Michael Balter

Michael Balter has been a working journalist for 43 years. He began his career in Los Angeles, writing and reporting for nearly every local publication including the Los Angeles Times, L.A. Weekly, and Los Angeles Magazine.

In 1988 he moved to Paris, where he lived for 30 years. While there he specialized in food and travel writing, for Bon Appetit, Saveur, Islands, Travel & Leisure, National Geographic Traveler, and others. In 1991 he became the Paris correspondent for Science magazine, using his skills as a former science grad student at UCLA where he received his masters in biology. He also wrote for the Columbia Journalism Review (which he still does today) and was a regular contributor to the International Herald Tribune.

In 2008 Balter began teaching journalism, first at Boston University, then New York University and City College of New York. He returned to the US in 2017 and now lives in the Hudson Valley, where he works as an independent reporter, focusing on politics, science, and #MeToo reporting. In that latter role Balter has investigated dozens of sexual abusers and bullies in academia; he was a defendant in an $18 million defamation suit as a result of that reporting, which was settled on terms that did not require him to delete any of his reporting nor pay out any money.

Balter continues to freelance, and also publishes the Substack newsletter "Words for the Wise."