David Lepeska
Verified
As seen in:
Apple Podcasts,
Medium,
The New York Times,
Bloomberg CityLab,
Financial Times,
The Guardian,
New York Daily News,
The Atlantic,
The Economist,
Al Jazeera English
and
Covers:
islam, literature, urbanism, arts, urban planning, urban sustainability, media, film, civic tech, democracy building, innovation, food and drink, design, istanbul
Editor-in-chief @ jcmonitor.com & ehmonitor.com. Past: @kashmirobserver, @nytimes, @citylab, @eartist_, @nationalcomment & more. Book #2 out June 2026.
Interview
What was your first job as a journalist?
First paid position? Senior reporter for the Kashmir Observer, in Srinagar, Kashmir, India.
Have you ever used a typewriter?
For work? No. For fun/nostalgia? Yep.
How is social media changing news?
Almost impossible to answer right now, but we're in the early stages of an enormous shift in how people gather, disseminate and share news
How do you prefer to be pitched on stories?
Email is best, but phone is fine. Even Twitter. As long as it gets to me.
Who do you wish followed you?
God
Why did you become a journalist?
I've written since I was a teen, but--at the risk of sounding cliche--seeing 9/11 first-hand really pushed me to learn more about my world
Would you like to take the Muck Rack Interview?
Create a Muck Rack profile.