My most recent book, The Roots of Desire: The Myth, Meaning and Sexual Power of Red Hair, was published by Bloomsbury in 2005, paperback 2006. In 2001, I co-authored (with famed forensic pathologist Michael Baden), Dead Reckoning, published by Simon and Schuster; paperback, 2002. My first book was Another Name for Madness, published by Houghton Mifflin in 1985; Pocket Books, 1986. A former staff member of The New York Times, I have written for their Science Times section; two of those stories are included in The New York Times Book of Women’s Health, published in 2000.

A commentator on National Public Radio’s "All Things Considered," my work has also appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Prevention, The Daily News, Vogue, Newsday, Good Housekeeping, Discover, American Health, The Los Angeles Times, and elsewhere. Until recently the American Treasure columnist for Martha Stewart Living, for which I was awarded the Outstanding Patriotic Reporting and American Heritage Award from the Mary Torr Chapter of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution (2006), (a fact that makes my sister spit her tea across the room whenever I remind her), I have a daily radio essay on Martha Stewart Living Radio, Sirius 112/XM 157. These days, I’m a blogger and co-founder of www.thesisterproject.com, which is where you can always find me.