Variety's Ten Ten Storytellers of 2025

I just found out that I’ve been included on Variety’s list of “10 Storytellers to Watch” for 2025.  The list is Variety’s annual nod to creators across all kinds of media—novelists, playwrights, podcasters, composers—who are, in their words, “helping define the future of storytelling.”

The story is below…

Variety’s 10 Storytellers to Watch for 2025

Aug 13, 2025 8:00am PT

Jake Halpern

Throughout his career, Halpern has worked across various media, modes and genres to bring fiction and nonfiction stories to life. His debut book, “Braving Home,” explores eccentric American locales and the people who dwell there; his follow-up, “Bad Paper,” is a story about the Federal Trade Commission, Wall Street and debt collecting; and his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, “Welcome to the New World,” is a graphic novel about a refugee family in the New York Times that began as serialized cartoons. Halpern has also written young adult fiction, including the fantasy trilogy “Dormia” and the standalone novel “Nightfall,” which he co-authored with Peter Kujawinski.

As a journalist, he has written for the New York Times Magazine, the New Yorker, the Atlantic Monthly and the Wall Street Journal, among other publications, and has contributed to NPR’s “All Things Considered” and “This American Life.” His “Deep Cover” podcast — ranked as one of 2024’s 10 best by the New York TImes — shares stories from real-world people who lead double lives.

Informed by his relationships and travels, Halpern posits that “storytelling, at its heart, is fundamentally about connecting with other human beings and trying, even for a second, to see the world through their eyes and have a taste of their lived experience.”

Regarding his diversified portfolio, Halpern claims that working in new mediums challenges him to become a better storyteller. “The reason not to do it is because it’s humbling and because you inevitably aren’t very good at it when you start something new, but it’s been great for me,” he says. He also acknowledges the realities of being a storyteller in today’s mediascape, and that one has to adapt and embrace opportunities as they come to get the story out there.

Halpern is currently developing the seventh season of “Deep Cover,” writing a second graphic series for the New York Times and finishing up another young adult book with Kujawinski. He also teaches at Yale University, where he is a creative writing lecturer in the English department.

— Andrew McGowan