About
I'm a freelance journalist and non-fiction author covering environment, health and climate. My first book, Choked: Life and Breath in the Age of Air Pollution, was published by the University of Chicago Press in 2019, and my second, Plastic Inc., is forthcoming with Avery/PRH in 2026. My writing has appeared in publications including the New York Times, National Geographic, the Guardian, Scientific American, HuffPost and Yale Environment 360, and I'm a former longtime Associated Press reporter. I'm American but have lived in London for many years. www.bethgardiner.com
Featured Work
Choked: Life and Breath in the Age of Air Pollution

Air pollution prematurely kills seven million people every year. In Choked, Beth Gardiner travels the world to tell the story of this modern-day plague, taking readers from the halls of power in Washington and the diesel-fogged London streets she walks with her daughter to Poland's coal heartland and India's gasping capital. In a narrative that's alive with powerful voices and personalities, she exposes the political decisions and economic forces that have kept so many of us breathing dirty air. This is a moving, up-close look at the human toll, where we meet the scientists who have transformed our understanding of pollution's effects on the body and the ordinary people fighting for a cleaner future.