Sonali Kolhatkar

Sonali Kolhatkar is an award-winning radio and television host, weekly columnist, published author, experienced speaker, non-profit leader, artist, and mother.

She is the founder, host and executive producer of "Rising Up With Sonali," a political news show that airs on Free Speech TV (Dish Network, DirecTV, Roku) and Pacifica radio stations KPFK, KPFA, and Pacifica affiliate community stations.

She creates a weekly 1-hour television and radio show that covers a broad range of political topics from a strongly progressive perspective. With 20 years of experience as a broadcaster, Kolhatkar oversees all programming decisions, books a majority of guests, and is responsible for all the research, writing, editing, and hosting duties on Rising Up With Sonali.

She is also the racial justice and civil liberties editor at Yes! Magazine where she has worked since July 2021. And she is Senior Correspondent and Writing Fellow for the Independent Media Institute’s Economy for All project where she writes a syndicated weekly column on topics related to economic justice. Previously she was a weekly columnist at Truthdig.com.

Kolhatkar has also reported internationally from the World Social Forums in Porto Alegre, Brazil, and Mumbai, India, the war zones of Kabul, Herat and Kandahar in Afghanistan, the historic UN COP 21 climate meeting in Paris, France, and even her hometown of Dubai, UAE. Her national reporting has taken her to numerous political conventions in election years, the Left Forum in New York, People's Summit in Chicago, the great immigration marches of 2006, the Women's March of 2017, and more.

In 2000, she became a founding co-director of the Afghan Women’s Mission a U.S.-based non-profit solidarity organization that funds the social, political, and humanitarian projects of RAWA. Kolhatkar has organized multiple US-speaking tours and fundraising events for RAWA members and Afghan women speaking out about war and fundamentalist violence.

Kolhatkar's work with RAWA led her to write the 2006 book "Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence"(Seven Stories Press) with co-author James Ingalls. She has also contributed to anthologies including “September 11, 2001: Feminist Perspectives,” and “Stop the Next War Now! Effective Responses to Violence & Terrorism.” She has spoken at hundreds of college campuses and community centers about media justice, social movements, activism, women’s rights, and foreign policy.

Kolhatkar has won journalism awards from the Los Angeles Press Club for Best TV Anchor (2015) and Best Election-related columnist (2017). She has also been recognized for her work by progressive community organizations such as Hunger Action LA, South Asian Network, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, and Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance. In 2015 she was named the Historian of the Lions in an award from Center for the Study of Political Graphics. In 2004, she won the Phenomenal Woman Award from the California State University Northridge Women’s Studies Department.

Kolhatkar's educational background is as interesting as it is diverse - she holds a Master of Science in Astrophysics from University of Hawaii, and a Bachelor of Science in Physics and Bachelor of Arts in Astronomy from University of Texas. After graduation she worked for at the California Institute of Technology as an Applications Developer on the Spitzer Science Telescope. Her 2014 TEDx talk focused on her journey from Astrophysics to Journalism.

She was born and raised in the United Arab Emirates to Indian parents and became a naturalized US citizen in 2009. She is also an artist who has exhibited her paintings at solo and group shows, sells her handmade crafts at local farmers markets, runs an Etsy shop, is an avid baker, and plays the ukulele and sings. She lives with her spouse and two sons in Pasadena, California.