The New York Times: Livia Albeck-Ripka joins Express in California

Livia Albeck-Ripka

I have some great news. Livia Albeck-Ripka, who has reported for The Times in various roles for several years, including a five-month temporary stint on Express this year, will be joining the newsroom permanently, reporting for the team from California. Livia has already contributed much to The Times. She was a fellow on the Climate desk here in New York, a reporter in the Australia bureau and a freelancer for various desks out West. Her work has been featured on The Daily and The New York Times Presents, our documentary series, and throughout the newspaper. She has a B.A. from the University of Melbourne, and a master’s from Columbia’s journalism school.

“I’ve written stories about everything from Maine’s lobstermen to Byron Bay’s ‘Hot Instagrammers’ and California’s water witches,’ she said. “In early 2020, I spent weeks reporting on Australia’s devastating wildfires, and in 2019, in a two-part series for “The Daily,” told the story of a father desperately trying to get his daughter, a former ISIS bride, home from Syria.”

In 2018, she was awarded a Rosalynn Carter Mental Health Journalism Fellowship for her writing on mental health. She has also written for The Atlantic, National Geographic, VICE Magazine, Quartz and The Outline. In 2014, she was awarded a residency at Fabrica, a creative studio in Italy, where she worked on narrative projects and wrote for COLORS magazine. “And ate a lot of tiramisu,” she adds.

On Express so far this year, she has covered heat waves (including the effect on UPS drivers without air-conditioning), the red tide, interesting legislation about rap lyrics, an overrun California city contemplating the mass slaughter of geese, a purloined Churchill photo, more floods and fatal wildfires, and, yes, fish falling from the sky. Lots of fish. She has also done stints on live briefings about the coronavirus pandemic, the war in Ukraine and, most recently, Hurricane Ian.