Dashka Slater

California

Journalist and Writer at Freelance

NYT Bestselling Author. This account is now inactive. Subscribe to one of my substacks (see linktree below) IG: @princessamanita @dashkaslater.bsky.social.

Articles

I'm Too Smart For Propaganda

May 24, 2024 | dashkaslater.substack.com | Dashka Slater

When the artist Elizabeth Haidle posted this picture on her Instagram account a while back, I immediately messaged her to ask if I could use it in my presentations. (Happily, she said yes.) I had never seen a better representation of what my brain is doing when I’m reporting a story—or taking in any new information about a subject that engages my emotions. More than three decades in journalism have trained me to insert a little distance between me and new information.
Sonderbooks Review of Accountable

Apr 18, 2024 | sonderbooks.com | Dashka Slater

AccountableThe True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed Review posted April 23, 2024. Macmillan Young Listeners, 2023. 9 hours, 12 minutes. Review written April 18, 2024, from a library eaudiobook. Starred Review 2024 Excellence in Young Adult Nonfiction Award Winner 2024 Capitol Choices Selection 2024 Sonderbooks Standout: #4 Teen Nonfiction I did not enjoy listening to this audiobook.
Berkeley’s People’s Park Is a Metaphor That Has Outlived Its Use

Apr 14, 2024 | motherjones.com | Dashka Slater

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters. This essay was originally published on Dashka Slater’s Substack, A Sigh of Relief, which you can sign up for here. I was homeless when I started college at the University of California, Berkeley. First-year students weren’t guaranteed housing in those days, and I’d been unable to secure a spot in either the dorms or the student-run housing co-ops.
The 29 books we couldn't stop thinking about in 2023

Dec 20, 2023 | briefly.co | Dashka Slater

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On Not Knowing

Oct 13, 2023 | dashkaslater.substack.com | Dashka Slater

This is an AI-generated image using the prompt The Truth Is Out There. The misspelling and general weirdness appealed to my sense of irony. Don’t count on AI for the truth, whatever you do. First off, an apology for last week’s missing newsletter. I had no intention of skipping a week, but being on book tour took a toll on my brain and the post that I wrote over the course of various plane rides was a bit…incoherent.
The best books about facing down extremism, online and off

Oct 3, 2023 | shepherd.com | Dashka Slater |Eli Saslow |Adam Rutherford |Rutger Bregman

Saslow tells the true story of a white nationalist’s journey out of extremism with the help of some very unlikely allies, one of whom is Jewish. It’s both a compelling page-turner and an ethical conundrum. What is the best way to respond to the scion of one of the nation’s most influential white nationalist and neo-Nazi families? I found it riveting, revealing, and disturbing, but also moving and uplifting. Why should I read it?
We Need To Talk About Teenagers, Social Media and Hate

Sep 29, 2023 | dashkaslater.substack.com | Dashka Slater

Illustration by Pola Maneli. School is back in session and for me that means one thing: Google alerts about incidents involving teenagers, social media, and hate. A Sigh of Relief: Talking About Justice & Accountability is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives

Sep 24, 2023 | audiobooks.com | Dashka Slater

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The Very American Phenomenon of the Blank-Slate Utopia

Sep 15, 2023 | dashkaslater.substack.com | Dashka Slater

“It is an American habit to try to solve problems apart from their context.”— Danielle Sered, Until We ReckonThe sun sets on a mudsoaked Black Rock Desert on Friday, Sept. 1, 2023. Jonah Page, SF Gate. Two news stories dominated my attention last week. The first was the shenanigans at Burning Man, that chimeric desert city of around 73,000 people which turned into a literal shit-show after an unusual (read: increasingly usual thanks to climate change) amount of water came down from the sky.
Why Facts Matter

Sep 8, 2023 | dashkaslater.substack.com | Dashka Slater

As I scramble from one Accountable media interview to another, I hear one question pretty frequently:“What surprised you the most when you were working on this book?” I have a number of different answers, because there were a lot of surprises in the reporting process (some of which I don’t like to give away so that they can be surprising to the reader as well).