David Lepeska

Following internships at three New York City newspapers and UN Headquarters, David Lepeska moved halfway around the world for his first full-time reporting job, with Srinagar-based Kashmir Observer. In nearly two decades since he has reported from more than a dozen countries and contributed to The New York Times, Financial Times, Economist, Atlantic, Monocle, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Guardian, Newlines and other top outlets.

In April 2016, the Turkish government kicked David out of the country and labelled him a national security threat in response to his report on the state’s military aggressions against Kurds. David served for two years as an editor and podcaster for Turkey-focused Ahval News and has written a weekly column for Abu Dhabi-based The National since late 2020.

These days he continues his freelance reporting while serving as editorial advisor to business leaders and media ventures and editing top-selling books like Cynthia Watson and Shane Spraggs’ The Power of Remote and Saqib Qureshi’s The Broken Contract. He was until recently based in Kyiv, reporting on the Russian invasion while polishing his first book, the bestselling Desiccated Land.