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Journalist // Author // Editor

Nina Munk’s Journalist Portfolio

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A first-hand look at atrocity, by a 'privileged' witness

A first-hand look at atrocity, by a 'privileged' witness

The (Toronto) Star — In the preface of How It Happened: Documenting the Tragedy of Hungarian Jewry, editor Nina Munk writes about her cousin Erno Munkacsi's testament to brutality and first-hand account of the Jews' moral dilemmas in wartime Hungary, with a focus on the Jewish Council (a.k.a. Judenrat).

How Warren Buffett's Son Would Feed the World

How Warren Buffett's Son Would Feed the World

The Atlantic — Howard G. Buffett has spent most of his life as a farmer, with little financial support from his father — until recently. Now he runs a multibillion-dollar foundation dedicated to ending global hunger.

The Idealist: Jeffrey Sachs and the Quest to End Poverty (Excerpt)

The Idealist: Jeffrey Sachs and the Quest to End Poverty (Excerpt)

HuffPost — In the first of three excerpts from her powerful new book, The Idealist: Jeffrey Sachs and the Quest to End Poverty, Nina Munk takes us to a one of the most inhospitable places on earth, a remote village on the border of Somalia and Kenya where each day is a struggle to overcome hunger, drought, and disease.

The Met's Grand Gamble

The Met's Grand Gamble

Vanity Fair — Since Peter Gelb took the reins at the Metropolitan Opera, in 2006, he’s relentlessly picked up the pace — more new productions, more aggressive marketing, live high-def broadcasts — until everyone from chorus members to major donors has felt the strain. But is Gelb presiding over a leap into the 21st century, or the slow decline of the world’s greatest (and most extravagant) opera house? Examining the Met’s $47 million deficit, the horrendous economics of opera, and the effort to sell high culture to the masses, NINA MUNK reveals what a huge risk the controversial impresario is taking.

Rich Harvard, Poor Harvard

Rich Harvard, Poor Harvard

Vanity Fair — Only a year ago, Harvard had a $36.9 billion endowment, the largest in academia. Now that endowment has imploded, and the university faces the worst financial crisis in its 373-year history. Could the same lethal mix of uncurbed expansion, colossal debt, arrogance, and mismanagement that ravaged Wall Street bring down America’s most famous university? And how much of the turmoil is the fault of former Harvard president Larry Summers, now a top economic adviser to President Obama? As students demonstrate, administrators impose Draconian cuts, and construction is halted on an over-ambitious $1.2 billion science complex, NINA MUNK follows the finger-pointing.

My Father's Brilliant Mistake

My Father's Brilliant Mistake

Canadian Business — For a decade, in the 1960s, Clairtone Sound Corp. captured the spirit of the times. Hugh Hefner owned a Clairtone hi-fi. So did Frank Sinatra and the jazz legend Oscar Peterson. In an excerpt from her new book, Nina Munk, daughter of Clairtone founder Peter Munk, reveals the inside story of the skyrocketing success and the sensational collapse of a design icon.

Jeffrey Sachs's $200 Billion Dream

Jeffrey Sachs's $200 Billion Dream

Vanity Fair — Jeffrey Sachs — visionary economist, savior of Bolivia, Poland, and other struggling nations, adviser to the U.N. and movie stars — won't settle for less than the global eradication of extreme poverty. And he hasn't got a second to waste.

Greenwich's Outrageous Fortunes

Greenwich's Outrageous Fortunes

Vanity Fair — For more than a century, Greenwich, Connecticut, has attracted some of the biggest, newest, shiniest fortunes in America. Today that money comes from the trillion-dollar hedge-fund business, which occupies a third of the towns office space, and whose managers are behind a decade of over-the-top real-estate deals, teardowns, and mega-mansions. From Paul Tudor Jones II's monster Monticello to Steven Cohens $14.8 million cash purchase, NINA MUNK discovers just how far Greenwich's latest tycoons will go — and meets the one who finally went too far

Don't Blink. You'll Miss the 258th-Richest American.

Don't Blink. You'll Miss the 258th-Richest American.

The New York Times — The latest Forbes 400 list of the richest people in America has just hit the newsstands. The idea for the Forbes 400 -- rather than, say, 300 or 500 -- was inspired by Mrs. Astor's 400, the definitive list of New York high society in the 1890's. It's rumored that Mrs. William Backhouse Astor Jr. limited her social list to 400 because only 400 people could fit into her ballroom, but that may not be true. In any case, they had to be the right 400 people. As her escort, Ward McAlister, explained to reporters in 1888: "If you go outside that number, you strike people who are either not at ease in a ballroom or else make others not at ease."

Steve Wynn's Biggest Gamble

Steve Wynn's Biggest Gamble

Vanity Fair — Even as Steve Wynn’s sight is failing, his vision grows more ambitious. Five years after selling his Mirage Resorts, the uncrowned king of Las Vegas has just finished building a shimmering, 50-floor hotel-casino, complete with 18 restaurants, a car dealership, golf course, spa, museum, and man-made mountain. Visiting the $2.7 billion follow-up to Wynn’s famed Bellagio, NINA MUNK finds the man who re-invented Las Vegas grappling with his legacy — and, on at least one memorable occasion, losing his cool.

How I Started a Dot-Com for Dogs

How I Started a Dot-Com for Dogs

The New York Times Magazine — Last spring, I was restless. My job was safe and predictable. And so, on a whim, I decided to start a dot-com in my spare time. In the olden days, I might have built a model airplane, or retiled the bathroom floor, or written an inspirational book. But this is the Internet age; and thus, I set out to build a Web site.

How Levi's Trashed a Great American Brand

How Levi's Trashed a Great American Brand

Fortune — While Bob Haas pioneered benevolent management, his company came apart at the seams.

The Eminence of Excess

The Eminence of Excess

The New York Times Magazine — The architect Thierry Despont's list of clients reads like the Forbes 400 list. Other architects have rich clients, too — architects like Richard Meier and Robert A. M. Stern and Frank O. Gehry. But Despont is not like other architects — a point made by both detractors and admirers. ''Thierry designs houses that are an hommage to the client,'' says Martha Stewart, who seems awed by her friend Despont. ''To some degree, Peter Marino does this, too. Mark Hampton did it, somewhat. But this guy does it like no one else. He's really designing for a king.''