{{Short description|American writer and journalist}} {{Infobox person | name = Michael Grunwald | image = Michael Grunwald 2025 Texas Book Festival.jpg | caption = Grunwald at the 2025 Texas Book Festival | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1970|8|16}} | birth_place = | education = Harvard University (AB) | occupation = Journalist | notable_works = {{Plainlist| * ''The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida and the Politics of Paradise'' (2007) * ''The New New Deal: The Hidden Story of Change in the Obama Era'' (2012) }} | children = 2 | website = }}
'''Michael Grunwald''' (born August 16, 1970) is an American journalist and author who covers public policy and national politics. A senior writer for ''Politico Magazine'', he previously worked as a reporter for ''The Boston Globe'', ''The Washington Post'' and ''Time''.
Grunwald is the author of three widely acclaimed books: ''The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida and the Politics of Paradise'' (2006); ''The New New Deal: The Hidden Story of Change in the Obama Era'' (2012); and ''We Are Eating the Earth'' (2025), which is about food, land-use and climate change.
==Early life and career==
=== Education and occupation === Grunwald attended Harvard University, where he wrote for ''The Harvard Crimson'' and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in government in 1992.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Michael R. Grunwald {{!}} Writer Page {{!}} The Harvard Crimson |url=https://www.thecrimson.com/writer/5166/Michael_R._Grunwald/ |access-date=2025-07-21 |website=www.thecrimson.com}}</ref> He started his career as a metro reporter for ''The Boston Globe'', then joined ''The Washington Post'', where he served as a national reporter, New York bureau chief and outlook essayist; he wrote the ''Washington Post'''s lead news story on the September 11 attacks.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Grunwald|first=Michael|date=2001-09-12|title=Terrorists Hijack 4 Airliners, Destroy World Trade Center, Hit Pentagon|language=en-US|newspaper=Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2001/09/12/terrorists-hijack-4-airliners-destroy-world-trade-center-hit-pentagon/38f92398-c747-456d-a86e-d4768548aa7c/|access-date=2020-11-23|issn=0190-8286}}</ref> In 2007, he became a senior national correspondent for ''Time'', where he wrote cover stories on topics like the future of California, the decline of the Republican Party, and 2009 Person of the Year Ben Bernanke. His cover story about the policy roots of the Hurricane Katrina disaster won a $50,000 award from the Understanding Government Foundation; he donated the award to New Orleans charities.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Time Writer Wins $50,000 Prize for Katrina Story|date=2 October 2008 |url=https://www.adweek.com/digital/time-writer-wins-50000-prize-for-katrina-story/|access-date=2020-11-23|language=en-US}}</ref>
Grunwald joined ''Politico Magazine'' in 2014, where he helped start the public policy site ''The Agenda''. He has mostly written at ''Politico Magazine'' about wonky topics like the federal government's dysfunctional $3 trillion portfolio of credit programs,<ref>{{Cite web|last=Grunwald|first=Michael|title=The (Real) Bank of America|url=https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/01/federal-loans-bank-of-america-113920/|access-date=2020-11-23|website=POLITICO Magazine|date=8 May 2020 |language=en}}</ref> the failure of U.S. transportation policy<ref name="Grunwald">{{Cite web|last=Grunwald|first=Michael|title=The Nation He Built|url=https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/01/obama-biggest-achievements-213487/|access-date=2020-11-23|website=POLITICO Magazine|date=8 May 2020 |language=en}}</ref> and President Obama's policy legacy.<ref name="Grunwald" /> He has also written longform political stories about the 2016 campaign,<ref>{{Cite web|last=Grunwald|first=Michael|title=Trump's High-Energy War on American Politics|url=http://politi.co/2CmCM28|access-date=2020-11-23|website=POLITICO Magazine|date=26 September 2016 |language=en}}</ref> America's political culture wars,<ref>{{Cite web|last=Grunwald|first=Michael|title=How Everything Became the Culture War|url=https://politi.co/2QeEN4c|access-date=2020-11-23|website=Politico Magazine|date=8 May 2020 |language=en}}</ref> and the growth of Trumpism through the Florida retirement community The Villages.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Grunwald|first=Michael|title=POLITICO Magazine: Generation pickleball: Welcome to Florida's political tomorrowland|url=https://politi.co/2KNQDPi|access-date=2020-11-23|website=Politico PRO|date=18 June 2018 |language=en}}</ref>
=== Books === Grunwald wrote his first book, ''The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise'' (2007)<ref>{{cite web |last=Martin |first=Guy |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/09/books/review/09martin.html |title=See You Later, Alligator |work=New York Times Book Review |date=April 9, 2006 |access-date=August 19, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5297144 |title='The Swamp' of Florida Politics (Fresh Air) |work=Fresh Air |date=March 23, 2006 |access-date=August 19, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/060313/13qa.htm |title=Trouble in the Swamplands |work=U.S. News & World Report |first=Bret |last=Schulte |date=March 5, 2006 |access-date=August 19, 2013}}</ref> after doing a four-part series for ''The Washington Post'' in 2002. It's the story of man and nature on the Florida peninsula, focusing on the steady destruction and troubled attempted restoration of the Everglades, and it's still considered one of the indispensable histories of Florida. Grunwald also wrote the foreword to the Marjory Stoneman Douglas classic about the Everglades, ''River of Grass''.
His next book was ''The New New Deal: The Hidden Story of Change in the Obama Era'' (2012), a NYT best-seller, it is the inside story of the Obama administration and its response to the 2008 financial crisis.<ref name="Time">{{cite magazine |title=Michael Grunwald |magazine=Time |access-date=2013-08-19 |url=http://www.timemediakit.com/us/media/bios/grunwald.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130819032152/http://www.timemediakit.com/us/media/bios/grunwald.html |archive-date=2013-08-19 |url-status=dead }}</ref> He describes the discussions and debates that led to the government's anti-recession measures such as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). Taking a positive review of the President's efforts, Grunwald defends the economic measures as full of important, long-term investments while charging Republican Party opponents as being hypocritical and self-serving.<ref>{{cite news |title=The Big Promise |newspaper=The Economist |date=18 August 2012 |access-date=2013-08-19 |url=https://www.economist.com/books-and-arts/2012/08/18/the-big-promise |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130824215704/http://www.economist.com/node/21560529 |archive-date=2013-08-24 |url-status=live}}</ref> In 2025, Grunwald's third book, ''We Are Eating the Earth'', about food production and its effects on the environment, was released to good reviews.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Milman |first=Oliver |date=2025-08-14 |title=Why our broken food system remains a climate disaster: ‘broiling the planet to stuff our faces’ |url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/aug/14/we-are-eating-the-earth-book-climate |access-date=2025-08-31 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=2025-07-01 |title=Opinion {{!}} We are eating the Earth. The result will be catastrophic. |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/07/01/climate-agriculture-carbon-michael-grunwald/ |access-date=2025-08-31 |work=The Washington Post |language=en-US |issn=0190-8286}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Yorker |first=The New |date=2025-01-22 |title=What We’re Reading |url=https://www.newyorker.com/best-books-2025 |access-date=2025-08-31 |website=The New Yorker |language=en-US}}</ref> The book was a finalist for the 2026 New York Public Library’s Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2026-04-15 |title=Meet the 2026 Finalists for NYPL’s Bernstein Award for Excellence in Journalism |url=https://www.nypl.org/blog/2026/02/12/finalists-bernstein-award-excellence-journalism |access-date=2026-04-15 |website=New York Public Library}}</ref>
== Personal life == Raised in Greenvale, New York, Grunwald resides in Miami Beach, Florida with his wife, Cristina Dominguez, a lawyer who is now the executive director of Sai Ayurvedic Institute, and their two children.<ref>{{Cite magazine |title=Michael Grunwald |url=https://business.time.com/author/michaelgrunwald/ |access-date=2023-08-19 |magazine=Time |language=en-us}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Grunwald |first=Michael |title=About the Author |work=Michael Grunwald Website |access-date=2013-08-19 |url=http://www.michaelgrunwald.com/about-mike-grunwald/}}</ref>
== References == {{Reflist}}
== Further reading == * Westcott, Kathryn. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7472760.stm "Healing Florida's 'River of Grass'"], BBC News, 25 June 2008. Accessed 19 August 2013.
== External links == {{commonscat|Michael Grunwald}} *[https://web.archive.org/web/20120817224613/http://www.michaelgrunwald.com/ Michael Grunwald] *[https://time.com/author/michael-grunwald/ Grunwald on Time]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Grunwald, Michael}} Category:20th-century American journalists Category:21st-century American journalists Category:21st-century American non-fiction writers Category:American political journalists Category:American environmental journalists Category:American magazine journalists Category:American newspaper reporters and correspondents Category:The Washington Post journalists Category:Journalists from Florida Category:Journalists from New York (state) Category:Harvard College alumni Category:People from Nassau County, New York Category:1970 births Category:Living people Category:20th-century American male journalists