Hi,
I’m Aarti *
Aarti Shahani is an award-winning journalist and bestselling author. She is creator and host of Art of Power (a co-production with WBEZ), a weekly podcast featuring fascinating humans who’ve done big things.
Aarti spent her 20s organizing prisoners. When she pivoted to business journalism, she enjoyed a meteoric rise at NPR, as Silicon Valley correspondent. She’s guest-hosted NPR’s All Things Considered and KQED’s Forum.
Aarti’s first book, Here We Are (Macmillan), chronicles her unlikely journey from undocumented kid in Queens, New York to national voice on the frontlines of the most powerful industry on earth. An Amazon bestseller, the memoir has garnered critical acclaim.
“Riveting…a bruising critique of colonialism” (NPR); “heartfelt, galvanizing” (San Francisco Chronicle); “timely, bittersweet” (Publishers Weekly); “among the finest memoirs written in recent decades…a vivid, almost cinematic journey that is both beautiful and unforgettable” (Guy Raz, Host, How I Built This and TED Radio Hour).
Aarti’s reporting has received an award from the Society of Professional Journalists, an Edward R. Murrow Award, and an Investigative Reporters & Editors Award. Her very first newsroom was ProPublica.
She received her masters degree from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, with a full scholarship from the university and additional support from the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans. She completed her bachelor’s degree in anthropology at the University of Chicago. She was among the youngest recipients of the Charles H. Revson Fellowship at Columbia University and is an alumna of A Better Chance, Inc.
Aarti lives in San Francisco, California with her partner and son. She’s crazy stupid in love.
* photo by @NickolaiHammar