Josh Dean is an American journalist and author, most recently of the non-fiction book The Taking of K-129: How the CIA Used Howard Hughes to Steal a Russian Sub in the Most Daring Covert Operation in History, which was published on September 5, 2017, by Penguin's Dutton imprint.[1][2][3][4]
Dean served as deputy editor of Men's Journal until 2004. He has written for Rolling Stone, Popular Science, Men's Journal, GQ, Travel + Leisure, New York, Entertainment Weekly, Inc., Fast Company, Men's Health, Runner's World. He is currently a correspondent for Outside. He was a founding editor of PLAY, The New York Times now-defunct sports magazine.
His first book was Show Dog (2012).[5] His article/ebook, The Life and Times of the Stopwatch Gang,[6] was optioned by Bluegrass Films/Universal Pictures.
Dean is the Co-creator and host of the true-crime audio documentary series, The Clearing, a co-production of Gimlet and Pineapple Street Studios.[7]
In the fall of 2019, he started his own podcast company, Campside Media, with two journalists, Matthew Shaer and Vanessa Grigoriadis, and a third partner, Adam Hoff, who is a producer/screenwriter.[8] Campside's lead investor is Sister Pictures, a new global entertainment studio founded by Elisabeth Murdoch, Stacey Snider, and Jane Featherstone.[9][10] Its debut show, Chameleon, is about a notorious scammer known as the Hollywood Con Queen.[11][12][13] The show helped expose the name of a suspect who was arrested just a few weeks later. Chameleon is part of a slate deal Campside has with Sony Podcasts.[14]
Dean is the Co-Executive Producer and one of the main characters of Netflix's #1 American show[15]Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel, which was inspired by his story about Elisa Lam and the Cecil Hotel.[16]
His first book was Show Dog (2012). His article/ebook, The Life and Times of the Stopwatch Gang, was optioned by Bluegrass Films/Universal Pictures.
Dean is a graduate of Wittenberg University in Ohio, and lives in New York with his wife and two sons.
