Lydia G. Banister is an investigative journalist and essayist focused on power, labor, and the stories institutions tell about themselves. Raised in Boise, Idaho, she studied sociology at Whitman College and earned a master's in journalism from the University of California, Berkeley. Her reporting has appeared in regional newspapers and national magazines, and she has led longform projects on multilevel marketing, influencer economies, and wellness finance. From 2016 to 2022 she taught narrative nonfiction workshops for community newsrooms in the Mountain West and co-founded a training initiative that helps first-time sources navigate press and legal risks. Banister has been a finalist for several reporting prizes and was a fellow with a nonprofit newsroom collaborative in 2020. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she hikes the Sangre de Cristo foothills and mentors early-career reporters.
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