Greg Rienzi

Freelance Journalist

Baltimore, MD

Associate Editor, Senior Writer, Freelance Interests include health, science, sports, outdoors, wine, craft beers and people with good stories to tell gjrienzi@aol.com

Greg Rienzi

Freelance Journalist

Baltimore, MD

Associate Editor, Senior Writer, Freelance Interests include health, science, sports, outdoors, wine, craft beers and people with good stories to tell gjrienzi@aol.com

A Better Me
As more teenagers ask for cosmetic surgery and performance-enhancing drugs, doctors weigh the risks, the benefits, and the ethical quandaries. A pediatrician can expect to hear an inventory of common adolescent concerns on a standard well visit: stomach pain, trouble sleeping, a host of puberty-related issues.
For the Johns Hopkins Aerial Circus Club, the air is a playground
Marni Epstein's feet could probably open and close a jar of peanut butter while she dangles from a tree branch and reads Shakespeare. But right now she's only asking them to help her ascend a 25-foot length of purple silk suspended from the ceiling of a converted church in Baltimore's Pigtown neighborhood.
Let's Talk About Sex
Ditch the cryptic birds and bees lingo. Experts say honesty and openness are key when discussing sex. Here they offer age-appropriate strategies for broaching "the talk." Not long ago, my then 10-year-old daughter arrived home from school in a red-faced huff and promptly ran to her room and slammed the door.
In North Korea's closed society, website 38 North has become a respected source of news
Curtis Melvin spends much of his day scrutinizing pictures of a country that does not like to be photographed—North Korea. He is a specialist in North Korean economic issues, and today he's studying satellite images from several of the country's northern districts, images that indicate road construction in places previously accessible only via railway.
Why math? JHU mathematician on teaching, theory, and the value of math in a modern world
Math as both profession and course of study can be a hard sell, something even Don Draper might have trouble pitching. The field unites numbers, theories, and ideas that, yes, can be physically represented but remain intangible. Math is a language unto itself that for some might as well be Latin or Klingon.
For Aaron Alford, fossil hunting is much more than a hobby
On a thin and rocky stretch of beach beneath a towering expanse of the Calvert Cliffs in southern Maryland, Aaron Alford pauses to pick up what looks like a black rock but is actually a piece of shark poop, 12 to 15 million years old. He smiles as if he'd just uncovered a gemstone. Most humans would have walked over the nondescript fossilized excrement, but the 40-year-old Alford, SPH '08 (PhD), has a preternatural eye when it comes to the remains—and fossilized feces—of long-dead fauna.
Johns Hopkins Magazine
Surgeon discusses Afghan hospital bombing and the dangers of working in a war zone
In a tragedy's aftermath, many still want answers. On Oct. 3, at least 22 staff and patients were killed or injured when U.S. missiles struck a Doctors Without Borders hospital in the northern Afghanistan city of Kunduz. More than 30 staff and patients remain unaccounted for. U.S. officials called the airstrike a tragic mistake, as American-led forces intended to target Taliban insurgents.
Business student gets rooftop gardens off the ground
On an especially hot early summer day in D.C., Mehr Pastakia, sporting sunglasses and a neon-green vest, proudly surveys her domain—a lush two acres of greenery atop the U.S. Department of Transportation headquarters in the city's emerging Navy Yard waterfront area. The expansive, neatly trimmed stretches of multihued sedums form a sky-high oasis in what is otherwise a desert of steel and concrete.
The Hub
Thousands of American prisoners spend 23 hours a day in solitary confinement
Gabriel Eber has no shortage of macabre tales of life inside the East Mississippi Correctional Facility, a notoriously violent and chaotic men's prison on the outskirts of Meridian. Assaults (staff on inmate, inmate on inmate) are frequent. According to accounts, cells are infested with rats that crawl over prisoners; some inmates tie leashes to the rodents and sell them to the mentally ill as pets.
Johns Hopkins Magazine
Vali Nasr, dean of Middle Eastern affairs
In April 2007, Vali Nasr made his debut on Comedy Central's The Colbert Report to discuss his latest book, The Shia Revival: How Conflicts Within Islam Will Shape the Future. Nasr, already a veteran of The Daily Show and several more traditional news outlets, came to play the role of Middle East expert with overflowing gravitas.
Johns Hopkins Magazine
Catching up with the Hopkins Harriers
My maiden run with the Hopkins Harriers came on one of the hottest days of the summer. We met at 10:30 a.m. on the breezeway between the Keyser and Wyman quads on the Homewood campus. The syrup-thick 102-degree heat didn't deter Peter Searson and Marc Ostermeier from a modest, by their standards, seven-mile sprint through campus and the northwest environs.
The Art of War
Urbanite Magazine

About

Greg Rienzi

Editing

Writing

Running

Reporting

As a freelance journalist, my interests include health, science, outdoor activities, running, the environment, travel, and sports. My work has appeared online and in print publications including the Connecticut Post, Howard County Times, Urbanite Magazine, Boss Magazine, Johns Hopkins Magazine, the Johns Hopkins Health Review and others.

Born in Yonkers, NY, I graduated from Southern Connecticut State University with a degree in journalism. I began my career covering business, first in Connecticut and then in Maryland. I later joined Johns Hopkins University, where I now serve as senior writer and associate editor for a number of publications. Hobbies include running, softball, and finding interesting spots off the beaten path.