10/30/2026
Still in shock but deeply honored to have gotten to be part of this piece for The New York Times on and our beautiful little community. Chona Kasinger and alanburdick did such a lovely job crafting this, and it’s been so special to notice more and more little details and connections that made it into the photos and text as the community recognizes themselves.
This first slide is just a little edit I did with the credits and one of my quotes in the article and the photo of me that made it to print.
Getting to grab a copy of this in print was so special. There’s just something about seeing your friends and self and the creatures you love in this tangible piece of communication.
When I was trying to find a copy to grab, it also got me thinking about the infrastructure it must take to have these papers be printed and in place for people to pick up everyday in little shops across the country.
To find the article online, look for “It’s Docktober. Do you know where the sea slugs are?”
I love that the thick-horned made the cover for the Science section because that’s our ambassador slug! It was the most observed species of the Docktober 2026 iNaturalist project, and it is many people’s very first sea slug.
I was so stress sick when I took this photo of me with the paper the day I got it and I felt like you could really tell, but also it’s the real moment sitting down to look at the article and I don’t want to rewrite that.
The photo on its own so you can just admire Chona’s work. I love the purples of the sky. I had no idea when she took this that it might be in the article. We’d gone out to actually shoot for the article months prior and this was a chance encounter just a couple days before and this shot was just before we left because the park closed at dark and the last slivers of light were leaving.
