Venkataraman briefed National Press Foundation fellows in November 2023: Making The Case for Newborn Screening. 

Bina Venkataraman writes a column on the future for The Washington Post. Before joining the Post, she served as the editorial page editor of The Boston Globe, overseeing the news organization’s opinion coverage and its editorial board during two presidential impeachment trials, the 2020 election, the COVID-19 pandemic, the Capitol insurrection, and Boston’s historic 2021 mayoral election. During her tenure, the Globe had two Pulitzer finalists in editorial writing.

Venkataraman previously served as senior advisor for climate change innovation in the Obama White House, as director of global policy initiatives at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, as a policy advisor to President Obama’s Science Advisory Council, and as a reporter for The New York Times and The Boston Globe.

Her first book, The Optimist’s Telescope: Thinking Ahead in a Reckless Age (Riverhead), was named a top book by The Financial Times and the best book of 2019 by National Public Radio. Venkataraman is a frequent public speaker whose appearances have included the TED mainstage, the Aspen Ideas Festival, CNN, MSNBC, and the University of Southern California’s 2021 Commencement. She was a French-American Foundation global young leader and a delegate to the US-Japan leadership program.

She teaches in the program on science, technology, & society at MIT and at the Harvard Kennedy School and serves on the Advisory Board of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy.