Richard Faulk

Freelance Writer & Editor

United States

I write about music, culture, education, and oddities of all sorts. My work has appeared in or on the 'Silicon Valley Metro,' CNN.com, Huffington Post, 'Content' magazine, and TheFasterTimes.com, and I am the author of the humorous science and history books 'Gross America: Your Coast-to-Coast Guide to All Things Gross' (Penguin, 2012) and 'The Next Big Thing: A History of the Boom-or-Bust Moments That Shaped the Modern World (Zest, 2015). I reported for the Columbia University 'Record' and was an editor at 'Instructor' and 'Scholastic Administrator' magazines, published by Scholastic Inc. I’ve been interviewed on radio a number of times as an expert on “grossology” (a field of my own invention, whose scope might be self-evident), and I also have an appearance in the season two finale of 'Oddities' on the Science Channel.

Portfolio

Science & Oddities

The Fresh Toast
09/13/2016
What You Need To Know About Cannabis And Mad Cow Disease

Today's flashback takes you to 1995, the year when the noontime luster of Cool Britannia (embodied in this classic Pulp track) was dimmed by the shadow of mad cow disease, which had claimed its first ever human victim, just outside of London.

The Fresh Toast
09/19/2016
Can Cannabis Treat Concussions And Save Football?

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a name culled from the Greek that means exactly what is says: a disease of the brain caused by injuries sustained over a long period of time. The symptoms include memory loss, confusion, poor impulse control, emotional volatility, depression, suicidal thoughts, and dementia.

The Fresh Toast
08/24/2016
Everything You Need To Know About Cannabis and Sleep Apnea

Sleep apnea is a common-ish disorder that shatters restful sleep with interruptions in breathing that can last anywhere from seconds to even minutes. Severe cases might present up to thirty such disruptions per minute. To observers, sleep apnea can look like a cartoonish snoring fit, complete with trumpet-like noises, sputtering, and a sudden eruption into semi-wakefulness amid mutterings of "wha-a, wha-a, what..."

The Crux
06/04/2015
The Enduring Appeal of a Meal in a Pill - The Crux

On February 20, 1962, the spacecraft Friendship 7, carrying astronaut John Glenn, lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida. This Mercury 6 mission made Glenn the third American to enter space and the first to orbit the Earth. Glenn also has the distinction of being the first American to eat in space.

CNN.com
10/19/2012
7 Gross Wonders Across America

Gross is everywhere. It's in the food we eat: in the cheese that shares chemical properties with bad breath and stinky feet and in the bread that is leavened by microbial excretions. It's in nature: in the viruses that make us sick, in the monstrous shape of reptiles and deep-sea fish and in the terrible parasites that torment them.

Music

Metroactive
Reverend Horton Heat Returns to San Jose This Week With New Music

For 29 years, the Reverend Horton Heat has been the go-to band for rabble-rousing Southern rock that has both feet planted firmly in the sounds of the 1950s. Known as a hard-touring act who, at their peak, performed 275 shows a year, RHH is now supporting a new album, REV, their first release in four years.

Metroactive
Bootsy Collins Brings the Funk to Jazz Summer Fest

He didn't invent funk, but for five decades Bootsy Collins has been one of the genre's most recognized ambassadors. From behind his signature star-burst glasses, outsized top hats and custom made "Space Bass," his lilting vocals bespeak depths of mellow most of us mere mortals can only imagine.

Metroactive
'Queen Of Rockabilly' Wanda Jackson At Blank Club

Wanda Jackson has inspired generations of musicians, including Joan Jett and Jack White. The annals of popular music teem with ersatz nobility: self-proclaimed dukes, kings and princes. But no one deserves her title more than Wanda Jackson, Queen of Rockabilly.

Metroactive
Review: Pixies Enchant San Jose at City National Civic

For the record, I was pulling for them. For services rendered to indie music, for the bands they've inspired and for proving to me and countless others that rock still had life in it, the Pixies deserve to be rich and happy.

Metroactive
The Pixies Return to San Jose with New Material-but Without Kim Deal

"I was at a record store in Boston, and I saw a person returning Come on Pilgrim," says Joey Santiago, guitarist for legendary indie band the Pixies, recollecting their debut EP, on 4AD records. Back in 1986, the British label was known for its roster of ethereal gothic bands, and here was one seriously unhappy fan.

Metroactive
Sonic Youth Guitarist Lee Ranaldo Brings 'Last Night' to San Jose

There are moments in modern life when nature intrudes and reality is transformed. When I was living in New York, a twister skipped across my Brooklyn neighborhood. It was tiny as tornadoes go, but enough to tear off roofs, flood the streets and knock down far too many trees.

Metroactive
Boots Riley's Revolution With The Coup Arrives at C2SV Music Festival

Boots Riley-activist, Marxist revolutionary and writer-producer for Oakland's hip-hop outfit The Coup-recalls the first record he bought: The Message 12-inch by Grand Master Flash and the Furious Five. Quite appropriate. And quite accidental. "I wanted Rapper's Delight by the Sugar Hill Gang," he says. Instead, he grabbed their label mates' ode to urban alienation.

Education News (Editing & Writing)

Scholastic Administrator
.EDU

The Latest News and Trends in Education and Technology

Instructor
Free Stuff

Our Best-Ever Summer Freebie List

Media (Interviews promoting 'Gross America')

Radio MD
Gross America: Medical Anthropology In Disguise

'Gross America'? Don't let the colorful title fool you. Author Richard Faulk's bathroom book, 'Your Coast-to-Coast Guide to All Things Gross,' is really about fascinating and historic medical museums.

WYPR
Midday with Dan Rodricks

Author Richard Faulk's 'Gross America' takes a coast-to-coast look at the ickiest things in the nation, and why we're attracted to them.