text messages after publishing a story in New York magazine about dealing prescription drugs through Craigslist. I promptly consulted the police, who assured me that 99 percent of death threats are phony. The best approach, they said, would be to ignore them. So I refrained from responding altogether, but the looming thought of being in the 1 percent in this case freaked me the fuck out. I didn’t sleep well until the messages stopped arriving in my inbox. Death threats are highly unpleasant. I don’t recommend them.
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If you could be a bagel, what kind of bagel would you be?
An everything.
For example, when I posed as a young dissatisfied newlywed to infiltrate Ashley Madison, a website that facilitates affairs, I had to think long and hard about what life would have been like if I’d married the wrong man in my 20s and felt trapped in a sexless relationship as a result. I talked to myself about this alternate existence for days before I accepted any dates with married men I met through the site. During my first in-person encounter, a guy asked me where my wedding ring was. Such a simple question! But I’d neglected to think about the whole ring thing in advance, so I was paralyzed into silence for an awkward minute before I figured out how to answer.