She also serves as a member of the Mars Institute's Advisory Board, as an ambassador for Mars One and an advisor for Orion magazine. Roach reviews books for The New York Times, and was the guest editor of the Best American Science and Nature Writing 2011 edition. Roach floats weightlessly on a parabolic flight while researching Packing For Mars Roach has appeared on numerous television and radio programs including The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Coast to Coast AM, NPR's 'Fresh Air', and C-SPAN2 BookTV 'In Depth.' Her 2009 TED talk 'Ten Things You Didn't Know About Orgasm', made the organization's list of its most popular talks of all time. I didn't plan it like this, and I don't have a formal background in science, or any education in science journalism.' Roach stated in an interview with, when asked what exactly got her hooked on writing about science, 'To be honest, it turned out that science stories were always, consistently, the most interesting stories I was assigned to cover. Īlthough Roach writes primarily about science, she never intended to make it her career.

This is what literally lit the fire under my butt. So someone made the prediction that, 'Mary will have a book contract.' I forgot about it and when October came around I thought, I have three months to pull together a book proposal and have a book contract. Telander of BookBanter, Roach answered the question of how she got started on her first book:Ī few of us every year would make predictions for other people, where they'll be in a year. It was in this community that Roach got the push she needed to break into book writing. She has written essays and feature articles for such publications as Vogue, GQ, The New York Times Magazine, Discover Magazine, National Geographic, Outside Magazine, and Wired as well as columns for, In Health ('Stitches'), Reader's Digest ('My Planet'), and Sports Illustrated for Women ('The Slightly Wider World of Sports'), and Inc.com.įrom 1996 to 2005, Roach was part of ' the Grotto', a San Francisco-based project and community of working writers and filmmakers. On her days off from the SFZS, she wrote freelance articles for San Francisco Chronicle's Sunday magazine, Image.

Her writing career began in the public affairs office of the San Francisco Zoological Society, producing press releases on topics such as wart surgery on elephants. After college, Roach moved to San Francisco, California, and spent a few years working as a freelance copy editor.

Spook by Mary Roach