Daniel G. Alarcón

Daniel Alarcón is an associate professor of journalism at Columbia Journalism School and the host of Radio Ambulante, an award-winning Spanish-language podcast distributed by NPR. Radio Ambulante uses long-form audio journalism to tell neglected and under-reported Latin American and Latino stories.

He began working as a journalist in 2004, first in print for Latin American outlets such as Etiqueta Negra, and later for American and European publications including Harper’s, the New York Times Magazine, El País, and Granta, where he was named a Contributing Editor in 2010. Alarcón’s long-form journalism has included deeply reported pieces focusing mainly on Peru, the country where he was born, with topics ranging from the rise of the new nationalist left, the book piracy industry, and the emerging democracy inside Lima’s most notorious prison, Lurigancho. He has also written short stories, graphic novels, and novels.

Alarcón graduated from Columbia University in 1999 with a BA in Anthropology; he earned an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Iowa in 2004. In 2021, he was named a MacArthur Fellow.