Ian Urbina

Biography

An investigative reporter who writes mostly for The New York Times and is a regular contributor to The Atlantic Magazine, National Geographic, NPR, Vanity Fair, and C-SPAN, Ian has earned numerous awards for his work, including a Pulitzer Prize. Several of his investigative stories have been converted into major motion pictures. In 2019, he published The Outlaw Ocean, a New York Times best-selling book about lawlessness are sea. The movie and tv rights to the book were purchased by Netflix and Leonardo DiCaprio.

During more than 5 years reporting at sea, Ian created a sound archive derived of field recordings from his reporting and consisting of rich and interesting sounds including machine-gun fire in Somalia and chanting sea slaves on The South China Sea. Ian then created The Outlaw Ocean Music Project in which he invited artists from around the world ranging in genre from classical piano and hip hop to electronic and ambient to use the sound archive to make music inspired by the characters, settings, issues and emotions in the book. Hundreds of musicians from dozens of countries did just that. The Outlaw Ocean Music playlist can be found on his Spotify.

Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.