He earned his bachelor's degree in English with a minor in religion from the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, and received a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship to study daily life in remote human communities.

After a year spent in such diverse places as the Islas Malvinas, Tierra del Fuego, the Aboriginal settlement of Kowanyama in Australia, the Chatham Islands of New Zealand, and the Inuit settlement of Kimmirut in Baffin Island, Canada, he enrolled at the University of Texas at Austin, where he earned a master's degree in geography with a thesis titled "The Biogeography of striated caracaras (Phalcoboenus australis)".

[5] Why I Love My Home (Songs for Charles Burchfield) was initially a collaboration with Andy Stack of Wye Oak for the Whitney Museum of Art, but was recorded solo in the studio and self-released in 2011.

[8] The book, entitled A Most Remarkable Creature: The Hidden Life and Epic Journey of the World's Smartest Birds of Prey, draws upon his longtime research into the subject and his travels in South America.

[10] He has published articles in various national and international publications on a wide range of topics: interviews with producer and musician Brian Reitzell for Tape Op,[11] with author and human rights activist Zainab Salbi in The Believer;[12] a history of dioramas of the Whitney Wing of the American Museum of Natural History for The Appendix;[13] and numerous articles for online music magazine The Talkhouse, including a personal perspective on touring,[14] an account of a presentation by Brian Eno,[15] and a review of David Bowie's The Next Day.