Hannah Sparks is a feature writer & editor with a mind to tell surprising, thoughtful and distinctive stories.
As a generalist staff reporter and editor at New York Post, she’s relentlessly pursued stories featuring diverse and provocative perspectives. Her knack for identifying what excites the internet zeitgeist has added more uncommonly valuable narratives to the digital media landscape, including the story of a wizard who moonlights as a motivational speaker; the first openly trans cop of Oklahoma City; a happy marriage between a gay man and a straight woman; and the lonely lives of social media influencers and trust fund kids, among others.
New York Post
2016 – Current
I began at the nation's oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the fall of 2016 as a News Clerk before being scooped-up by the Features Dept. as an editorial assistant at the end of the year. I got my feet dirty fast as an occasional reporter in the role. "Trial by fire," coworkers often joked. In 2018, I ascended to full-fledged reporter status where I’ve produced more than 2,000 bylines, including dozens of original reports, in that time.
Previous adventures
2004–2016
The high stakes of starting my career at a legacy tabloid, with virtually no substantial media experience, helped shape me to be a thorough, nimble general assignment reporter, and a master at managing chaos — work tenets I had previously developed as a cook, baker and the number of other fast-paced restaurant roles I endured during my teens and 20s.
Content that compels.
“Dollars over lives:” Inside NYC’s defiant COVID-19 party scene
Sources tell The Post their events maintain recommended health measures — but alarming packed-house videos posted on social media might raise eyebrows — and one venue was even forced to shut down. Meanwhile, many who put the kibosh on their own social lives in the interest of safety and accountability are disappointed and concerned with how this trend may reflect on the culture. …
He’s a gay man — and happily married to a woman: What it’s like to be in a mixed-orientation marriage
Skyler Sorensen and his wife Amanda have a lot in common. For starters, they’re both attracted to men. But Skyler claims that being gay hasn’t gotten in the way of their blissful marriage — or their sex life.
“That sexual attraction came from, I mean, trial-and-error and a lot of practice,” the 25-year-old told The Post, laughing with his wife, also 25. …
Radio station features DJs from senior homes across the US
“I never thought that this kind of thing would happen with me,” says 73-year-old Bob Strand who was asked to volunteer for the gig by the lifestyle director of his nursing home. His show included an eclectic set featuring classic rock and folk, such as E.L.O., Jethro Tull, the Mamas and the Papas and Slim Whitman.
“I’m just beaming about it. I think it was an awful lot of fun, just the experience of it,” Strand, a k a “DJ Ras Man” — R.A.S. being his initials — tells The Post. …
Animal Crossing sees gamers bonding, staying busy — not battling bad guys — during the pandemic
Life is simple in Nintendo’s Animal Crossing, now in its 7th iteration. Players assume a cutesy avatar and move to a tropical island, which they’re tasked with building up while making nice with their neighbors. There are no levels or bad guys or battles — just polite social interactions, shopping decisions and chores suggested by the island proprietor, Tom Nook.
“It’s this adorable, idealized version of a life that you completely control and design — like ‘The Sims’ but without any drama,” says player Austin Voigt, who lives in Minneapolis and writes gaming how-to guides for NintendoLife.com. …
Amid Black Lives Matter protests, cops explain what drove them to leave the force
Nearly 80% of Americans say police brutality is a “moderately” or “extremely/very” serious problem in US policing, according to a new AP-NORC poll. And a recent flurry of whistleblowers suggests that former and current officers may be more aligned with that sentiment.
Now, former law enforcement officials are beginning to speak out on why recent events might prompt cops to question their loyalty to the force. …
This East Village barbershop is also a cutting-edge comedy club
On Friday nights, after all the hair’s been swept off the floor and the last comb dropped into the jar of Barbicide, people form a line outside the Original Barbershop in the East Village.
And they’re not waiting around for a haircut.
By 8:45, the mostly millennial crowd settles in among the swivel stools, wooden benches and folding chairs as comedian Ronnie Lordi switches on a mike to open “Live at the Barbershop” — one of the city’s more offbeat comedy clubs. …
How an NYPD officer descended into drug addiction and dealing in one month
Mark Restivo, 39, had dreamed of being in the NYPD since he was 5 years old. But when he was injured on the job and made to retire after only a few years on the force, an old habit with painkillers spun out of control. In just a month’s time, Restivo went from being an officer to an opioid dealer. Now a drug counselor himself, he tells The Post’s Hannah Sparks his story of addiction and recovery. …
I have 2 million followers but no friends
By all appearances, social media star Nate Garner has it all: an apartment in Hollywood, an adorable dog, an impossibly fit body and some 2.5 million followers on Instagram.
The only thing missing? People to share it with.
“Social media … has [made] me become a loner,” the 21-year-old vlogger tells The Post. He says that his seven years of online fame have never mirrored popularity in his offline life, and tweeted in March that he’s lost “so many friends” along the way. …
Rich kids confess how more money has made them miserable
“I don’t actually want it,” says Lane Fury, 27. “There is this sense of shame or embarrassment, like maybe some of the problems in the world are my fault, so I shouldn’t really be open about [my wealth].”
While many people struggle to pay the bills and make ends meet, those lucky enough to have family money say they have problems of their own. Fury says having a trust fund is alienating and can lead to feelings of loneliness, guilt, depression and confusion. …
I’m a 1-percenter who found purpose in life tripping on toad venom: What it’s like
Victoria Barbara’s life has been split in two: Dark decades of secret misery before she tripped on trendy toad venom — and the enlightened bliss she claims came after.
The glamorous influencer with nearly 1 million Instagram followers told The Post she owes her psychological transformation to psychedelic “Bufo therapy.” That’s when adventurous folks inhale the vapors of toxic toad milk, launching them into what proponents describe as a, well, mind-splitting journey of self discovery. …
This subway wizard ‘grants’ riders’ wishes
“I remember seeing him and wondering if there was a Comic-Con [in town],” Carmen Cacares, 31, told The Post. When she inquired about Wizard Devin Person’s get-up, they struck up a casual conversation and he offered to grant her a wish — on one condition.
“Here comes the part where he asks me for money,” Cacares thought. Instead, Person told the dancer, who wished for a specific audition, to simply do a dance for herself before submitting her tryout application. …
New Yorkers are seeking lavish lavatories for their bathroom selfies
There was a time when, if you had snapped a photo of yourself in a public restroom and tried to share it with your friends, you could count on a few dubious looks. Now, you get “likes” — lots of them.
It’s the age of the Instagram bathroom, and publicity-savvy restaurateurs are catering to millennials by pouring money into powder rooms that are so picture-perfect, customers can’t help but snap a selfie and post it on social media. . …
Food, thoughtfully.
Alcohol is now being marketed as a ‘wellness’ drink
Young adults today are imbibing less than previous generations, and many have kicked the habit altogether, preferring to make sobriety the hip choice. At the same time, health-conscious millennials are spending more money at the gym, even making group-fitness birthday celebrations a thing.
So it was only a matter of time before beverage manufacturers began marketing formulations tuned to your health. …
Hospital food is finally getting a gourmet makeover
“We should all be practicing the same message in our cafeterias,” says Nancy Deenihan-Gruber, food services site director at the Montefiore Medical Center’s Moses Campus in The Bronx.
In 2012, her medical center became a local pioneer in health-conscious hospital food by replacing its sugary drinks and fried foods with a health-conscious, veggie-packed menu. Now, she says, some dishes — such as mushroom ragout and pan-roasted flounder — are so popular that patients and staff ask for the recipes.
Their successes have inspired several other hospitals to clean up their kitchens. …
This restaurant gives refugees a chance at a new life
“Food can really be used to create bridges … to do so much more than just feed people,” says Kerry Brodie, 28, who started Emma’s Torch in 2017.
The refugee-trainees undergo a two-month program, learning knife skills, health codes and, of course, basic cooking methods while being paid $15 an hour. For the first month, they focus solely on developing skills; in the second month, they transition into dinner service. …
Spiked seltzers are the official cocktail of summer
Move over margarita, arrivederci Aperol Spritz and good riddance rosé: The official drink of summer 2019 is spiked seltzer.
The low-calorie, low-carb boozy beverage, which tastes like punched-up soda water with about as much alcohol as a typical light beer, is taking over picnics, poolsides, beer aisles and bars across the city. …
This pizza is made from a 1,000-year-old recipe
Chef Giovanni Vittorio Tagliafierro — a Tramonti native, and a fourth-generation pizza maker training the fifth — slings pies in the style of his hidden-gem hometown. He’s dreamed of making pizza in NYC after living here for years as a boy, and now he’s finally making it happen. And like any Italian joint worth its red sauce, the pizzeria’s walls are filled with framed photos.
“This is my grandfather, my grandmother, my father, my uncle,” Tagliafierro says, pointing to one. “This is the generation that made history in the pizza of Tramonti.” …
The messy family history behind the Jell-O empire
Jell-O. Peer deep into its gelatinous form to find some tasty morsels — cherries, chunks of ham, pineapple … or a dark and unsavory past.
There’s plenty of the latter in “Jell-O Girls” (Little, Brown & Company), the new memoir by Jell-O heiress Allie Rowbottom. In it, the 32-year-old chronicles the sometimes enigmatic and often dramatic lives of three generations of Jell-O women, from her grandmother, Midge, to her mother, Mary, who died in 2015, ending with the author herself. …
Health matters.
How to save someone from an opioid overdose
On July 20, Bed-Stuy resident Louis Rivera was just beginning his morning at a local bodega, grabbing a coffee before taking his wife to the train station. As his wife waited, he noticed the man next to him at the beverage station “nodding-off,” and heard a gurgling sound.
“Then he just drops on the floor,” says Rivera, 23. “Immediately I knew he was having an overdose.” Luckily, he knew exactly what to do. …
This profession is most likely to make you a drug addict: study
The study, which gathered responses from over 290,000 workers in 13 different professions, found that 3.4% of the construction workers in the survey were misusing painkillers. The average rate of misuse in other careers was about 2%.
For recovering addict Elvin “Elbo” Krigsman, a unionized painter for two decades who works in Manhattan, the results aren’t surprising. His colleagues are constantly complaining of pain, especially back pain. Some become addicted to the painkillers they turn to for relief. …
Teens are turning to bariatric surgery to fight obesity
Youth obesity is resulting in “hypertension and diabetes in kids ages 12, 13 and 14,” Sadek says. “We have never seen this before as physicians, which raises the concern that there’s a serious problem.”
To Sadek, bariatric surgery is misunderstood by many, and he challenges the notion that it’s an “extreme” measure. “[It’s] an approved, scientifically researched answer for some patients,” he says. …
Demi Lovato says she’s ‘California sober’ — but what does that mean?
“It’s a terrible term,” said NYU Langone Health addiction psychiatrist Dr. Collin Reiff, explaining that the “ambiguous” word indicates a lack of accountability in the addiction patient. “It’s a real slippery slope,” he told The Post.
But the concept of “moderation” bears merit, according to Reiff, who prefers the “harm reduction” approach. …
What you need to know before quitting antidepressants
“I remember having thoughts of, ‘Is this ever going to end?’ ” Serpica tells The Post. “I feel like doctors downplay withdrawal symptoms.”
A new paper suggests that her concerns are warranted. In the report, published in medical journal the Lancet Psychiatry this week, British psychiatrists Dr. Mark Horowitz and Dr. David Taylor argue that the standard recommendation for tapering off antidepressants — about four weeks under a physician’s guidance — is wildly misguided. They believe tapering should take months, not weeks, and consist of ever-smaller doses. …
Do brain-boosting supplements actually work?
Some nootropics users say they’re living proof of how effective the formulations are, but experts are dubious.
Dr. Pieter Cohen, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School, says, there is “zero incentive for companies [to test on humans when they] can make millions.” His research into the “brain-boosting” supplements, which are popular in technology circles, found that there have been several that contain unlabeled, untested and potentially dangerous active ingredients. …