Joshua Benjamin Levin (born March 15, 1980) is an American writer and the national editor at ''Slate'' magazine. Levin also hosts the magazine's sports

podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

, '' Hang Up and Listen.''

Biography

Early life

Levin was born and raised in

New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

. He attended

Brown University Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...

, where he earned degrees in

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

and

history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

Career

After graduating from Brown University, Levin began his

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree of accuracy. The word, a noun, applies to the journ ...

career as an

intern An internship is a period of work experience offered by an organization for a limited period of time. Once confined to medical graduates, internship is used to practice for a wide range of placements in businesses, non-profit organizations and g ...

at the ''

Washington City Paper The ''Washington City Paper'' is a U.S. alternative weekly newspaper serving the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area since 1981. The ''City Paper'' is distributed on Thursdays; its average circulation in 2006 was 85,588. The paper's editorial ...

'' in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

He joined ''Slate'' in 2003, where he is currently national editor. In addition to writing and editing, he also hosts ''Slate''s sports podcast ''Hang Up and Listen'' with the journalist Stefan Fatsis and Joel Anderson. During R. Kelly's 2008 trial for child pornography, Levin coined the term " Shaggy Defence" to describe the Kelly's lawyers. The term was based on Shaggy's song " It Wasn't Me" and its lyrics and, is used to describe denying an allegation, despite strong evidence to the contrary. In 2013, for ''

Slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

'', Levin wrote an article on Linda Taylor, a woman that was dubbed by the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...

'' and

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...

as a "

welfare queen "Welfare queen" is a derogatory term used in the United States to describe individuals who are perceived to misuse or abuse the welfare system, often through fraudulent means, child endangerment, or manipulation. The media's coverage of welfar ...

." The article, which explored Taylor's history of criminal acts, some allegedly neglected by the authorities and more serious than those for which she was convicted, was praised by media sources. The ''

Washington Monthly ''Washington Monthly'' is a bimonthly, nonprofit magazine primarily covering United States politics and government that is based in Washington, D.C. The magazine also publishes an annual ranking of American colleges and universities, which ser ...

'' described Levin's article as "the most fascinating true crime read of the year." In 2019, Levin wrote ''The Queen: The Forgotten Life Behind an American Myth.'' The book expanded upon the life of Linda Taylor and her repeated acts of fraud and theft. The book won the 2019 National Book Critics Circle Award (Biography). Levin also hosted the Slate podcast, ''The Queen'', a four-episode mini series about Linda Taylor and Reagan Era politics, along with two bonus episodes.

Awards

* Association of Alternative Newsweeklies' Media Reporting/Criticism Award in 2004 — for the article titled "Off Target", co-written with Erik Wemple, published in the ''

'' which helped to break the

Jayson Blair Jayson Thomas Blair (born March 23, 1976) is a former American journalist who worked for ''The New York Times''. In May 2003, he resigned from the newspaper following the revelation of fabrication and plagiarism within his articles. In 2004, h ...

plagiarism Plagiarism is the representation of another person's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions as one's own original work.From the 1995 ''Random House Dictionary of the English Language, Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary'': use or close ...

scandal.

References

External links

Official homepage
* 1980 births Living people Writers from New Orleans Brown University alumni Slate (magazine) people Journalists from New Orleans American male journalists 21st-century American journalists 21st-century American male writers National Book Critics Circle Award winners {{US-journalist-1980s-stub