Susan Freinkel writes about the intersection of science, culture and the environment. Raised in Evanston, IL, she studied history at Wesleyan University, and journalism at Columbia University. After working several years as a daily reporter for the Wichita Eagle-Beacon, she moved to San Francisco to cover legal affairs and the business of law for The Recorder newspaper and American Lawyer magazine. She got interested in science when she started writing about health and medicine as a staff writer for Health magazine. Now a free-lancer, her work has appeared in national publications including the New York Times, Discover, Smithsonian and Reader's Digest. Her interests run wide: she's covered stories ranging from mad cow disease to a vitamin treatment for bipolar disorder, from adoption to the case for zoos to the quest to develop a blue rose. A story about a disease plaguing California oak trees led to her first book, American Chestnut: The Life, Death and Rebirth of a Perfect Tree. It won a 2008 National Outdoor Book Award. After immersing herself in the natural world for that book, she turned her attention to the unnatural world for her next book, Plastic: A Toxic Love Story.