Sushmita Pathak is a radio and print journalist from India. Her reporting centers around politics, culture, and science and has appeared in international media such as NPR, Foreign Policy, The Guardian, and National Geographic. Her work spans a variety of formats: magazine-style deep dives, sound-rich radio postcards, Instagram reels, and quick breaking news. Sushmita began her career interning at the live radio show Science Friday and at WNYC in New York before joining NPR’s Mumbai bureau. As a producer there, she covered Narendra Modi’s re-election in 2019, mass protests against him, and COVID-19's deadly toll in India.
Sushmita has been contributing to The Christian Science Monitor since 2022, debuting with a feature exploring the importance of marriage for India’s LGBTQ couples whose unions aren’t legally recognized. Sushmita has since written for the Monitor about India’s politics, its rise as a space power, and how it grapples with violence against women.
Growing up an avid reader, Sushmita always imagined herself as a storyteller of some sort, even dabbling in fiction writing, but found her calling in telling true stories. She has a master’s degree from Columbia Journalism School and a bachelor's degree in electronics engineering.
Stories by Sushmita Pathak
- The kids are all right: How rural India’s ‘goat nurses’ help animals – and themselves
- Why Bollywood is cranking out pro-government films ahead of India’s election
- Modi’s approach to welfare earns him votes, but does it help India?
- In India, what wreaks more havoc than floods and heat? Lightning.
- How lab-grown diamonds are reshaping this western India city
- View all