Sonia Shah

Sonia Shah (born 1969 in New York City, United States) is an American investigative journalist and author of articles and books on corporate power, global health and human rights. has been featured on current affairs shows around the United States, like Democracy Now!, as well as on the BBC, Australia's Radio National, and Ted.com. A frequent keynote speaker at political conferences, Shah has lectured at universities and colleges across the country, including Columbia's Earth Institute, MIT, Muhlenberg College, Stetson University, She has also published articles in The New York Times, Mother Jones, The Wall Street Journal, Scientific American, Foreign Affairs, and New York Times Magazine. Her television appearances include A&E, and Radiolab, Shah is a former writing fellow of The Nation Institute and the Puffin Foundation. The annual human rights award, the Puffin/Nation Prize for Creative Citizenship, is given to someone who has done distinctive and courageous social justice work.

In 1992, Between Fear and Hope, a book she edited, was published. In 1999, Dragon Ladies: Asian American Feminists Breathe Fire, a book she edited, was published. It described Asian Women frustration with the mainstream feminist movement in the United States dominated by White Women. The book also addressed the attitudes of Asian women on a wide variety of topics including insights on immigration, jobs, culture and the media as it tells the history and formation of the Asian Feminist Movement. Caroline Chung Simpson described the book, in a review for the Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, that the book was a vital contribution to Asian American Studies.

In 2004, her book Crude: The Story of Oil was published. This book chronicles the story of petroleum production. Shah later said that she agreed to the documentary filmmaker giving the film the same name as her book and stated that it had "amazing footage" of her in it. The book was later published in other countries like Italy and Greece. Ted.com argued that this book established Shah as a "heavy hitter in the field of investigative human rights reporting. The book was adapted from an article in The Nation. and the year's "most significant science book" for general readers by Cleveland.com. It was praised by the Washington Independent Review of Books for chronicling "the science and social impact of malaria."

In 2016, Shah published a book about pandemics and disease entitled Pandemic: Tracking Contagions, from Cholera to Ebola and Beyond. The book was described as a "not fun reading, but...necessary", and a look at the "major contagious disease outbreaks of modern history." The New York Times was more critical, arguing that the book had "no clear focus" and superficially rehashed "the existing literature." The book was selected as a finalist for Los Angeles Times Book Prize in science and technology in 2017, the National Association of Science Writers Science in Society Award, and other awards.

Her 2020 book, The Next Great Migration, describes both human migration and animal migration as a consistent pattern throughout the history of humanity and life on earth. It also describes the trend towards building border barriers such as the Trump Wall on the Mexico–United States border, and the harm inflicted by these structures.

Personal life She lives in Baltimore with molecular ecologist Mark Bulmer and their two sons. She previously lived in North Queensland, Australia with her family. Shah also criticized the county's district structure, saying it was "devised in the 1950s" and argued that it was "outdated" and did not reflect the county's current demographics.