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Daniel Duane

Contributor

Daniel Duane (@Danielduane) is the author of six books, including Caught Inside, A Surfer’s Year on the California Coast. His last story for WIRED, about wildfires in the West, was in issue 28.11.

The Wave-Conquering, Metaverse-Crashing Life of Kai Lenny

Treated as an outcast in Maui’s cool-kid surf culture, he went on to master nearly every extreme water sport. No wonder the tech elite has a crush on him.

The West’s Infernos Are Melting Our Sense of How Fire Works

42,000-foot plumes of ash. 143-mph firenadoes. 1,500-degree heat. These wildfires are a new kind of hell on earth, and scientists are racing to learn its rules.

San Francisco Was Uniquely Prepared for Covid-19 

Why did an American city beset by inequality and dysfunction face the onset of the pandemic so well? Because history left it ready for this moment.

How the Startup Mentality Failed Kids in San Francisco

Huge contributions from tech titans, a STEM-packed curriculum, gadgets everywhere: Willie Brown Middle School was supposed to set the bar. Then it opened.