Aside from magazine work in the New Yorker, New York Times, Rolling Stone and others, he has has written two non-fiction books, Ballad of the Whiskey Robber,[1] which chronicles the life of one of the world's most popular living folk heroes and The Holly: Five Bullets, One Gun and the Struggle to Save an American Neighborhood,[2] a multi-generational story of activism and gang violence in a gentrifying northeast Denver community.

In 1996, he worked with senior writer Gary Smith on "Crime and Punishment: The Saga of Richie Parker, which won the 1997 National Magazine Award for Feature Writing.

His story, "They Call It Suicide", published in Rolling Stone in 2000,[10] was reported over several weeks in Mato Grosso do Sul in which he gained the trust of a Guarani Indian tribe fleeing the reservation in fear of its chief.

[13] Rubinstein also chronicled the Hells Angels war with a rival biker gang, the Rock Machine, in Canada, and profiled the Hasidic international ecstasy kingpin, Jacob "Cookie" Orgad, a story selected for Best American Crime Writing.

[22][23][24][25][26][27] In a starred review, Booklist called it "a shattering piece of investigative journalism involving street gangs, race relations and law enforcement.

"[28] The New York Times Book Review named it an Editors' Choice, writing that it "expos[ed] the state surveillance, the crooked policing, the structural racism, the poverty, and the broken promises that had plagued the Holly for decades.

[32] In 2022, a rough cut of the documentary Rubinstein began filming while reporting The Holly was shown to Adam McKay, who told Deadline.com that he was "completely blown away," and offered to come on as an Executive Producer.

[41] [42] Colorado College and the University of Denver's Media, Film and Journalism Studies Department partnered to present Rubinstein in conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winner Wesley Lowery in an event called "Battle for Truth.