Alan Minsky
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Alan Minsky | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1965 (age 60–61) Berkeley, California, U.S. |
| Education | Yale University |
| Occupation | Executive Director of the Progressive Democrats of America |
Alan Minsky (born August 5, 1965) is the executive director of Progressive Democrats of America (PDA).[1] Before joining PDA in 2018, Minsky worked as a political journalist with Pacifica Radio, wrote a series of books on American sports history, and published articles on both politics and sports.
Alan Minsky is the son of economist Hyman Minsky.[2] Born in Berkeley, California, on August 5, 1965, Minsky was raised in St. Louis, Missouri, other than the years he spent in Cambridge England (1969–70) and Rome Italy (1978–79) when his father was on sabbatical from Washington University.
Minsky attended Yale University as an undergraduate where he was one of six students arrested protesting the CIA in a celebrated case that came to be known as the "CIA Six." The group was ultimately let off with a slap on the wrist. Minsky graduated from Yale in 1988.[3]
Sports writing and journalism
In the decade after college, Minsky authored three books on American sports history: Home Run Kings, Kings of the Court, and March to the Finals. His fourth book, A Game for All Races, was published under a pseudonym, Henry Metcalfe.
Minsky was one of the founding members of LA Indymedia in 2000.[4] This launched his career as a political journalist.
He was hired as Senior Producer at KPFK Pacifica Radio Los Angeles in 2003, a position he held until becoming the station's interim Program Director in early 2009. He remained in this role until 2018, becoming the station's longest serving Program Director.
During his tenure at Pacifica, he frequently produced national political coverage, and was the coordinator of national programming from 2015 through 2018. In 2011, he wrote a long internal memo, entitled Building a Powerful Pacifica, that proposed many changes for the troubled radio network. The document became a rallying point for many of the network's supporters. An updated version of the memo was published in full by Truthdig in 2014.[5]
Minsky launched many notable shows during his time at KPFK, including the Ralph Nader Radio Hour, The Jimmy Dore Show, Axis of Justice (with Tom Morello and Serj Tankian) and Think Outside the Cage. He remains the producer or Executive Producer for four podcasts he started: The Nation Magazine's Start Making Sense, Jacobin Magazine's Jacobin Radio, The Los Angeles Review of Books' LARB Radio Hour, and the Ralph Nader Radio Hour.
Over the past 25 years, Minsky has written dozens of articles for Truthdig, The Nation, Common Dreams, and other outlets.