Elana Gordon is a journalist and audio producer at The Washington Post.
Prior, she was a global health reporter at The World, a national radio program from GBH and PRX, where she also moderated an online discussion series that garnered millions of views during the COVID-19 pandemic, in collaboration with Harvard’s T.H. Chan School School of Public Health.
In 2018, she was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT. At Philadelphia’s NPR-affiliate WHYY, she helped launch the weekly health and science show The Pulse, telling stories about everything from confusing medical bills to drugs to the mystery surrounding a 19th century horse thief. Her beat reporting in the newsroom earned a 2018 regional Edward R. Murrow Award for ongoing coverage of Philadelphia’s overdose crisis.
Elana got her start in journalism in the Midwest, reporting for Kansas City’s public radio station, KCUR. Her news stories and audio documentaries have been featured on NPR, 99% Invisible, Criminal, the Atlantic, and Kaiser Health News. She has received multiple Regional Edward R. Murrow and national Public Media Journalism Association awards.
In 2017, she was a featured artist at the Megapolis Audio Festival, where she co-produced a sonic mushroom forage through Philadelphia’s urban forest and Russian diaspora. She is also the creator and host of a popular Atlas Obscura walk about the history of plagues and medicine.
Prior to journalism, Elana was a prevention specialist and HIV counselor at one of the nation’s largest free health clinics, located in Kansas City. She holds a dual degree in music and political science from Barnard College. It was there that she first caught the radio bug as an occasional late night music host for WKCR's In All Languages.
Email: elana.m.gordon at gmail dot com
Twitter: @elana_gordon