Escape Artist Co-Publisher/Editor David Lepeska has lived on five continents and visited too many countries to count. Midwest-born and raised, he moved to New York in his early 20s and was driven into journalism after witnessing the horror of the 9/11 attacks. He interned at New York City tabloids and the UN before moving halfway around the world to begin his first full-time reporting job, for an English-language daily in Kashmir, India.

In two decades since, David has reported from more than a dozen countries and contributed to most of the world’s top news outlets, including Financial Times, Bloomberg, New York Times, Economist, Atlantic, Monocle, Foreign Affairs, and Foreign Policy. He’s written about migration, cities, technology, politics, culture, food, travel, music and more.

David has served as an editor for several news outlets and the World Bank’s private sector arm, IFC. Since 2020, he has been a weekly columnist for Abu Dhabi-based The National and his first book, Desiccated Land, came out in 2023. When not turning Escape Artist into the next big thing in travel and life abroad, he continues to write and edit books while keeping an eye out for yet another lovely place to call home.