Blake Hounshell

Bernard Blakeman Hounshell (September 4, 1978 – January 10, 2023) was an American journalist and editor who worked for The New York Times, Politico, and Foreign Policy.

A graduate of Yale University, he was a 2011 finalist for the Livingston Award. The same year, Time magazine identified him as operating one of the best Twitter accounts.

He died by suicide in 2023 after living with clinical depression.

Early life and education Hounshell was born as Bernard Blakeman Hounshell in California on September 4, 1978 He grew up in Delaware and Pittsburgh and graduated from Yale University in 2002 after studying political science.

Career In Cairo, Hounshell worked at the human-rights focussed Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies think tank founded by Saad Eddin Ibrahim. after joining the newspaper in October 2021. after starting his journalism career at Foreign Policy in 2006. At Politico, Hounshell was instrumental in launching the national security newsletter, the NatSec Daily.

Foreign Policy won the Media Industry Newsletter's Best of the Web award in 2008, under his leadership. on January 10, 2023, aged 44. Police found his body near the Taft Bridge. Hounshell's family released a statement that he had died "after a long and courageous battle with depression."

Following his death, Joe Kahn and Carolyn Ryan of The New York Times wrote that Hounshell "was a dedicated journalist who quickly distinguished himself as our lead politics newsletter writer and a gifted observer of our country's political scene."