Robert Samuels
newsbysamuels.bsky.social
Robert Samuels
@newsbysamuels.bsky.social
National Enterprise Reporter, The Washington Post. Co-author of “His Name is George Floyd,” a 2023 Pulitzer Prize winner & 2022 finalist for the National Book Award. WaPo Figure skating analyst. former NYer staff writer, Medill and Miami Herald alum.
Reposted by Robert Samuels
Join us next week for our special @litquake.org installment of Movie Night at Roxie Theater with @ingridrojasc.bsky.social + @newsbysamuels.bsky.social

Tickets: tinyurl.com/mry3xe93
October 8, 2025 at 9:41 PM
Reposted by Robert Samuels
🧵 (3/3) Dayton Literary Peace Prize hosts a special event with DLPP honorees @vluck89.bsky.social‬, @newsbysamuels.bsky.social, @gilbertking.bsky.social. @corinnabarrettlain.bsky.social speaks in Montgomery, AL. William & Phillip Taubman launch McNamara at War with a virtual talk at 92NY.
September 3, 2025 at 12:00 AM
Reposted by Robert Samuels
Phenomenal reporting on how D.C.’s failure to curb truancy fueled a surge in youth crime, by @newsbysamuels.bsky.social @lauren-lumpkin11.bsky.social and @Jdharden.bsky.social no paywall: wapo.st/4432CV3
How D.C.’s failure to curb truancy fueled a surge in youth crime
District leaders linked school attendance to crime, but failure to reduce absenteeism in middle schools yielded the biggest youth crime surge in a generation.
wapo.st
June 9, 2025 at 10:19 PM
Reposted by Robert Samuels
Last school year, 30% of D.C. middle-schoolers — or five times more than a decade ago — were truant. See how empty desks — and the city's failed attempts to curb the problem — fueled the district's youth crime wave. By @jdharden.bsky.social, @newsbysamuels.bsky.social & Lauren Lumpkin:
How D.C.'s failure to curb truancy fueled a surge in youth crime
District leaders linked school attendance to crime, but failure to reduce absenteeism in middle schools yielded the biggest youth crime surge in a generation.
www.washingtonpost.com
June 9, 2025 at 3:27 PM
Amidst platitudes about how the District needed more afterschool programs, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser declared that every student needs an afterschool program. Then she cut the afterschool budget by $1 million. One of the jaw dropping parts of this story done by me and my colleagues: wapo.st/4432CV3
How D.C.'s failure to curb truancy fueled a surge in youth crime
District leaders linked school attendance to crime, but failure to reduce absenteeism in middle schools yielded the biggest youth crime surge in a generation.
wapo.st
June 9, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Pessimism is the ultimate American privilege. It is the feeling held most easily by those whose lives would still be functional, and maybe even satisfactory, if nothing changed.
#georgefloyd #memorialday
May 26, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Reposted by Robert Samuels
As we are remembering George Floyd, I highly recommend the Pulitzer Prize winning His Name is George Floyd by @newsbysamuels.bsky.social and Toluse Olorunnipa. So powerful.
www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/703358...
His Name Is George Floyd (Pulitzer Prize Winner) by Robert Samuels, Toluse Olorunnipa: 9780593490822 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books
WINNER OF THE 2023 PULITZER PRIZE IN NONFICTION WINNER OF THE DAYTON LITERARY PEACE PRIZE FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD AND LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE; FINALIST FOR THE J. ANTHONY LUKAS PRIZE...
www.penguinrandomhouse.com
May 25, 2025 at 12:04 PM
Reposted by Robert Samuels
@newsbysamuels.bsky.social I am watching your talk at Westminster Forum on May 15 in Minneapolis😢 So moving is your story from your book “His Name is George Floyd” We all have grief in our hearts from losing loved ones like George Floyd. He is resurrected by your story. Bless You.
May 19, 2025 at 10:55 PM
Reposted by Robert Samuels
Next week is 5 years since George Floyd was murdered. On Tuesday, I listened to @newsbysamuels.bsky.social talk about the process of writing his (co-authored) Pulitzer Prize-winning book, His Name Is George Floyd. What a truly meaningful experience to learn of Floyd's *life.* What a story. #floyd
May 15, 2025 at 4:49 PM
I will follow Alex anywhere!
May 12, 2025 at 9:41 PM
That she did it with joy and exuberance was such a good look for the sport. Her interaction with Sakamoto at the end was such a departure from what we saw at the 2022 Olympics, when the pressure, the cheating and the vitriol of the Russian figure skating program clouded the sport’s innate radiance.
Alysa Liu USA
2A, 3Lz3T, 3S, 3Lo, 3Lz2A2T, 3F2T, 2A
everything level 4
TES 78.27, PCS 70.12, FS 148.39, TOTAL 222.97 into 1st - first American woman to win Worlds since 2006
bit.ly/41NOkXl #WorldFigure
March 29, 2025 at 2:56 AM
I WILL BE GETTING NO SLEEP #worldfigure THIS IS AMAZING
March 29, 2025 at 1:51 AM
I’m on paternity leave so I couldn’t make it to Boston for #worldfigure #WorldFigure2025 but, my goodness, this competition is so riveting ! Edge of my seat going into this last skate.
March 29, 2025 at 1:44 AM
I’ve posted a few reasons why jurors concluded Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd. I conducted hundreds of interviews, watched the criminal trial, read a ton of research for a an award-winning book I wrote. I posted on C because it’s where this is proliferating and I can’t figure out how to copy
Robert Samuels on X: "As a journalist who has conducted hundreds of interviews and read tons of articles about George Floyd, leading up to an award-winning book about his life and legacy, I can offer some insight on the arguments to pardon Derek Chauvin, which are based on misinformation." / X
As a journalist who has conducted hundreds of interviews and read tons of articles about George Floyd, leading up to an award-winning book about his life and legacy, I can offer some insight on the arguments to pardon Derek Chauvin, which are based on misinformation.
x.com
March 4, 2025 at 6:47 PM
Me, as he came out: That’s not really Ilia Kulik, right?
Me, after he takes four strides on the ice: That is definitely Ilia Kulik!
Nearly four decades after winning his gold medal, Kulik is still skating with great speed and that youthful bounce. #legacyonice
March 2, 2025 at 8:58 PM
This afternoon, figure skaters will honor the 67 victims who died in the American Eagle flight 5342 plane crash at #legacyonice. I am resharing this piece I wrote about what that crash taught people about the nature of life and the nature of their sport:
Circles of life
When a week of jubilation turned tragic, generations of figure skaters discovered something new about the nature of their sport.
wapo.st
March 2, 2025 at 2:48 PM
Every American gold medalist in figure skating is on a group text together. When I called to make sure it was true because Tenley Albright is 89, I was told she is one of the most active members! This was a bright tidbit in this story about the AA crash. Which I hope you’ll read: wapo.st/4gy6hNI
Circles of life
When a week of jubilation turned tragic, generations of figure skaters discovered something new about the nature of their sport.
wapo.st
February 10, 2025 at 3:53 PM
Reposted by Robert Samuels
When the plane crashed in DC, I thought of journalist @newsbysamuels.bsky.social. Robert covers big political issues—he wrote the book about George Floyd—but also loves and writes about figure skating. This story, about the crash that killed 11 skaters, is rich and sensitive. wapo.st/3CDHH03.
Circles of life
When a week of jubilation turned tragic, generations of figure skaters discovered something new about the nature of their sport.
wapo.st
February 8, 2025 at 2:45 PM
For generations, their community has passed along this adage: Figure skating teaches its athletes how to handle the nature of life. Fortunes change in a fraction of a second. A slip of the blade can yield a thud so hard that it shakes an entire rink. In a flash, dreams are lost. That is the sport.
February 8, 2025 at 2:41 PM
Was Threads really that bad?
January 19, 2025 at 4:19 PM