Samanth Subramanian

London

Freelance Journalist at Freelance

Ex-@qz. Words in @gdnlongread @newyorker, @NYTMag, @WIRED and others. My JBS Haldane biography is out now. Newsletter: https://t.co/pqVqS8hBK2

Featured in: Favicon

qz.com

substack.com (+1) Favicon

msn.com

theguardian.com Favicon

nytimes.com Favicon

bloomberg.com Favicon

huffpost.com Favicon

yahoo.com (+3) Favicon

economist.com Favicon

ft.com + 61 more

Articles

From the archive: The lost Jews of Nigeria - podcast

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Samanth Subramanian

We are raiding the Guardian long read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors. This week, from 2022: Until the 1990s, there were almost no Jews in Nigeria. Now thousands have enthusiastically taken up the faith. Why?
multi-storied #43: The web beneath the waves

1 month ago | samanth.substack.com | Samanth Subramanian

It’s just as well for you all that books take years to write. When I started this newsletter in 2020, I must have done a certain amount of book promotion, entreating and beseeching you all to buy (if not read) “A Dominant Character,” my biography of JBS Haldane. (There’s still time.) A full five years have passed before we’re at that stage of the cycle again. Over the next few months, I may ask you to pre-order / order / buy / read more than one new book of mine, depending on where you live.
From the archive: Food fraud and counterfeit cotton: the detectives untangling the global supply chain – podcast | Fair trade | The Guardian

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Samanth Subramanian |Esther Opoku-Gyeni |Joleen Goffin |Joshan Chana |Ellie Bury

This week, from 2021: Amid the complex web of international trade, proving the authenticity of a product can be near-impossible. But one company is taking the search to the atomic level.<br><br>By Samanth Subramanian. Read by Raj Ghatak
The real Scandi noir: how a filmmaker and a crooked lawyer shattered Denmark’s self-image - podcast

2 months ago | theguardian.com | Samanth Subramanian |Nicola Alexandrou |Ellie Bury

The Black Swan follows a repentant master criminal as she sets up corrupt clients in front of hidden cameras. But is she really reformed – and is the director up to his own tricks?
multi-storied #42: The journalist and the scam artist

Mar 29, 2025 | samanth.substack.com | Samanth Subramanian

The very first sentence of “The Journalist and the Murderer” is full-bore artillery, blowing apart the egos of the practitioners of the very profession that regards it as a central text. Janet Malcolm writes:Every journalist who is not too stupid or too full of himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible.
The real Scandi noir: how a filmmaker and a crooked lawyer shattered Denmark’s self-image

Mar 27, 2025 | theguardian.com | Samanth Subramanian

The trap was laid in a rented office: two rooms in downtown Copenhagen, furnished without a whisper of Scandi style. If it wasn’t for a Frida Kahlo print on one wall, the premises might have felt as impersonal and stark as a confessional. That, in any event, was what it became. For six months, beginning in mid-2022, a parade of people – members of motorcycle gangs, entrepreneurs, lawyers, real-estate barons, politicians – trooped through to recount their sins to Amira Smajic.
multi-storied #41: What are the odds?

Jan 15, 2025 | samanth.substack.com | Samanth Subramanian

This piece appeared last October in a Bloomberg Businessweek special package on sports gambling—an industry that is rapidly being legalized in US state after US state. In the old world, though, sports betting has been incredibly sophisticated for years, spinning off a whole new sector filled with quant shops. This is is a story about those shops. Along with the pub and the kebabery, one fixture of nearly every British high street is the betting shop.
Why the world needs lazier robots

Jan 13, 2025 | afr.com | Samanth Subramanian |Emily Wright

Samanth Subramanian and Emily WrightJan 14, 2025 – 5.00am or Subscribe to save articleEmailLinkedInTwitterFacebookSubscribe to gift this articleGift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe. Subscribe nowAlready a subscriber? On an indoor soccer field in the Dutch city of Eindhoven, a championship-winning team is running its drills. Each player stakes out a position, makes precise adjustments and fires the orange ball at one another.
Why the world needs lazier robots

Dec 30, 2024 | washingtonpost.com | Samanth Subramanian |Emily Wright

Warning: This graphic requires JavaScript. Please enable JavaScript for the best experience. Photos and videos by Jagoda Lasota for The Washington Post December 31, 2024 at 5:00 a.m. EINDHOVEN, Netherlands - On an indoor soccer field here, a championship-winning team is running its drills. Each player stakes out a position, makes precise adjustments and fires the orange ball at another. On the sidelines, manager René van de Molengraft paces and observes.
multi-storied #40: Ten (+1) things from 2024

Dec 23, 2024 | samanth.substack.com | Samanth Subramanian

With barely a week to go for the new year, a stocktaking is inevitable. I still have an article in at the Washington Post, that I believe will be published before 2024 is out. But that aside, I’ve completed ten pieces and a slim book this year. (The book, to be candid, was begun earlier.) Ten is a nice, round number: one for each finger of the hand, unless you’re Django Reinhardt or Hrithik Roshan. Here’s a round-up of ten things I learned (plus a final bonus one, from the book) this year.