Welcome to The Radicalist, a newsletter on political extremism, philosophy, and history. Here you’ll find news analysis, interviews, essays, and more. All opinions here are strictly my own or those of my guests.
My name is David Josef Volodzko and I am a Russo-Caribbean dvaryak who grew up in the Bahamas and the American South. My childhood was a mix of conch salad, white sands, Junkanoo—and cornbread, porch swings, bourbon, and bluegrass. I studied English literature as an undergrad and human behavior as a grad student. I then spent most of my adult life in Asia—four years in Japan, six in South Korea, three in China, one across Southeast Asia, and two in India and Nepal. I have also lived in Denmark, Israel, and Peru. In all, I have visited almost 50 countries and speak half a dozen languages or more, depending on how you count.
Along the way, I’ve had more than a few adventures—interrogated by Vietnamese soldiers, shot at by Peruvian military while conducted anthropological research in the Andes, lived homeless on the streets of Mumbai, traveled rural Mongolia by motorbike where I was attacked by wolves, shot at by border guards after illegally entering Russia, camped with Berbers in the Sahara, fished with an Amazon tribe, and studied at Shaolin temples in the remotest parts of China.
In a former life, I was a professor of English, logic, debate, and rhetoric. I moved to journalism and have spent my career since covering politics and economics, with an emphasis on Asia and authoritarianism. I am formerly the China writer for The Diplomat, national editor at Korea Joongang Daily (the New York Times sister paper in South Korea), U.S. correspondent for NK News (the leading news outlet on North Korea), Korea correspondent for South China Morning Post (China’s top news source), and senior editor at the financial analysis outlet Brightwire, where my subject matter expertise included China’s regulatory crackdowns, energy shortages in key Asian markets, and Brazil’s Lava Jato scandal.
When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, I hopped a flight to Europe to cover the war and wrote several stories, including one for New York Magazine about a therapist who used confidence training over the phone to help save the life of a Ukrainian woman and her family. I also recently covered the genocide in Ethiopia for The Nation, and my essay became the most viral report on the issue to date.
Upon moving back the States for the first time in almost 20 years, I took a job as editorial board member and columnist at The Seattle Times—but was fired less than two months later after an online mob falsely accused me of being a Nazi and a Holocaust denier. My good friend Vladislav Davidzon wrote about the ordeal for Tablet magazine in a piece titled “Hitler and The Seattle Times,” and I later wrote an essay about the experience for The Free Press. I have since profiled the Oakland activist Seneca Scott and the veteran neo-Nazi hunter Kris Goldsmith for The Free Press, and have expounded on my controversial argument regarding Lenin for Konstantin Kisin.
I am now a writer and senior editor at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), where I proudly spend my days using my skills and experience to defend free speech rights for Americans, regardless of their political beliefs. I live in Washington, D.C. with my wife and daughter, and when I’m not working on this blog, my hobbies include Olympic weightlifting, chess, combat sports, cooking, dancing salsa, psychological science, watching movies, and keeping my languages fresh.
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