Episode 558: Mona Chalabi

Longform

Mona Chalabi is a writer and illustrator whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Guardian, where she is the data editor. Her New York Times Magazine piece “9 Ways to Imagine Jeff Bezos’ Wealth” won this year’s Pulitzer Prize for Illustrated Reporting.

“I kind of think of protest as just saying what you believe. And sometimes, it’s considered protest because it’s outside of the institutions of power. So you’re saying, Hey, Palestinians deserve human rights, and that’s considered a form of protest, right? I want the work to change things and I think I’m quite unapologetic about that, and most journalists are like No no no no no, we’re just reporting the world, we’re just reporting things as we see it. There’s no desire for change. I think that is so messed up. This idea that your work has no impact in the world is incorrect. You can’t wash yourself of the consequences of the work, you have to be considering the consequences while you’re doing it.”

Show notes:

• monachalabi.com
• Chalabi on Instagram
• Chalabi's Guardian archive
• 1:00 "9 Ways to Imagine Jeff Bezos' Wealth" (New York Times Magazine • Apr 2022)
• 1:00 "How Does the Reality TV Show Cops Stack Up with Real-Life Crime Figures?" (The Guardian • May 2019)
• 6:00 "Striving For Justice: Lowkey in Conversation with Mona Chalabi" (GQ • Jun 2023)
• 8:30 "NY Times Writers Jazmine Hughes & Jamie Keiles Resign After Signing Letter Against Israeli War on Gaza" (Democracy Now! • Nov 2023)
• 8:30 Samira Nasr on Instagram
• 8:30 "Inside MSNBC’s Middle East Conflict" (Max Tani • Semafor • Oct 2023)
• 16:00 "Mentions of Israeli and Palestinian Deaths in The New York Times" (Instagram • Oct 2023)
• 18:00 "Circumcision Rates" (Instagram • Oct 2025)
• 21:00 New America Fellow
• 21:00 Emerson Collective
• 21:00 "The Gray-Green Divide" (Brooklyn Museum • Jun-Dec 2022)
• 21:00 "Am I Normal? with Mona Chalabi" (TED Audio Collective)
• 54:00 Muntadhar al-Zaidi
• 54:00 Longform Podcast #276: Azmat Khan
• 54:00 Yousur Al-Hlou's New York Times archive
• 54:00 Jazmine Hughes' New York Times archive
• 54:00 “Regarding the Pain of Others” (Marty Peretz • The New Republic • 1996)
• 54:00 Longform Podcast #553: Clare Malone

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