Peter Ward

Journalist & Author

Articles

Image for Master & Commander article featuring a simple illustration of pirate captain

Master & Commander

When a scraggly band of folk musicians arrived to tour the UK, residents of a small Welsh town were enamored—until they learned that the band's leader ruled with an iron fist.

The Atavist
Image for Longevity Tourism article featuring a simple illustration of a young man looking at his old self in the reflection of a plane window

Welcome to the Longevity Tourism Boom

$25,000 gene-therapy injections are in. Regular doctors are out. And it could take us all to a dark place.

Slate
Image for The Faker article with a red title text on a black background and a red picture frame and art supplies

The Faker

A prolific art forger meets his match in an intrepid FBI investigator, but the con is only just beginning.

Truly Adventurous
Image for Bitcoin Heist article featuring a colorfully designed illustration of a man running in snowy conditions, then looking suspiciously over his shoulder while wearing a baseball cap on a plane.

Iceland to Amsterdam: how the world's first bitcoin heist went south

They do things differently in the land of the northern lights...

GQ
Image for Medical Tourists article showing a photograph of stem cell research with a needle in a single cell.

'Medical tourists' are travelling the world in search of the elixir of life

There have always been charlatans offering a cure for ageing, and cheap travel and lax laws have made it even easier for them

The Guardian
Image for A Dangerous Calculation article showing an illustration of a womans face close up with concerned looking eyes.

A dangerous calculation

Effective altruism has suffered a blow, but the extreme ideas surrounding it have infiltrated some of our most powerful organisations

New Humanist
Image of a cult leader faceing away from the camera with his arms raised in a dramatic pose.

The cults that survive even when the prophecy fails

Aliens, immortality, and zombie JFK... One essential trait explains how extreme beliefs survive and thrive.

Inverse
Image for Cleaning up the Cosmos article - Star trails from the Earth's rotation, captured using long exposure, above a cattle truck in the Western Australian Wheatbelt. Credit: Alamy

Cleaning up the cosmos

We often view space as an infinite resource - a great empty canvas on which we envision endless exploration. But lower Earth orbit, the band of space relatively close to the planet, is anything but.

New Humanist

Books

Book cover for The Consequential Frontier by Peter Ward with the title inside an illustration of a billboard in space above earth and a satellite orbiting behind it

The Consequential Frontier

Challenging the Privatization of Space

Earth is in trouble—so dramatically that we're now scrambling to explore space for valuable resources and a home for permanent colonization. With the era of NASA's dominance now behind us, the private sector is winning this new space race. But if humans and their private wealth have made such a mess of Earth, who can say we won't do the same in space?

Buy Now

The Price of Immortality

The Race to Live Forever

Starting off at the Church of Perpetual Life in Florida and exploring the feuding subcultures around the cryonics industry, Peter Ward immerses himself into an eccentric world of startups, scam artists, scientific institutions, and tech billionaires to deliver this deeply reported, nuanced, and sometimes very funny exploration of the race for immortality — and the potentially devastating consequences should humanity realize its ultimate dream.

Buy Now
Book cover for The Price of Immortality by Peter Ward with the title inside an illustration outline of a human skull

Media

Peter speaks at events and gives media interviews on the topics behind his stories, including the science of longevity, the space industry, and writing itself. He has appeared as a keynote speaker, podcast guest, and on national broadcast media, and is available for talks, panels, and interviews.

Speaking Highlights:

ASK4 Altitude, Chamonix

ASK4 Altitude, Chamonix

2025 Keynote speaker discussing housing solutions in an age of extraordinary lifespans.

ARCO Retirement Conference, London

ARCO Retirement Conference, London

Keynote Speaker for the What Next? 2024 ARCO Annual Conference discussing his research in the field of longevity and the science of ageing, and the consequences of an extended lifespan.

In the Media:

NBC News — Should We Leave the Future of Space in the Hands of Private Companies?

Discussing The Consequential Frontier on the privatization of the space race.

Watch on NBC News →

The Creative Nonfiction Podcast:

Talking narrative nonfiction and writing techniques.

Available for keynote talks, panel discussions, podcast and broadcast interviews, and media commentary. Get in touch →

About

Peter Ward profile picture

Peter Ward is a journalist and author with over fifteen years' experience reporting on human-interest stories from around the world. Born in Birmingham, UK, and raised in North Wales, he studied journalism at the University of Sheffield before moving to Dubai to work for regional business magazines.

He holds a Master of Arts in Journalism from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, where he studied on a full scholarship. Before turning to feature journalism, Peter worked as a reporter and editor across the Middle East and New York, including as Managing Editor at Red Herring Magazine and Technology Editor at Culture Trip.

His work has appeared in The Atlantic, The Atavist, The Guardian, Wired, GQ, Slate, New Humanist, and other publications, and he is the author of two books published by Melville House. Several of his features have been optioned for TV and film projects.

At the center of Peter's favorite stories are eccentric, obsessive characters. He's interviewed drug smugglers in Iceland, art forgers in Brooklyn, immortalists in Panama, and cryonics enthusiasts in Russia. He's currently based in the UK.

Contact

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