Hi there!

I’m Amanda Chicago Lewis. I mostly report and write long, magazine-style stories. I’ve also worked as a producer on documentaries for MTV and CNN.

I’m particularly interested in accessible and fun stories about systems, people, and power. I’ve covered everything from manipulated Google results to hush money in Hollywood to the intractable bureaucracy at the Department of Homeland Security. I’ve written a lot about cannabis, as it relates to policy, politics, science, economics, culture, criminal justice, and public health. I used to write a column for Rolling Stone, and before that, I was a national reporter at BuzzFeed News. I’ve also written for GQ, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, WIRED, The Verge, California Sunday, POLITICO magazine, The New Republic, The Guardian, The Awl, and the LA Weekly. I’ve appeared on NPR’s All Things Considered, KCRW's Good Food, NPR's 1A, KPCC’s Air Talk with Larry Mantle, and Viceland’s Bong Appetit, among others.

In 2014, I tracked down the guy that stole the Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee sex tape from their house, proving for the first time the tape had not been released by the couple as a PR stunt. The Hulu series “Pam and Tommy” is based on my article.

This one time I was on TV in Japan.  When they cut back to the studio, the news anchor said he thought I looked like Cher.