He later helped launch and edit Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, an international peer-reviewed scientific journal.
He has taught writing, editing, and literature at the College of Santa Fe and the Gotham Writers Workshop.
Smith has written for numerous publications, including Smithsonian, Wired, Outside, National Geographic Adventure, National Geographic Traveler, New Scientist, U.S. News & World Report, USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, Wend Magazine and The Washington Post.
In 2007, Smith traveled from South Africa to Sudan, crossing eight countries in two months by bus, bicycle and ferry.
Grogan's journey was itself the first transect of the continent from south to north, done in part to convince his beloved's stepfather that he was worth marrying.