About Sonia

Sonia Shah is an acclaimed investigative journalist and author who specializes in writing about science, international politics, and the relationship between humans and animals. Her lifelong interest in social and economic inequality stems from her childhood, where she often traveled between the northeastern U.S., where her parents worked as doctors, and India, where her extended family lived. Sonia is known for her deep research, which often includes extensive, on-the-ground reporting from around the globe. Her critically praised books include The Fever: How Malaria Has Ruled Humankind for 500,000 Years (2010), which involved five years of reporting in Africa and Central America, and Pandemic: Tracking Contagions, from Cholera to Ebola and Beyond (2016), which was a finalist for several major book prizes. Her most recent work is the highly-regarded book, The Next Great Migration: The Beauty and Terror of Life on the Move (2020). This book explores how migration—for both humans and animals—is a natural, necessary response to survival and a vital part of life on Earth. Sonia’s articles have been featured in top publications like The New York Times Magazine and The New Yorker, and she is a popular public speaker. She was recently recognized as a 2024 Guggenheim Fellow and has been a frequent grantee of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, continuing her important work challenging common ideas about health, science, and the world.