Laura Flanders (born 5 December 1961) is an English broadcast journalist living in the United States who presents the weekly, long-form interview show The Laura Flanders Show. Flanders has described herself as a "lefty person". The brothers Alexander, Andrew Cockburn and Patrick Cockburn, all journalists, are her half-uncles. Author Lydia Davis is her half-aunt. Her sister is Stephanie Flanders, a former BBC journalist. Actress Olivia Wilde is her cousin.
Flanders hosted the weekday radio show Your Call on KALW, before starting the Saturday/Sunday evening Laura Flanders Show on Air America Radio in 2004. It became the weekly one-hour Radio Nation in 2007, and a daily TV show on Free Speech TV, "GRITtv with Laura Flanders" in 2008. That show aired for three years on Free Speech TV before moving to KCET/Linktv and teleSUR, as a weekly program. Flanders is a contributing writer for The Nation, and Yes Magazine and has also contributed to In These Times, The Progressive and Ms., magazine.
She has authored six books, including Blue Grit: True Democrats Take Back Politics from the Politicians (Penguin Press 2007); Bushwomen: Tales of a Cynical Species (Verso, 2004), a study of the women in George W. Bush's cabinet; and a collection of essays, Real Majority, Media Minority: The Cost of Sidelining Women in Reporting (1997). She edited " At the Tea Party...." (O/R Books 2010) and The W Effect: Sexual Politics in the Age of Bush (2004) and contributed to The Contenders, (Seven Stories, 2008) among others.
The show originally aired weekly on Free Speech TV and Telesur. In 2018, it became a coproduction of CUNY TV.
In 2019, The Laura Flanders Show was picked up for distribution by American Public Television, and in 2020, began airing on PBS stations across the United States, including in 20 of the country's top 25 television markets.
Flanders currently resides in Smallwood, New York.
+ ! Award ! Year !Organization | ||
Lannan Cultural Freedom Fellowship for her work in independent media | 2019 | Lannan Foundation |
Pat Mitchell Lifetime Achievement Award | 2019 | Women's Media Center |
Urban Journalist of the Year | 2019 | City Limits |
Izzy Award for outstanding achievement in independent media | 2019 | Park Center for Independent Media |
Most Valuable Multimedia Maker | 2018 | The Nation Magazine's 2018 Progressive Honor Roll |
Communicator of the Year | 2013 | NY Metro Labor Press Council |
Stonewall Award | 2013 | Stonewall Community Foundation |
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