Sandhya Dirks

Sandhya Dirks (@sandhyadirks) is a reporter at KQED public radio in the Bay Area, focusing on race and equity.

She’s the co-host and creator of American Suburb, a documentary podcast that examines the changing demographics, economics, and politics of rapidly changing suburbs. Sandhya also hosted, edited, and produced the first year of Q’ed Up, and advises on other KQED podcasts. She's obsessed with storytelling as ethnography, subverting narrative norms in the newsroom and beyond, and the power of long form audio to create complex understanding.

In 2016, Sandhya received the RTDNA Kaleidoscope award for her diversity reporting for KQED’s So Well Spoken project, and was part of a team at KPBS named 2013’s Journalist of the Year by the San Diego SPJ for their investigation into sexual harassment claims against the Mayor of San Diego, claims that led to his resignation.

She lives in Oakland with her two cats.