Joshua Benjamin Levin (born March 15, 1980) is an American writer and the
national editor at
''Slate'' magazine. Levin also hosts the magazine's sports
podcast, ''
Hang Up and Listen
''Slate'' is an online magazine that covers current affairs, politics, and culture in the United States. It was created in 1996 by former '' New Republic'' editor Michael Kinsley, initially under the ownership of Microsoft as part of MSN. In 2 ...
.''
Biography
Early life
Levin was born and raised in
New Orleans, Louisiana. He attended
Brown University
Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...
, where he earned degrees in
computer science and
history.
Career
After graduating from Brown University, Levin began his
journalism career as an
intern at the ''
Washington City Paper'' in
Washington, D.C. He joined ''Slate'' in 2003, where he is currently national editor.
In addition to writing and editing, he also hosts ''Slate''s sports podcast ''Hang Up and Listen'' with the journalist
Stefan Fatsis
Stefan Fatsis (; born April 1, 1963) is an author and journalist. He regularly appears as a guest on National Public Radio's ''All Things Considered'' daily radio news program and as a panelist on Slate's sports podcast '' Hang Up and Listen''. ...
and Joel Anderson.
During
R. Kelly
Robert Sylvester Kelly (born January 8, 1967) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and sex offender convicted of racketeering and multiple sex offenses.
During his recording career, Kelly sold over 75 million records worldwid ...
's 2008 trial for child pornography, Levin coined the term "
Shaggy Defence" to describe the Kelly's lawyers. The term was based on
Shaggy
Shaggy may refer to:
People
*Shaggy (musician) (born 1968), Jamaican American reggae rapper and singer
*Shaggy 2 Dope, half of the hip hop, horrorcore band Insane Clown Posse
*Shaggy Flores (born 1973), Nuyorican poet, writer and African diaspora ...
's song "
It Wasn't Me" and its lyrics and, is used to describe denying an allegation, despite strong evidence to the contrary.
In 2013, for ''
Slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...
'', Levin wrote an article on
Linda Taylor, a woman that was dubbed by the ''
Chicago Tribune'' and
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...
as a "
welfare queen."
The article, which explored Taylor's history of criminal acts, some allegedly neglected by the authorities and more serious than those for which she was convicted,
was praised by media sources.
The ''
Washington Monthly'' described Levin's article as "the most fascinating true crime read of the year."
In 2019, Levin wrote ''The Queen: The Forgotten Life Behind an American Myth.'' The book expanded upon the life of Linda Taylor and her repeated acts of fraud and theft.
The book won the 2019
National Book Critics Circle Award (Biography). Levin also hosted the Slate podcast, ''The Queen'', a four-episode mini series about Linda Taylor and
Reagan Era politics, along with two bonus episodes.
Awards
*
Association of Alternative Newsweeklies' Media Reporting/Criticism Award in 2004 — for the article titled "Off Target", co-written with
Erik Wemple, published in the ''
Washington City Paper'' which helped to break the
Jayson Blair plagiarism
Plagiarism is the fraudulent representation of another person's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions as one's own original work.From the 1995 '' Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary'': use or close imitation of the language and thought ...
scandal.
References
External links
Official homepage*
1980 births
Living people
Writers from New Orleans
Brown University alumni
Slate (magazine) people
Journalists from Louisiana
American male journalists
21st-century American journalists
21st-century American male writers
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