RS: In addition to your work for Retraction Watch, you've written for a number of publications, including Mother Jones, The Awl and The Daily Beast. You've written about everything from birds recolonizing the rainforest to gentrification and the science of coffee tasting. Why do you think you're drawn to such varied topics as a writer?

CF: Probably for the same reason I was so bad in school--I get obsessed easily and bored easily. I spent about thirty seconds in a neuroscience lab during undergrad, and as cool as it was seeing behind the curtain, once I'd written a paper or two on the lab's work I was ready to move on to something else. 

The whole world is huge and crazy, and I want to learn as much as I can before journalism dies and I have to get a job writing blurbs for a press release aggregation app, is I guess what I'm saying. 

I saw on twitter.com that you're taking a week off in New York City and not traveling anywhere. What are you going to do?

Oh my god it's going to be great. I'm going to cook elaborate meals, sleep in, take my dog for long walks, and change all three lightbulbs that are currently burned out around my apartment. There's also a strong possibility I will get high and wander around the Met pretending to be an Irish tourist.

What can people expect from your reading on March 28?

I might read a short story about murdering men. Or an essay about pets! You really never know with me.