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How the Billionaires Took Over: Yes, Donald Trump is a threat to democracy. But the far bigger menace is the monstrous growth in wealth concentration over five decades that made a Trump presidency possible—and maybe inevitable. Here’s how we let it happen. Graphic on what a stack of $1 billion dollars looks like for The New Republic.

Animations celebrating 10 Years of World Fish Migration Day. Showcasing the vital connection between free-flowing rivers, migratory fish, and people across the globe, freshwater fish migration is critical to the survival of many marine and wildlife ecosystems. For The Nature Conservancy and NOAA, in partnership with Emerging Creatives of Science.

My work is now represented by Snyder in 2025, for more please visit wearesnyder.com

Brain Tour From Finches to Elephants How do birds pull off their cognitive feats? One advantage is they have more neurons than expected for an animal of their size. But there is still a gap in neuron number between birds and animals. It turns out, though, that signals traveling between densely packed neurons in a bird’s brain travel a shorter distance. So faster transmission speeds may compensate for the lesser numbers of neurons. For Scientific American

Illustrations by Mesa Schumacher

Social media and marketing graphics for Burn Book: A Tech Love Story memoir by Kara Swisher, published by Simon & Schuster 2024.

Motion Sketch: "A few things are absolutely clear: More people across the globe get their news and cues from social media, it has a scary ability to generate anxiety and rage, and it is addictive. Expert after expert I talked to over the years has made the same point— in the new paradigm, "Engagement Equals Enragement."

Motion sketch for Kara Swisher 's Burn Book, A Tech Love Story: "Everything that can be digitized, will be digitized."  Upon being able to download a whole book for the first time, she discovered: "I knew I had struck gold. I was fully on board for the Internet age, and however it evolved, I wanted to cover it."

“Silicon Valley had perfected the image of itself as a meritocracy and touted that as one of its greatest strengths— that anyone could become a billionaire. In fact, tech has always been a mirrortocracy, full of people who liked their own reflection so much that they only saw value in those that looked the same.”

“As it turned out, it was capitalism after all.” The first line in the book highlights what we’ll learn from many examples later on. While interviewing Mark Zuckerberg, Swisher notes: “You can still make choices, I told a man who did not want to make choices, other than the choice of capitalism over community.”

“I would consider what I thought were someone’s accomplishments, including innovative products, visionary ideas, management skills, cool inventions, ability to pivot, and general flexibility. Then, I’d match these achievements against my highly subjective assessment of their characters, based on my own interactions.”

“Casual hypocrisy became increasingly common over the decades that I covered Silicon Valley’s elite. With some exceptions, the richer and more powerful people grew, the more compromised they became— wrapping themselves in expensive cashmere batting until the genuine person fell deep inside a cocoon of comfort and privilege where no unpleasantness intruded. Many of these billionaires had then started to think of this fawning as reality.”

"When the truth stands between a man and his next $100 million, the truth is always going to be escorted off the premises. More to the point was that this investor, like so many others, had become morally bankrupt, backing ever more cretinous characters. I didn’t say it out loud, but in my head I screamed a line that I wanted to say to an increasing number of players in the Internet space: “You’re so poor, all you have is your money!”

"I called Facebook, Twitter, and Google “digital arms dealers”, warned of the warping of Twitter by Trump, the glacial panic of Hollywood when it came to digital, the need for an Internet Bill of Rights, and the dangers of Chinese Communist Party surveillance on TikTok. That was attracting a lot of controversy, but  I have always had the conviction that columnizing is a losing game over time, as ideas get thinner and thinner and pomposity gets fatter and fatter. I was alerting a global audience about the growing dangers of tech and with my move east, I was definitely becoming less of a chronicler of the Internet age and more of its cranky Cassandra."

"What none of these CEOs wanted to admit were the real reasons they flocked to the wolf’s gilded den: There was a heap of money at stake, and to avoid a lot of damage the incoming Trump administration could do to the tech sector. Tech execs wanted visas, they wanted contracts, and they wanted profits repatriated back to the U.S. from foreign countries where they had been stashing their lucre. More than anything, they wanted to be shielded from regulation, which they had neatly and completely avoided so far.”

"I have spent my career being hard on powerful people. I have done so because I think it is respectful to do so and because I believe that with great power comes great responsibility. That line and sentiment go far back in history, although they’re often only attributed to Spider- Man, especially by techies for whom history classes were too often an elective. It’s a shame when people with enormous influence and wealth don’t rise to the challenge. And it’s inspiring that some do."

Dog genetics reveal surprising relationships among breeds. When it comes to traits, genetics-based lineages are more telling than human-made categories. Includes comparison plots and explainer video. For Scientific American

50th anniversary of Battle of the Sexes Before Coco, rogue squirrels at the US Open and protestors glueing themselves to the bleachers, there was @BillieJeanKing. ⭐🎾⭐ September 20, 1973 marks the 50th anniversary of the Battle of the Sexes between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs. Her athletic grit and pioneering of women's rights made leaps and bounds after this historic win, and her efforts since have more than moved the needle for equal pay and opportunities for girls in America. To celebrate the activist who fights tirelessly for women’s equity and social justice, here's some data portrait sketches of BJK, and her valiant efforts off the court.

A spate of new research has found that prolonged sitting—like the kind you do all day at work—is sabotaging your health and turning you into a 9-to-5 couch potato. One study last year found that sitting can increase your risk for cancer by more than 60%. What's a desk jockey to do? Luckily, spending all day at the office doesn't have to mean spending it sedentary. We asked Cedric X. Bryant, chief science officer at the American Council on Exercise, and John Porcari, executive director of La Crosse Exercise and Health Program at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, to tell us their favorite office-appropriate workouts. These 10 exercises you can do at your desk are subtle enough to spare you strange looks from your coworkers, yet effective enough to make a real dent in your sedentary time. For time.com

The Offshore Hall of Fame! The estimated amount of money held in tax havens worldwide ranges from $8-32 trillion dollars, most of it legally. Here’s some prominent figures embarrassed by financial links to tax havens.

Animation featuring a new flavor of award-winning cider based in Millerton, New York. For King’s Highway

Barbie Millicent Roberts was 'born' March 9 1959, the eldest of 7 kids in the fictional town of Willows, Wisconsin. Over the years she's become an American icon, one of the best selling toys of all time, and representative of beauty; as our ideas of beauty have changed she's also become an easy target for feminists and protests worldwide. Here's just a few of those moments. For time.com

As ongoing litigation follows the money, questionable practices, and health violations, time will tell if this and other 'rescues' will lose their accreditation and 501-3c charity status. The story covers the inherent public health and safety at risk, truth mixed with exaggeration from whistleblowers within the organization, and no real legal scrutiny because of the marketing as "virtue signaling"... when its really "puppy laundering". Not rescuing, just re-homing...with a price tag. For The Huffington Post

Pardons and bribes and redactions, oh my! Will Justice prevail? For Brennan Center for Justice, illustration by Heads of State.

Major GOT characters illustrated, as seen in Time's Exclusive Instagram story and Apple News features, ahead of Season 7 in 2017. For TIME and time.com

Constitution Day animation for the Brennan Center for Justice, illustration by Heads of State.

A hospital generates more greenhouse gasses—directly and indirectly—than almost any other building. What can be done to clear the air? For Proto Magazine

Lyme Disease Cases Are Exploding. And It’s Only Going to Get Worse: We are now living through one of the first pandemics brought on by climate change. Tick and tick-borne illnesses are on the rise, and global health agencies are officially sounding the alarm. The series for Tick Week covers the business, climate change, funding, even CRISPR attempts to address the crisis. For Medium and Elemental

“Wishing you peace, quiet, and whenever possible….a break from politics.”

Animated cover for Time Magazine, ahead of the U.S. Presidential election, August 2016. Cover illustration by Edel Rodriguez.

2019 Poster House submission for animated posters from the Library of Congress. The assignment was to take an original poster and animate it however you like, I chose to take a humorous, modern take and add in The Clapper for her light source;) Original illustration by Lester Beall for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Electrification Administration, 1939.

Notes on the original art: "Riding on the success of his 1937 series, two years later Beall was asked to create a second set of posters to encourage rural Americans to connect to the National Grid. Here, a photomontage image shows a “satisfied” old woman embroidering by the light of an electric lamp, indicating what an interior scene could look like with electricity. Beall’s posters were recognized for their design achievement in their own time, and MoMA exhibited them in 1937 and 1941."

Winning animation, Library of Congress Inaugural Competition, Poster House NYC 2019

Detroit’s Health Care Workers Ask: 'How Many Lives Can We Save?' Doctors and nurses in one of the nation's poorest, blackest big cities are fighting a raging coronavirus outbreak and a flawed health care system. Here's what life is like for them right now. Includes deaths by state for comparison, ages of the deceased, county growth and confirmed cases and deaths in 2020. For Huffington Post

What happens to your plastic after you drop it in a recycling bin? This deeply reported investigation explores how our dependence on a miracle material is fueling a global plastic crisis. Explores how the U.S. is dumping its plastic on other countries, way less equipped and regulated to deal with it. Graphics include stats on China, Turkey, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and others. For The Guardian US.

Charting New York’s Cultural Spaces: As The Shed, a new arts center at Hudson Yards, rolls out its inaugural season, it will have to define how it fits into the city’s broader cultural landscape. We compared it with Lincoln Center, BAM and the Armory: budget, ticket cost, capacity, days open, flavor of programming, Instagram bait and more. For The New York Times by Zachary Woolfe

Motion graphic for the song off the 2018 album "Quiet and Peace" by Buffalo Tom. Illustration and animation by Heather Jones @msjonesnyc, video footage by @Mark_Shaw, Cover art by Hollie Chastain

In our second annual Coinbase Report on Higher Education, we asked students directly about their thoughts on crypto and blockchain, and tracked how they’ve changed in the past 12 months. We outline findings about rising student interest in crypto, and an increasing number of courses focused on blockchain, cryptocurrencies, or bitcoin that are being taught across a range of disciplines. This interest in studying crypto at colleges and universities speaks volumes about the future of money. For Coinbase.com

Wishing you Strength, Endurance and Protection in 2022

Geotechnical experts in Britain have developed a landslide early-warning system triggered by noise from unstable soil. Here’s how it works. For Popular Mechanics

The Republic of South Sudan in east-central Africa has been in ethnic conflict for decades. After the container massacre in Oct 2015, Amnesty International declared it a crime against its own people. UNICEF and the UN have finally stepped in (albeit slowly) to attempt to bring to light to stop the cycle of impunity, revenge and violence. Here's a look at some animated statistics for the Time long form story on the subject, and supporting material. For Time and time.com

Go anywhere in South Sudan these days, and one of the most common building structures is use is a banged-up old shipping container. These 8-by-20-ft metal boxes, once used to transport goods across the ocean, now serve as homes, classrooms, play yards, medical clinics and even hotels. And according to a new report from Amnesty International, they are also increasingly being used as ad-hoc prisons for government detainees, where the poorly ventilated containers can easily turn into ovens in the baking heat. This is not the first time Amnesty has documented the use of shipping containers as prisons in South Sudan. In March they released a damning report about an October 2015 incident in which government forces asphyxiated more than 50 men by shutting them in a shipping container in Leer County. TIME met the sole survivor of the massacre, a 13-year-old boy, who spoke of his suffering in chilling detail. For Time’s ‘THEIR VOICES STOPPED’: Mass Killing in a Shipping Container in Leer, South Sudan.

Type treatment for digital feature on the Trump cabinet: A look at how swampy Trump’s appointments are, based on lobbying, ties to the Washington establishment and ethics records. For Time.com

Capturing the essence of those he photographed was Philippe Halsman’s life’s work. So when Halsman set out to shoot his friend and longtime collaborator the Surrealist painter Salvador Dalí, he knew a simple seated portrait would not suffice. Inspired by Dalí’s painting Leda Atomica, Halsman created an elaborate scene to surround the artist that included the original work, a floating chair and an in-progress easel suspended by thin wires. Assistants, including Halsman’s wife and young daughter Irene, stood out of the frame and, on the photographer’s count, threw three cats and a bucket of water into the air while Dalí leaped up. It took the assembled cast 26 takes to capture a composition that satisfied Halsman. And no wonder. The final result, published in LIFE, evokes Dalí’s own work. The artist even painted an image directly onto the print before publication. Before Halsman, portrait photography was often stilted and softly blurred, with a clear sense of detachment between the photographer and the subject. Halsman’s approach, to bring subjects such as Albert Einstein, Marilyn Monroe and Alfred Hitchcock into sharp focus as they moved before the camera, redefined portrait photography and inspired generations of photographers to collaborate with their subjects. Narrated by Irene Halsman. For Time’s Best 100 Photos of All Time.

Dali’s Atomicus

Business’s journey to balance profit and purpose is accelerating. A sharper focus on strategy and broader adoption of transformational technologies that benefit both business and society will help organizations get there faster. Illustrations by Andrew Bannecker. For Deloitte and World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland 2020

Three conceptual abstractions for article series on compliance, training, strategy, best practices and bias in the field of Artificial Intelligence, on all platforms for McKinsey Digital.

Map showing personally vetted cities in Europe and the USA, for company connecting photo and video production professionals with available studio spaces around the world.

Sketches for promotion of Issue 151 of Surface Magazine, the American magazine of global contemporary design. Includes latest stories on architecture, art, design, fashion, and travel, with a focus on how these fields shape and are shaped by contemporary culture. References Utopia and Buckminster Fuller. For Surface Magazine.

Here is a motion graphic animation illustrating what happens during coral bleaching, the conditions and human factors leading to it and economic impact of its destruction. Coral reefs are one of the most fragile living systems on earth, and by informing the public on how climate change is affecting them, we can hopefully better learn and save them for future generations. Below is support material for a long form online investigation. For TIME and time.com

Though the pie is an American tradition on this National Pie Day, January 23, some variations are lesser known. Here's some dessert relatives to inspire you. For Rachael Ray Every Day.

What's 1.5 feet high, contains all 5 food groups, made only once of the year and is entirely edible? The Superbowl Snack Stadium! Animated instruction for a silly but growing phenomenon, ahead of Super Bowl 2018, Instructions on how to make it follow the video. For Every Day with Rachael Ray