James McGirk is a writer and content strategist specializing in high-consequence systems: national security, nuclear deterrence, emerging technology, energy, finance, and artificial intelligence. He currently works at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and has written for TIME, WIRED, The Paris Review, The Atlantic, The Daily Beast, Roads & Kingdoms, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and other publications.
His work combines institutional fluency with literary nonfiction: translating complex technical systems for executives, researchers, policymakers, funders, and general audiences.
Selected Publications
High-Consequence Science & National Security
- Scorpius accepts delivery of four production line replacement units
- Robert Maxwell selected as AAAS Fellow
Technology, AI, Crypto & Systems
- WIRED, Remembering Paolo Soleri’s Arcosanti
- Coindesk, Using Proof-of-Stake for a decentralized credit bureau
- 21Cryptos, the Internet’s Third Generation begins in the Third World
- Defterhane Protocol
- UCSC Engineering
Literary Nonfiction, Travel & Culture
- Roads & Kingdoms, My Grandfather’s Imposter
- Paris Review, Satan comes to Oklahoma City
- LARB, Privatizing Paradise in the Murder Capital of the World
- Audible, The Perfect Swing
- This Land Press, The Horror of the Ouachita Mountains
- Columbia Magazine, Heavy Heart, Empty Heart