Josh Levin

About Me

I'm a senior editor at Slate in charge of the sports and technology sections. I've also written more than 200 articles for the magazine.

In 2009, I wrote a week-long series for Slate called "How Is America Going To End?" I'm also the host of "Hang Up and Listen", a weekly sports podcast featuring Stefan Fatsis and Mike Pesca.

Before I came to Slate I was an intern at Washington City Paper. (A bunch of my WCP stories are archived here.) I've also freelanced for the Atlantic, Sports Illustrated, Men's Health, the San Francisco Chronicle, and Play: The New York Times Sports Magazine.

I graduated from Brown University with degrees in computer science and history. I was born and raised in New Orleans, and I've lived in Washington, D.C. since 2002.

E-mail: josh at josh dash levin dot com
Twitter: @josh_levin

Culture

The Hardest-Working Hand in Show Business: How ventriloquist Jeff Dunham became the country’s most popular stand-up comedian. Slate, Feb. 18, 2009

Television Outside the Box: Are you ready for 3-D TV? The Atlantic, April 2009

AXXo You Are a God”: The secrets of BitTorrent’s top movie pirate. Slate, Nov. 11, 2008

Solitaire-y Confinement: Why we can’t stop playing a computerized card game. Slate, May 14, 2008

Meet the Charlatans: Another terrible spoof movie from the nongeniuses who brought you Date Movie and Epic Movie. Slate, Jan. 30, 2008

The Power and Glory of the Rocky Montage: A video slideshow. Slate, Dec. 21, 2006

Dead Run: How did movie zombies get so fast? Slate, Mar. 24, 2004

Sports

The Other Blind Sides: The Michael Oher story may have been amazing, but was it unique? Slate,

Bill Simmons: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut: The Sports Guy’s The Book of Basketball is a crude, fantastic mess. Slate, Nov. 11, 2009

Shake Me Down at the Ball Game: Modern parks make watching the national pastime a rich man’s pursuit. Sports Illustrated, June 23, 2008

Opening Soon: Rhinoceros Pines!: How to name your golf course. Play, March 2, 2008

What’s Wrong With Sports Illustrated: And how to fix it. Slate, Oct. 31, 2007

One Giant Lift for Mankind: The race for the 1,000-pound bench press. Slate, Aug. 9, 2004

Checkered Flag: Why flag football is America’s dirtiest college sport. Slate, Feb. 26, 2004

The R. Kelly Trial

Long Live the Little Man Defense!: How R. Kelly got off. Slate, June 13, 2008

The R. Kelly Trial: Week 2, featuring a visit to the log cabin, a call for a forensic hairstylist, and the ghost sex defense. Slate, June 3, 2008

The R. Kelly Trial: Week 1, featuring the Shaggy defense, the Little Man defense, and Sparkle. Slate, May 21, 2008

New Orleans

The Other Katrina Hospital Mystery: What that New York Times Magazine story missed about the Memorial Medical Center tragedy. Slate, Sept. 4, 2009

Dispatches From New Orleans: A year after Katrina, pieces on my family’s decision to stay in the city, Katrina humor, and anger in the Lower Ninth Ward. Slate, Aug. 29, 2006

Dispatches From New Orleans: Six months after Katrina, pieces on the mayoral race, my grandparents’ return to the city, and Antoinette K-Doe. Slate, April 18, 2006

Dispatches From New Orleans: A series of stories filed from the scene a week after Hurricane Katrina. The people who won’t evacuate, what the rescue workers find, what it smells like, and the holes in the house I grew up in. Slate, Sept. 8-12, 2005

Mourning My New Orleans: Our family has lived there for a century. Where will we go now? Slate, Aug. 31, 2005

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