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James Nestor is an author and journalist who has written for
''Outside'', ''
Scientific American
''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it i ...
'', ''
Dwell
Dwell may refer to:
* ''Dwell'' (album), a 2020 album by Recondite
* ''Dwell'' (magazine), a monthly American publication focused on modern architecture and design
* Dwell (retailer), a leading UK furniture and accessories company
* "Dwell" (s ...
'',
National Public Radio
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
, ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', ''
The Atlantic
''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science.
It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
'', ''
Men's Journal
''Men's Journal'' is an American monthly men's lifestyle magazine focused on outdoor recreation and comprising editorials on the outdoors, environmental issues, health and fitness, style and fashion, and gear. It was founded in 1992 by Jann Wenne ...
,'' the ''
San Francisco Chronicle Magazine
The ''San Francisco Chronicle Magazine'' is a Sunday magazine published on the first Sunday of every month as an insert in the ''San Francisco Chronicle''. The current magazine is the successor of ''The San Francisco Examiner Magazine''; the staf ...
'', and others.
His 2020 nonfiction book, ''
Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art,'' was an international bestseller, debuting on the
''Wall Street Journal'' and ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'' bestseller lists and spending 18 weeks on the
''New York Times Best Sellers'' in its first year of release. ''Breath'' won the award for Best General Nonfiction Book of 2020 by the American Society of Journalists and Authors and was a finalist for the
Royal Society Science Book Prize.
''Breath'' was translated into more than 35 languages in 2022.
Early life
Nestor was born in
Tustin, California
Tustin is a city located in Orange County, California, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. In 2020, Tustin had a population of 80,276. The city is located next to the county seat, Santa Ana, and does not include the unincorporated community ...
, a suburb in
Orange County
Orange County most commonly refers to:
*Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area
Orange County may also refer to:
U.S. counties
*Orange County, Florida, containing Orlando
*Orange County, Indiana
*Orange County, New ...
. He described his upbringing as “
lower-upper-middle class." Nestor was the youngest of two siblings. His father was a
US Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...
pilot and instructor who later worked as an electrical engineer for navigational equipment of nuclear submarines.
His mother was a homemaker. Nestor recounted the culture of the suburbs of southern California as being "the opposite of hippy, peace, dream catchers, flip-flops, and all that.
"
At 14, Nestor formed a
straight edge punk rock band with neighboring boys inspired by the burgeoning music scene of
Orange County
Orange County most commonly refers to:
*Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area
Orange County may also refer to:
U.S. counties
*Orange County, Florida, containing Orlando
*Orange County, Indiana
*Orange County, New ...
in the 1980's. He played a three-quarters scale
South Korean-made Cort bass guitar
The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...
that his brother had bought at a thrift store but never used.
The band was called Care Unit.
The band released a self-produced
demo cassette tape and appeared on the compilation record album, "Another Shot for Bracken" (Positive Force Records). After 18 years living in Tustin in the same house with “the same phone number, the same phone,
” Nestor moved to northern California to study literature and art, eventually earning a
Master of Arts
A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...
in English and a minor in art history at a university he described as “not really worth mentioning.
”
Career
Nestor has written essays and feature articles for ''
Outside,
Scientific American
''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it i ...
,
Dwell
Dwell may refer to:
* ''Dwell'' (album), a 2020 album by Recondite
* ''Dwell'' (magazine), a monthly American publication focused on modern architecture and design
* Dwell (retailer), a leading UK furniture and accessories company
* "Dwell" (s ...
,''
National Public Radio
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
, ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
,
The Atlantic
''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science.
It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
,
Men's Journal
''Men's Journal'' is an American monthly men's lifestyle magazine focused on outdoor recreation and comprising editorials on the outdoors, environmental issues, health and fitness, style and fashion, and gear. It was founded in 1992 by Jann Wenne ...
,
Surfer’s Journal,''
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
, ''
Reader’s Digest
''Reader's Digest'' is an American general-interest family magazine, published ten times a year. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, it is now headquartered in midtown Manhattan. The magazine was founded in 1922 by DeWitt Wallace and his wi ...
, the
San Francisco Chronicle Magazine
The ''San Francisco Chronicle Magazine'' is a Sunday magazine published on the first Sunday of every month as an insert in the ''San Francisco Chronicle''. The current magazine is the successor of ''The San Francisco Examiner Magazine''; the staf ...
,'' and others.
Although Nestor writes primarily about science, focusing on the human body’s potential, he never intended on making journalism his career. He began his professional life as a copywriter
for the
Kimpton Hotel and Restaurant Group in San Francisco. He later directed copy and editorial projects for NextMonet, a San Francisco-based startup that sold fine art online. He directed special projects at Limn Gallery, including the Limn Almanac and The City in China.
In the early 2000's, Nestor became copywriter for a federally-funded education policy non-profit foundation. Nestor described working at this agency as "the most Kafkaesque existence.
”; during this time he took an interest in magazine journalism.
He began pitching culture and science stories to newspapers and magazines, all of which were “unanimously and unceremoniously ignored,” until acquiring a speculative assignment for the ''
San Francisco Chronicle Magazine
The ''San Francisco Chronicle Magazine'' is a Sunday magazine published on the first Sunday of every month as an insert in the ''San Francisco Chronicle''. The current magazine is the successor of ''The San Francisco Examiner Magazine''; the staf ...
'' on the subculture of the auxiliary language of
Esperanto
Esperanto ( or ) is the world's most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Created by the Warsaw-based ophthalmologist L. L. Zamenhof in 1887, it was intended to be a universal second language for international communi ...
. Several cover stories followed including an article on big wave surfing miles off the coast of San Francisco and another cover story about a group of auto mechanics who collected used cooking oil from restaurants and used it as fuel for antique Mercedes-Benz cars. During this time he became a regular contributor to
''Dwell'' magazine and a columnist for
ReadyMade.
Nestor continued working a full time job
for several years while writing during nights and weekends. “It was pure joy to take my time with these subjects, working alongside experts in the field, having strange new revelations about the world and our place in it, separating science from myths. It's all I thought about, all I ever wanted to do. Still is.
”
From 2008 to 2018, Nestor became a member of
The San Francisco Writers’ Grotto, a private community of working writers that included bestselling authors
Mary Roach
Mary Roach (born March 20, 1959) is an American author specializing in popular science and humor. She has published six New York Times bestsellers: '' Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers'' (2003), '' Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife ...
,
Po Bronson
Po Bronson (born March 14, 1964) is an American journalist and author who lives in San Francisco.
Early life and education
Bronson was born in Seattle, Washington. After attending Lakeside School in Seattle, he graduated from Stanford Univer ...
,
Julia Scheeres,
Caroline Paul,
Ethan Watters
Ethan Watters is an American journalist. He is the author of articles for ''The New York Times Magazine'', ''Spin'', '' Details'', '' Mother Jones'', '' Glamour'', '' GQ'', ''Esquire'', and the ''San Francisco Chronicle Magazine'' as well as books ...
,
Matthew Zapruder
Matthew Zapruder (1967) is an American poet, editor, translator, and professor.
His second poetry collection, ''The Pajamaist'', won the 2007 William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America, and was chosen by ''Library Journal'' ...
, and several others. Being surrounded by other writers “who actually worked, some even seemed to almost make a living at it,
” inspired Nestor to quit his full time job to become a freelance magazine journalist.
During that time, ''
Outside'' sent Nestor to the Arctic Circle in Norway for a month with a group of professional surfers in an attempt to surf never-before-ridden waves. The story, “Tasty Freeze,” was published on January 5, 2010 and was nominated for the Best American Sports Writing of 2011.
Nine months later, in 2011, Nestor was sent to Kalamata, Greece by ''
Outside'' to report on an international freediving competition. Nestor described the experience “like a new birthday
” for his career and life. It was there that he first saw how these athletes could use their breath to dive hundreds of feet below the water’s surface, as well as heat themselves and, allegedly, heal themselves of chronic conditions. “I couldn’t help wondering how many wondrous abilities and skills we, as a species, had lost and were losing sitting around in offices all day,” he said. Nestor vowed to spend the rest of his life researching the science behind the human body’s lost potential, and how to get it back.
The freediving story, ''Open Your Mouth and You’re Dead,'' was released on January 25, 2012 and generated interest from book publishers. Within a week of the article’s publication Nestor sold a book proposal at auction to Eamon Dolan at
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
By 2014, Nestor had published his first nonfiction book focused on the human connection to the ocean –
mammalian diving reflex
The diving reflex, also known as the diving response and mammalian diving reflex, is a set of physiological responses to immersion that overrides the basic homeostatic reflexes, and is found in all air-breathing vertebrates studied to date. It o ...
,
electroreception
Electroreception and electrogenesis are the closely-related biological abilities to perceive electrical stimuli and to generate electric fields. Both are used to locate prey; stronger electric discharges are used in a few groups of fishes to st ...
,
magnetoreception
Magnetoreception is a sense which allows an organism to detect the Earth's magnetic field. Animals with this sense include some arthropods, molluscs, and vertebrates (fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals, though not humans). The se ...
,
abiogenesis
In biology, abiogenesis (from a- 'not' + Greek bios 'life' + genesis 'origin') or the origin of life is the natural process by which life has arisen from non-living matter, such as simple organic compounds. The prevailing scientific hypothes ...
. The book, ''Deep: Freediving, Renegade Science, and What the Ocean Tells Us about Ourselves,'' was released on June 24, 2014 and won several awards. ''Deep'' has been published in seven languages.
In 2017, Nestor began working with National Geographic Explorer and marine scientist,
David Gruber, to research and try to understand cetacean communication. Project CETI
(Cetacean Translation Initiative) was launched three years later. It is a nonprofit research group that develops and employs technologies such as machine learning and Artificial Intelligence in the hopes of one day cracking interspecies communication. Project CETI was accepted as a TED Audacious Project
in June 2020. Nestor’s TED X Marin talk about the inception of the project, “Deep Dive: What we are learning from the language of whales,” has been viewed more than 278,000 times.
Nestor’s follow-up book to ''Deep'' was ''
Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art,'' released on May 26, 2020. ''Breath'' became an instant international bestseller and won several awards. Within a year of publication ''Breath'' sold more than a million copies worldwide.
Nestor has appeared on Fresh Air with Terry Gross, the Joe Rogan Show, ABC’s Nightline, CBS Morning News, Bulletproof, Coast to Coast AM, BBC World, and dozens of NPR programs. He has been invited to speak at
Stanford University School of Medicine,
Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is consi ...
,
Yale School of Medicine
The Yale School of Medicine is the graduate medical school at Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was founded in 1810 as the Medical Institution of Yale College and formally opened in 1813.
The primary te ...
, the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...
, and The Global Classroom, a charity and education organization delivered by
Scarisbrick Hall School in partnership with the
World Health Organization (WHO)
The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of ...
and supported by
UNICEF
UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing humanitarian and developmental aid to ...
, which is the “largest digital classroom in the world.”
He lives in San Francisco.
Works
*
*
''Deep'' (2014)
Nestor's science/adventure book, ''DEEP: Freediving, Renegade Science, and What the Ocean Tells Us about Ourselves'' was released on June 24, 2014.
It was a finalist for the "2015
PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing The PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing was awarded by the PEN America (formerly PEN American Center) to honor "a nonfiction book about sports."[BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...]
Book of the Week
''Book of the Week'' is a BBC Radio 4 series that is broadcast daily on week days. Each week, extracts from the selected book, usually a non-fiction work, are read over five episodes; each fifteen-minute episode is broadcast in the morning (9:45a ...
,
one of
BuzzFeed's 19 Best Non-Fiction Books of 2014,
an Amazon Best Science Book of 2014,
ArtForum Top 10 Book of 2014,
New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice, ''Scientific American'' Recommended Read, Christian Science Monitor Editor’s Pick,
and more. ''Deep'' has been published in more than seven languages.
''The Click Effect'' (2016)
Nestor wrote and co-created the
virtual reality
Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), e ...
experience, ''The Click Effect'' (with director Sandy Smolan). It was released by the
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
and
Within
Within may refer to:
* ''Within'' (William Joseph album) (2004), by pianist William Joseph
* ''Within'' (Embraced album) (2000), by Swedish melodic black metal band Embraced
* Within (company), a virtual reality content and technology company ba ...
on April 18, 2016,
and is about the efforts of two freelance freediving researchers attempting to understand the language of dolphins and whales. ''The Click Effect'' was an official selection of a number of film festivals including the
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...
and the
Tribeca Film Festival
The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. Tribeca was f ...
.
[
]
''Breath'' (2020)
In May 2020, Nestor published '' Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art'' through Riverhead/Penguin Random House.mouth breathing
Mouth breathing, medically known as chronic oral ventilation, is long-term breathing through the mouth. It often is caused by an obstruction to breathing through the nose, the innate breathing organ in the human body. Chronic mouth breathing ma ...
. Nestor explores research that argues that this shift (due to the increased consumption of processed foods
Convenience food, also called tertiary processed food, is food that is commercially prepared (often through processing) to optimise ease of consumption. Such food is usually ready to eat without further preparation. It may also be easily por ...
) has led to a rise in snoring
Snoring is the vibration of respiratory structures and the resulting sound due to obstructed air movement during breathing while sleeping. The sound may be soft or loud and unpleasant. Snoring during sleep may be a sign, or first alarm, of ob ...
, sleep apnea
Sleep apnea, also spelled sleep apnoea, is a sleep disorder in which pauses in breathing or periods of shallow breathing during sleep occur more often than normal. Each pause can last for a few seconds to a few minutes and they happen many tim ...
, asthma
Asthma is a long-term inflammatory disease of the airways of the lungs. It is characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and easily triggered bronchospasms. Symptoms include episodes of wheezing, cou ...
, autoimmune disease, and allergies
Allergies, also known as allergic diseases, refer a number of conditions caused by the hypersensitivity of the immune system to typically harmless substances in the environment. These diseases include hay fever, food allergies, atopic dermat ...
. He also worked with scientists at Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
whose research suggests that returning to a state of nasal breathing and adopting other healthy breathing habits such as taking slow, deep breaths in a rhythmic pattern, will improve an individual's health.New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' (one week after its release), ''Breath'' ranked #7 in the "Combined Print & E-Book Nonfiction list.Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
''. ''Breath'' spent 18 weeks on the New York Times bestseller in Spain, Germany,
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nestor, James
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
American science journalists
American sports journalists
21st-century American non-fiction writers