[2][3] She has contributed to The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, NPR, The New York Times, Huffington Post and Popular Science.

Westervelt won an Edward R. Murrow Award as lead reporter for a series on the impacts of the Tesla Gigafactory in Nevada, aired on Reno Public Radio in 2017.

Critical Frequency was a launch partner for Slate's subscription and membership podcast platform Supporting Cast in 2019.

"In the months since its release, Drilled has been downloaded more than a million times; been recommended by The New Yorker, Esquire, and New Scientist; and been quoted on the floor of the U.S. Senate," the award citation reads.

[13] In April 2020, Westervelt's Drilled News site launched the Climate & COVID-19 Policy Tracker,[14] an ongoing news feature documenting many climate and energy-related regulation rollbacks and suspensions, fossil fuel lease sales, financial relief offered to the fossil fuel industry, and other related moves taken by the Trump administration as well as some state governments amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Westervelt wondered "how it was that a culture that superficially holds motherhood in such high esteem could in fact have so little regard for women who have children.

"[17] Reviewer Rebecca Stoner describes the work as "an intellectual history of American motherhood," writing that Westervelt is "pragmatic in her response, suggesting a policy fix and a cultural fix at the end of each chapter that she thinks could be implemented without 'massive cultural and economic change.'"

Stoner describes Westervelt's style as "direct and colloquial," "punctuated by deeply satisfying moments of ire at the demands placed on working mothers.