Josiah Hesse is an author and journalist from Denver, Colorado, whose work has appeared in Vice, Esquire, Politico, and The Guardian. Hesse casts a wide net in his journalistic curiosities, covering everything from science, crime and politics, to pop culture, the arts, sex and drugs. After a decade of covering the slow-burn legalization of marijuana, Hesse wrote “Runner’s High: How A Movement of Cannabis-Fueled Athletes Is Changing The Science of Sports,” released on Putnam in 2021, which Kirkus Reviews called “an eye-opening and potentially mind-expanding read for runners and stoners alike, not to mention the culturally curious.”

Hesse is also the author of two psychological horror novels, “Carnality: Dancing On Red Lake,” and “Carnality: Sebastian Phoenix and The Dark Star,” both of which focus on the childhood trauma inflicted by evangelical Christian culture.

He is currently working on a memoir about the poverty and mental illness his family endured while living under the bubble of the Christian right in rural Iowa, which will be released on Pantheon in 2024.