David Epstein covered science, medicine, sports, and frequently all three of those in the same project. (When a woman with muscular dystrophy and an Olympic medalist sprinter have the same mutant gene, heâs there.) Prior to joining ProPublica, Epstein was a senior writer at Sports Illustrated, where he co-authored the 2009 report that Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez had used steroids. He has also written about drugs-but-not-sports, detailing the DEA's complicated pursuit of Chapo Guzman's rivals. His science writing has won a number of awards, and he is the author of the New York Times bestseller, The Sports Gene. David was a crime reporter at the New York Daily News, and the first reporter at Inside Higher Ed. He has masterâs degrees in environmental science and journalism from Columbia University, and has lived in the Sonoran desert, on a ship in the Pacific Ocean, and in the Arctic.