Leon Neyfakh (born 1985) is an American journalist, radio host and writer. He is known for hosting the

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...

s '' Slow Burn'' and ''

Fiasco Fiasco may refer to: * a failure or humiliating situation * Fiasco (bottle), a traditional Italian straw-covered wine bottle often associated with Chianti wine Media * ''Fiasco'' (novel), a 1987 science-fiction novel by Stanisław Lem * ''F ...

'', and his book '' The Next Next Level: A Story of Rap, Friendship, and Almost Giving Up''.

Early life and education

Neyfakh was born in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

and raised in

Oak Park, Illinois Oak Park is a village in Cook County, Illinois, adjacent to Chicago. It is the 29th-most populous municipality in Illinois with a population of 54,583 as of the 2020 U.S. Census estimate. Oak Park was first settled in 1835 and later incorporated in ...

. Both of his parents are

Russian Jews The history of the Jews in Russia and areas historically connected with it goes back at least 1,500 years. Jews in Russia have historically constituted a large religious and ethnic diaspora; the Russian Empire at one time hosted the largest pop ...

who immigrated to the United States when Neyfakh was a child.The Impulsive Life Not Chosen
''The New Yorker'' He graduated from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

in 2007 with an

A.B. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

in history and literature.LEON NEYFAKH OF SLOW BURN PODCAST TO DISCUSS COVERING WATERGATE FOUR DECADES LATER
Manhattan College During his time there, he wrote for its student newspaper, ''

The Harvard Crimson ''The Harvard Crimson'' is the student newspaper of Harvard University and was founded in 1873. Run entirely by Harvard College undergraduates, it served for many years as the only daily newspaper in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Beginning in the f ...

''.

Career

Neyfakh is best known for creating and hosting ''

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. ...

''s podcast '' Slow Burn'', which has covered American political scandals. The first season of the podcast was about the

Watergate scandal The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon from 1972 to 1974 that led to Nixon's resignation. The scandal stemmed from the Nixon administration's continual ...

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

, and the second season covered the

Lewinsky scandal Monica Samille Lewinsky (born July 23, 1973) is an American activist and writer. President Bill Clinton admitted to having an affair with Lewinsky while she worked at the White House as an intern in 1995 and 1996. The affair, and its repercus ...

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

. Before joining ''Slate'', Neyfakh worked for the ''

Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

'' as the Ideas staff, and was a reporter for the ''

New York Observer New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

''. He has also written for ''

The FADER ''The Fader'' (stylized as ''FADER'') is a magazine based in New York City that was launched in 1999 by Rob Stone and Jon Cohen. The magazine covers music, style and culture. It was the first print publication to be released on iTunes. It is o ...

'', ''

The New Republic ''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hum ...

'', and

Rollingstone.com ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

. Neyfakh also wrote a book titled ''

The Next Next Level ''The Next Next Level: A Story of Rap, Friendship, and Almost Giving Up'' is a book by Leon Neyfakh about rapper Juiceboxxx Juiceboxxx is an American rapper, producer, and label-owner based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Music Juiceboxxx released h ...

: A Story of Rap, Friendship, and Almost Giving Up'', about

Juiceboxxx Juiceboxxx is an American rapper, producer, and label-owner based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Music Juiceboxxx released his first album in 2005: ''R U There God?? Itz Me Juiceboxxx'' on Vicious Pop Records. In 2010, Juiceboxxx released two mixtap ...

, a rapper from

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

. In November 2018, Neyfakh announced on Twitter that he was leaving ''Slate'' to write and host his new podcast, ''FIASCO'', which is offered exclusively on the Luminary podcast platform. The first season focused on the Bush vs. Gore legal battle, and the second is centered around the

Iran–Contra affair The Iran–Contra affair ( fa, ماجرای ایران-کنترا, es, Caso Irán–Contra), often referred to as the Iran–Contra scandal, the McFarlane affair (in Iran), or simply Iran–Contra, was a political scandal in the United States ...

. In February 2019, it was announced that

Epix Epix (pronounced ''epics'' and stylized as P) is an American premium cable and satellite television network owned by the Epix Entertainment LLC subsidiary of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), a subsidiary of Amazon's MGM Holdings, Inc. The channel's pr ...

would release a six-part

docu-series Television documentaries are televised media productions that screen documentaries. Television documentaries exist either as a television documentary series or as a television documentary film. *Television documentary series, sometimes called d ...

inspired by ''Slow Burn'' with Neyfakh as host. The series was set to premiere on February 16, 2020. The third season of ''FIASCO'' is centered on the Boston busing crisis of the 1970s, and was released in August 2020, during the ongoing

George Floyd protests The George Floyd protests were a series of protests and civil unrest against police brutality and racism that began in Minneapolis on May 26, 2020, and largely took place during 2020. The civil unrest and protests began as part of internati ...

. When asked about how Americans can actively and effectively engage in the topic of race, Neyfakh said: "I think there should be more recognition on the part of white people like me that believing in equality usually means giving something up. In the new season of ''Fiasco'', listeners will hear a lot of white voices saying they believe in integration and equality but not in “busing” because it’s not fair to force white children into worse schools. The thing is, as he journalistNikole Hannah-Jones has written, busing is the most immediate method of desegregating schools and making them equal. Of course someone has to give something up." The fourth season of Fiasco was released in 2021. The season is centered around the

2012 Benghazi attack The 2012 Benghazi attack was a coordinated attack against two Federal government of the United States, United States government facilities in Benghazi, Benghazi, Libya, by members of the Islamic militant group Ansar al-Sharia (Libya), Ansar al ...

and the political scandal that followed. In early 2020, a new podcast called '' 5-4'' was launched, for which Neyfakh provides introductions to the individual episodes and has editorial oversight. The podcast focuses on U.S. Supreme Court cases and how they impact life and liberty of Americans.

Personal life

Neyfakh is married to Alice Gregory, a

freelance journalist ''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance w ...

. The couple live in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, New York City, and have a black toy poodle named Mickey.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Neyfakh, Leon Living people Harvard University alumni Harvard College alumni Soviet emigrants to the United States Slate (magazine) people Journalists from Illinois 1985 births