Oregon Humanities Consider This: Eli Saslow

The Archive Project

This episode features a timely, difficult, yet hopeful conversation featuring journalist Eli Saslow.

Saslow lives in Portland and is a writer at large for the New York Times. He travels the country to write in-depth stories about the impact of major national issues on individual lives. He has twice been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his reporting, as well as the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and other honors. He is the author of three books: Voices from the Pandemic, Rising Out of Hatred, and Ten Letters.

Much of Saslow’s recent reporting has focused on drug addiction, homelessness, and mental health crises in cities across the country. In this conversation with Oregon Humanities executive director Adam Davis, Saslow digs into how these intersecting challenges show up in Portland and why they are so difficult to address.

This conversation is part of Oregon Humanities Consider This series, an annual series of onstage conversations presented in Portland and around the state.

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Eli Saslow is a national reporter for the New York Times. His recent reporting has focused on homelessness, inequality, and opioid addiction in Arizona, California, and Oklahoma. In his Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage for The Washington Post, Eli Saslow reveals the human stories behind the most divisive issues of our time. From racism and poverty to addiction and mass shootings, Saslow’s work uncovers the impact of major national issues on individuals and families.

Saslow won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Reporting for a series of stories about food stamps and food insecurity in the United States. Collected into the book American Hunger, his stories were praised as “unsettling and nuanced…forcing readers to grapple with issues of poverty and dependency.” Saslow was also named one of three finalists for the Pulitzer Prize in Feature Writing in 2013, 2016 and 2017. His stories in The Washington Post have been recognized with a George Polk Award, a PEN Literary Award, a James Beard Award, and other honors.

A 2004 graduate of Syracuse University, he now lives in Portland, Oregon, with his wife and three children.