Farai Chideya has covered the economy and jobs, politics, and race relations during her thirty year career as an award-winning journalist, author, professor, and speaker. With her deep knowledge of the future of work, politics, culture, and race, Chideya speaks on a range of topics: from unconscious bias, to media equity, to African American history and culture, and to motivational speeches about finding your right livelihood. She brings up issues that people find difficult to talk about in a way that encourages openness and new understandings within communities, campuses and workplaces.
Farai is the creator and host of “Our Body Politic,” a weekly sociopolitical audio show by and for women of color. This newly syndicated public radio show and podcast is unapologetically centered on reporting on not just how women of color experience the major political events of today, but how they're impacting those very issues.
In addition, Chideya is working on a new book that draws on her thirty year career as an award winning journalist. Based on her essay How We Save Our Body Politic: Reflections from a Black Female Journalist on America at the Precipice, her tell-all account will draw from her personal archives to demonstrate how media and institutional racism kept America in the blind spot of truth.
During the 2016 election she was a Senior Writer covering politics and data at ESPN's FiveThirtyEight, and a Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute.
She is the author of six books, including The Episodic Career: How to Thrive at Work in the Age of Disruption and The Color of Our Future, a deep dive into the changing racial demographics of this country from the perspective of young Americans.
Chideya frequently appears on public radio and cable television, and has worked for CNN, ABC, and NPR. She is also the former longtime host of NPR’s News & Notes. Currently, she serves as the Ford Foundation’s journalism program officer.
Chideya was raised in Baltimore, Maryland, with strong family ties to Zimbabwe. She graduated with a B.A. from Harvard University, where she was elected Chief Marshal, the highest honor accorded to a member of the graduating class at their 25th reunion. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.