[1][2][3][4][5][6] Thompson was a contributor to Thing Magazine in the early 1990s.
[7][better source needed] Thompson grew up in Wichita, Kansas[8] and became a bee-keeper when he was 12 years old, after his parents bought him a beehive.
[8] In 1975, he put a beehive on his roof in Chicago and was surprised at the amount of honey his urban beekeeping produced.
[8] In the summer of 2004, Thompson worked with two other beekeepers to start the Chicago Honey Co-op,[11] which is dedicated to provide healthy food, passing down bee-keeping knowledge, and employing the formerly incarcerated.
[10][12] In January 2013, Thompson held his first urban beekeeping class that was open to the public at the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum.