Neel Dhanesha
neeldhanesha.com
Neel Dhanesha
@neeldhanesha.com
Staff writer @niemanlab.org, previously telling climate/science stories in text and audio at Heatmap/Vox/Audubon/Radiolab.
Reposted by Neel Dhanesha
I was one of the four people who got canned.

In the interim, you can subscribe to my newsletter, Straight From The Hut. No paywall, but feel free to choose the pay to support model. I'm not going anywhere — the show goes on, and I'll be back on MSNBC Saturday night. straightfromthehut.substack.com
November 6, 2025 at 6:02 PM
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Hi! Today @quantamagazine.bsky.social published a special issue on climate science, featuring stories about how Earth's climate fundamentally works that I needed to read after covering climate impacts for so many years. I hope you'll check it out! <3 www.quantamagazine.org/how-we-came-...
How We Came To Know Earth | Quanta Magazine
Climate science is the most significant scientific collaboration in history. This series from Quanta Magazine guides you through basic climate science — from quantum effects to ancient hothouses, from...
www.quantamagazine.org
September 15, 2025 at 4:36 PM
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This story — which asks what happened to all of those newsroom DEI jobs, committees, and promises from 2020 — is the hardest one I've ever worked on. I hope you'll spend some time with it today.

www.niemanlab.org/2025/09/from...
From reckoning to retreat: Journalism’s DEI efforts are in decline
Diversity-related newsroom jobs haven't totally disappeared — but they also haven't stuck.
www.niemanlab.org
September 11, 2025 at 2:41 PM
One thing that struck me about my conversation with @davejorgenson.bsky.social: I think he's having...fun? With journalism? In this economy?

www.niemanlab.org/2025/09/with...
With Local News International, Dave Jorgenson becomes his own TikTok guy
The former Washington Post video star talks about launching a new company with old colleagues, the importance of media literacy, and building a Daily Show for the internet.
www.niemanlab.org
September 9, 2025 at 4:50 PM
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What it comes down to is: Should beautiful, interesting, entertaining things exist in the world, and should we spend our time making them?
August 25, 2025 at 1:39 PM
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There have been a ton of 20th anniversary "best of" podcast lists lately, and it has started to feel a bit like an obituary for an industry.

[gift link] defector.com/the-future-o...
The Future Of Podcasting Is Here, And It Sucks | Defector
This week, Left Of Dial published its Essential Listening Poll, a compilation of the 100 best podcasts of all time, according to industry creators, writers, and scholars (Disclosure: I was invited to ...
defector.com
August 21, 2025 at 1:59 PM
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Hello. I wrote a nice long essay about AI and this very strange moment where we're constantly told we're living in the dawn of a strange new future but the only thing that's actually clear is that everyone feels pretty unmoored and uncertain. I hope you'll read it
AI Is a Mass-Delusion Event
Three years in, one of AI’s enduring impacts is to make people feel like they’re losing it.
www.theatlantic.com
August 18, 2025 at 9:21 PM
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"workers are not allowed to wear masks on the front line, even if they want to" www.nytimes.com/2025/08/17/u...
Wildfire Fighters, Unmasked in Toxic Smoke, Are Getting Sick and Dying
www.nytimes.com
August 18, 2025 at 7:03 PM
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about two months ago, i reached out to @boringstein.bsky.social to ask if they'd be open to talking about the incredible videos they were making for Zohran Mamdani's election campaign

it turned into a much bigger story than i expected
Selling Zohran | Defector
On a cool Sunday in November, a few days after Donald Trump’s re-election, Zohran Mamdani stood on a street corner in Jamaica, Queens, holding up a hastily drawn cardboard sign that read “DID YOU VOTE...
defector.com
August 18, 2025 at 8:29 PM
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I have studied the targeting of journalists for many years, but the scale and public display of these killings is truly shocking: “Israel admits deliberate attack on the journalist, known for frontline coverage, in a strike on a tent outside al-Shifa hospital“

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...
Anas al-Sharif, prominent Al Jazeera correspondent, among five journalists killed in Israeli airstrike on Gaza
Israel admits deliberate attack on the journalist, known for frontline coverage, in a strike on a tent outside al-Shifa hospital
www.theguardian.com
August 11, 2025 at 7:26 AM
Shannon is one of the most talented reporters I know, I am SO excited for this book!
So so excited that my book on microplastics and the rise of plastic has been picked up by Harper 🥹🥹

Thank you to agent extraordinaire Alice Whitwham at @cheneyagency.bsky.social, amazing editor Sarah Haugen at Harper, and family & friends for believing in this project.
July 31, 2025 at 5:06 PM
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A story that got less attention was the incredibly cynical primary of my amazing Councilwoman—the first Muslim woman ever elected to the NYC Council—by a billionaire, corporate-backed candidate also lobbing gross accusations of antisemitism. Anyway, the challenger got trounced. Hell yea.
Thank you, Brooklyn! Getting to represent the neighborhoods that raised me is the greatest privilege of my life.
June 25, 2025 at 3:11 AM
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I'm in touch with a source in Cuomo's camp. They're all screaming and turning back into rats. Not looking good so far
June 25, 2025 at 1:47 AM
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A Muslim son of immigrants might become mayor of NYC in part because he cross endorsed and supported a Jewish candidate and Black candidate, and vice versa.

It's a beautiful American story for the rest of us. A nightmare for all the right people ;)

It's so New York.
June 25, 2025 at 1:47 AM
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Bill Clinton please endorse my enemies
June 25, 2025 at 1:47 AM
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Cuomo conceded New York City baby lets go Mets baby bodega cats pizza pie I love this city
June 25, 2025 at 2:28 AM
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Explorer | Skyviewer
skyviewer.app
June 24, 2025 at 2:58 PM
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The lovely @neeldhanesha.com talked to me about @project-push.tk.gg for @niemanlab.org!

It was great fun to chat about, and really inspired me to give the project another kick. If you're interested, sign up now, and I'll be in touch soon.

www.niemanlab.org/2025/05/proj...
Project Push creates an archive of news alerts from around the world
"One of the most important people in the newsroom is the person who decides that they're going to press a button that sends an immediate notification to millions of people’s phones.”
www.niemanlab.org
May 29, 2025 at 6:12 PM
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I know that media use the term "big beautiful bill" in quotes but it's unfortunate that this many years into covering this president we are still suckered into leading with his language and framing when covering such consequential stories
May 19, 2025 at 9:38 PM
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Here is the grad speech that NYU is now withholding the student's diploma for:

"As I search my heart today in addressing you all…the only thing that is appropriate to say in this time and to a group this large is a recognition of the atrocities currently happening in Palestine."
May 15, 2025 at 2:45 PM
Between this and the NY Mag piece it sounds like office hours are just two two-chatbots-in-a-trench-coat

www.nytimes.com/2025/05/14/t...
The Professors Are Using ChatGPT, and Some Students Aren’t Happy About It
www.nytimes.com
May 14, 2025 at 6:36 PM
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Important and very sad reporting from @maeveallsup.bsky.social for @latitudemedia.bsky.social, on what the hell is going on with Puerto Rico's $365-million Programa de Comunidades Resilientes, dedicated to backup power for hospitals and community housing.

🔌💡 www.latitudemedia.com/news/inside-...
Inside the political chess game of funding backup power for Puerto Rico
Modernizing the island’s grid was key to Gov. González-Colón’s campaign. So why has she pulled her support of a key resilience program?
www.latitudemedia.com
May 7, 2025 at 7:05 PM