Anand Giridharadas
Anand Giridharadas pushes beyond bandaid solutions to inequality.
MSNBC correspondent and NYT bestselling author of Winners Take All, Anand Giridharadas’s journalism sheds light on the origins of inequality and a path forward beyond bandaid solutions.
Raised in Indian immigrant parents in Ohio, Giridharadas’ expansive career began as a correspondent for The New York Times where he reported widely on international development and social change in India, culminating in his debut work on the region’s emerging middle class, India Calling: An Intimate Portrait of a Nation's Remaking (2009).
In 2018, Giridharadas published the New York Times bestseller, Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World, where he investigates the common blind spots and pitfalls of philanthropy that fail to grasp inequality at the root.
How do we turn outrage over inequality into hope, and divisiveness into solidarity? Giridharadas returned in 2022 with The Persuaders: At the Front Lines of the Fight for Hearts, Minds, and Democracy. Profiling door-knockers, activists, and political candidates across the country, Giridharadas shares a framework for how to build across political lines.
His latest book, Man in the Mirror: Hope, Struggle, and Belonging in an American City (September 2026), investigates the unjust tragedy of Jordan Neely, a homeless Michael Jackson impersonator who was killed by ex-Marine Daniel Penny on a New York City subway in 2023. Through unprecedented reporting, Giridharadas shows through detail and humanity how this incident is a mirror to the state of cruelty and political polarization of our country today.
In addition to his books, Giridharadas is a frequent television commentator and public speaker on networks such as MSNBC. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife, Priya Parker, and their two children.
Democracy is put into practice and through dialogue and meeting people with empathy. Giridharadas speaks on wealth inequality, political strategy, corporate responsibility, the art of communicating across differences that are less rigid than we believe.
“At the heart of The Persuaders is an immense spirit of generosity. With clarity and nuance, Anand Giridharadas paints portraits of people who are pushing the boundaries of traditional political paradigms, and whose work serves as a clarion call for all of us to imagine a new set of political possibilities. It is both a challenge and an affirmation. This is a guidebook to a better world.”
—Clint Smith, author of How the Word Is Passed
Azura Says
“Anand is the person I look to when I need to make sense of headlines. He reminds us of our own power when we think we don’t have it.”
Expertise
- Outspoken journalist political correspondent on wealth inequality
- Key speaker on persuasion and communication, workplace culture, corporate responsibility, and political movement building
- Shows how we surmount polarization and build across difference
Video Highlight
“I'm convinced there's a minority of people at least of rank and file people within some of the most powerful institutions in our age who know that they are part of a system that they can't defend and who want it to be different, but who are often isolated from each other, and don't quite know how to speak up.” —Anand Giridharadas, Google Talks