Albert Samaha, New Arizona Fellow, is an investigative journalist at BuzzFeed News and author of two books. His latest book, Concepcion: An Immigrant Familyʼs Fortunes, was a finalist for the 2022 National Book Critics Circle Award in autobiography. His first book, Never Ran, Never Will: Boyhood and Football in a Changing American Inner City, was winner of the New York Society Libraryʼs 2019 Hornblower Award, a finalist for the 2019 PEN/ESPN Literary Sports Writing Award, and was adapted into the Netflix docuseries We Are: The Brooklyn Saints.
Samaha’s work has had significant public influence and has led to institutional change: his story on a narcotics unit in Mississippi spurred a police captainʼs resignation, his piece on a Bronx murder helped get a wrongfully convicted man freed from prison and his 2018 story about a teenager who accused two NYPD detectives of rape led Congress and six states to pass bills strengthening police sexual misconduct laws. In 2020, his reporting on the COVID-19 pandemic forced more than a dozen companies to implement additional safety protocols for food and retail workers. He is currently working on a book examining the root causes of wealth inequality through the experiences of service workers.
Selected Work
- How Amazon Exported American Working Conditions to Europe: An investigative piece for BuzzFeed News revealing how Amazon exported American working conditions to Europe by expanding into Poland, Czechia, and Slovakia after workers in Germany went on strike.
- After Working in Fast Food for 16 Years, She Went on Strike for the First Time: A BuzzFeed News story about long-time fast-food workers protesting labor conditions for the first time.
- Who Died for Your Dinner?: An investigation into COVID-19 outbreaks across the food supply chain for BuzzFeed News.
- Despite the New Coronavirus Law, Workers at These Big Companies Say They Still Must Work Sick or Lose Pay: A story about companies that declined to offer paid sick leave to its employees during the first year of the pandemic for BuzzFeed News.
- Starbucks Employees Got Sick. Starbucks Stores Stayed Open.: A story for BuzzFeed News about Starbucks workers getting sick in the early days of the pandemic.