Vandana Menon: Some Stories Deserve More Than Headlines [Journalist The Print, Ramnath Goenka Winner, India]

 Vandana Menon Interview

“The most consequential decisions are made at the intersections of power, identity, and geopolitics.”

Through rigorous longform journalism, Vandana Menon uncovers the deeper structural forces shaping politics, culture, and society, connecting policy with its often-hidden human cost.

 

Q. Your reporting spans politics, culture, diplomacy, and South Asia. How do you choose stories that move beyond headlines and reveal deeper structural truths?

As an independent reporter, I choose stories based on what interests me personally — usually from observations I might have made on the ground, or interesting conversations that leave us with unanswered questions. Working in a newsroom keeps you pegged to the news cycle, so the stories I worked on typically tried to take breaking news stories a few steps further.

Q. You've worked across ThePrint, Scroll, The Juggernaut, and now independently. How has each newsroom shaped your voice as a longform journalist?

ThePrint definitely shaped my voice as a longform journalist the most, because it was both where I started my career and then returned to work at as a longform journalist. I was very lucky to work in a newsroom full of seasoned journalists and excellent storytellers, and under leadership that was willing to invest in ground reporting. I worked for The Juggernaut briefly while I was based in the US, where I wrote their weekly newsletter, and freelanced for Scroll.

Q. Your work often explores power, identity, and geopolitics. What draws you most to these intersections?

I think identity is an important and overlooked unit of geopolitical analysis. We tend to study foreign policy at the level of states and diplomats, trade deals and border disputes — but often don’t think about how a border dispute determines whether a family can access a market, or whether a community's history gets erased. I think the most consequential decisions are made at the intersections of power, identity and geopolitics, and that’s often where their human cost is most obscured.

Q. Winning the Ramnath Goenka Award and ACJ Award signals both impact and credibility. How do you balance rigorous reporting with compelling storytelling?

I don’t necessarily think rigorous reporting and compelling stories are at odds with each other. The most compelling stories I've told have been the most rigorously reported ones, because the material is richer, and the access is deeper. Of course, the reporting always comes first — and plays a role in narrating the story in a compelling and engaging manner because it makes the reporting sharper.

Q. In an age of shrinking attention spans, why does longform journalism still matter, and how do you keep readers engaged?

Longform matters because attention is scarce, and because some stories deserve to be told in a nuanced way. I also think in the age of AI, where a machine can easily tell you the “who what where why” of a story, longform journalism gives both the reporter and reader the space to sink their teeth into the details of a story. I tend to spend the most time on the first 500 words of a story: I’m happy if I can keep the reader engaged for even 90 seconds. It’s a win if I can hook their attention and convince them to read further.

Q. As someone reporting on politically sensitive issues, how do you navigate pressure, polarization, and the risks that come with difficult stories?

I just try to cover all my bases, and think of the story from as many angles as possible. And I try not to stray from the larger point of the story — plus, capturing nuance accurately solves most problems.

Q. Having studied at the University of Pennsylvania and reported extensively from India, how has your global exposure influenced your understanding of South Asian narratives?

At Penn I studied history and anthropology, which are essentially tools for reading the present through the past and for understanding the complexities of different human cultures. Plus, going to grad school and studying abroad gave me a lot of exposure to the world. This global exposure helped me look at South Asia and South Asian narratives from a different vantage position, giving me a comparative lens to the world.

Q. If you could spend one week shadowing any political leader, diplomat, or cultural icon — purely as a reporter — who would it be and why?

This is a really tough one. I can think of so many interesting people I’d love to shadow, just to understand why they do what they do. I really love writing profiles because I enjoy getting to know people and what makes them tick — I’m also very nosy and always want to know things like how people spend their days and what they watch on their phone. As of right now, as a reporter, I’d love to spend a week with maybe someone like JD Vance or Marco Rubio, just to understand what it’s like working for someone with as strong a cult of personality like Trump. Same goes for spending a week with Amit Shah or even someone like Piyush Goyal as they work for Modi.

Bio:

Vandana Menon is an award-winning Indian journalist known for long-form reporting, investigative storytelling, and socially impactful journalism. She has built a strong reputation through nuanced coverage of politics, society, gender, culture, and underreported narratives, with a particular strength in deeply researched feature writing.

Achievements:

• Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism (2021)
• ACJ Award for Social Impact (2025)
• Recognized for powerful narrative journalism and public-interest reporting
• Noted for producing deeply researched stories with social, political, and cultural relevance
• Alumna of prestigious journalism and academic institutions including Pulitzer Center and University of Pennsylvania programs

Previous media houses and affiliations:

• ThePrint
• India’s World magazine
• Pulitzer Center collaborations
• Various public-interest and long-form journalism platforms

Professional strengths:

• Investigative reporting
• Long-form journalism
• Social impact storytelling
• Political and cultural analysis
• Feature writing

Vandana’s work is distinguished by intellectual depth, rigorous reporting, and a focus on stories that connect policy, people, and power. She is regarded as an influential voice in contemporary Indian journalism, particularly in explanatory and narrative reporting.

 

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Interview by: Abhisek Rath