Since the Washington Post abruptly fired her in 2025, Karen Attiah has stayed busy. She founde Resistance Studies Series that summer to teach online, after Columbia University cancelled her race and media class, and is writing book projects and her newsletter, the Golden Hour. With IIJ founder Katherine Reynolds Lewis, Karen discussed the catharsis of writing through trying times, and her career trajectory from working in a legacy newsroom to being a multi-hypenate independent. She reflected on reporting across continents, confronting power, her late father’s influence, and shaping conversations on race, gender, human rights, and democracy.

Karen Attiah is an independent journalist and writer who served as the Washington Post’s founding Global Opi ...