Alec Dent is a reporter and editor based in Washington D.C.
About
I am a journalist currently working for The Washington Post. My writing has also appeared in New York Magazine, Vanity Fair, The Daily Beast, and elsewhere. I studied at the UNC Chapel Hill Hussman School of Journalism and Media where I was the opinion editor of The Daily Tar Heel.
Selected Writing
The Right’s Quiet Uncanceling of a Dead White Supremacist
In 1995, conservatives cast off Sam Francis for being a virulent racist. Nearly 30 years later, Blake Masters has openly recommended Francis’s book, his name is cited in conservative conferences, and his thinking is hailed as a prescriptive path forward for Republicans’ post-Trump presidency.
(Photo credit: BY TRAVIS DOVE/THE NEW YORK TIMES/BLOOMBERG/GETTY IMAGES)
America’s Looming Monkey Crisis
America needs more monkeys. To be more precise, the pharmaceutical industry in the United States needs them. Scientists are warning that a shortage of non-human primates (NHPs)—which have served as test subjects for Parkinson’s therapies, coronavirus vaccines, and a host of other medical treatments, preventatives, and cures—is imperiling U.S. drug development and medical research.
Celebrating “Hitchcocktober” as a Watch Enthusiast
Movie buffs look for Alfred Hitchcock’s requisite cameo in his films, but there are rarer cameos for watch fans to keep an eye out for as well. Hitchcock’s films are timeless and, unexpectedly, mostly timepiece-less.
Recipes for Your Early Summer Harvest
For all the articles that advise eating bugs, very few of them are written by journalists who have actually done so. Could it be that these bug-eating advocates aren’t putting their money—or magicicada—where their mouth is? Insects for thee, but not for me?
A piece about taste-testing summer's hottest new ingredient: cicadas.
Trump 2024 vs. Project 2025
His campaign denies anything to do with the blueprint for a second term, but Trump’s alumni are all over it.
The New Right Finds a Home at the Intersection of Populism and Elitism
Rising stars of the new right publicly bash elites for being disconnected from 'real America' while privately maintaining exclusive social lives.
Rowing Blazers Founder Jack Carlson on Watch Collecting and Design
A conversation with Jack Carlson about his latest Rowing Blazers collaboration with Zodiac and his watch collecting evolution.
A Conversation With the IWC Chief of Design on the “Black Manta” Aquatimer Perpetual Calendar
IWC Chief of Design Christian Knoop on the new Aquatimer Perpetual Calendar Digital Date-Month limited editions for ‘Aquaman and the Last Kingdom.’
How the Far Right Uses Mystical Racism to Demonize Migrants
They’re fixating on corn (yes, corn) and pseudo-historical interpretations of Christianity that paint non-white immigrants as forces sent by Satan.
(Photo Illustration by Erin O’Flynn/The Daily Beast/Getty Images)