Halpern is also a commentator and a freelance producer for National Public Radio's All Things Considered and a contributor to This American Life.

[3] He co-wrote his first novel, Dormia, with Peter Kujawinski, and it was published in the spring of 2009 to mixed reviews.

[4] The two went on to co-write other books, including two Dormia sequels, called World's End and The Shadow Tree.

Halpern also collaborated with illustrator Michael Sloan to create "Welcome to the New World," a true comic about a family of Syrian refugees that ran in the New York Times.

[7] Halpern is a former Fulbright Scholar and a current fellow of Morse College at Yale, where he teaches a seminar on journalism.