I’m a writer, editor, and digital strategist with 15 years of experience in media. Currently, I’m an editorial director at Mother Jones, where I’m cooking up a few special projects. More soon!

As a reporter, I’ve profiled Kamala Harris, Stacey Abrams, and mothers who’ve lost their children to gun violence. I’ve hosted podcasts and interviewed my favorite rappers. One time I went viral. I bonded with David Byrne over our shared love of biking around Manhattan. My deep dive on Jonestown brought together some of my favorite things: the spiritual search for belonging, San Francisco (my hometown), and Black people. I think that collective action during times of social unrest is fascinating — and often instructive. I love making new friends — and enemies — at the dog park.

At BuzzFeed News, I edited investigative stories on U.S. predation in Haiti, sexual harassment at the Smithsonian Institute, and people who fell through the cracks of the Chinese-American dream. I built out a successful direct sales infrastructure that included detailed sponsorship guidelines and innovative editorial sales packages before we all got fired. I’m really good at making spreadsheets.

At Mother Jones, I hosted an award-winning weekly news podcast and carved out a beat on Black women’s political power. On that beat, I profiled an Oakland housing activist named Carole Fife who won a seat on City Council, which was a National Magazine Award finalist.

I wrote about a lot at Mic, including Bill Cosby’s history of sexual assault. That eventually led to me writing the film treatment for Showtime’s We Need to Talk About Cosby, which earned four Emmy nominations and prominently features my DIY pandemic hair solutions. I’ve worked with W. Kamau Bell on Season 4 of CNN’s United Shades of America, which won an Emmy.

At Colorlines, I ran an arts and culture blog that was early to a lot of the names that would go on to define the 2010’s, including: Janelle Monáe, Issa Rae, and Linsanity.

My name is pronounced ja-mee-la. You can reach me at jamilah dot king at gmail dot com