About NANCY SCOLA

Nancy Scola is a journalist who writes about how Washington actually works: the people, institutions, and machinery of politics and government, often where they collide with technology. Her profile subjects have included former FTC chair Lina Khan, FCC chair Brendan Carr, Pete Buttigieg, Senate “Bitcoin lady” Cynthia Lummis, antitrust advocate Matt Stoller, the congressman who doesn’t use Google, and the document fetishist Tom Blanton. She has reported on the political meaning of the autopen, betting on elections, the death of cash, Airbnb’s push into Cuba, Google’s attempt to build a neighborhood in Toronto, why Congress won’t go remote, how Washington can’t quit X, and D.C.’s vegan food wars.

She is a contributing writer at Politico Magazine and Washingtonian Magazine, and her work has appeared in New York Magazine, The Atlantic, Wired, The Information, Inc. Magazine, and Fast Company.

Illustration of tech policy journalist Nancy Scola

Illustration by Michael Hoeweler for POLITICO Magazine

Now an independent journalist working with a range of publications, Nancy has been a senior tech reporter at Politico and a staff writer at the Washington Post. Before coming to journalism, Nancy was a staffer on the Committee on Government Reform in the U.S. House of Representatives. Since 2019, she has served as a lecturer on journalism at Georgetown University.

Nancy is a frequent podcast guest and event moderator on tech policy and AI, antitrust, economic populism, and Washington politics. She co-hosted Politico’s “Global Translations” podcast, has appeared on shows including “On the Media,” “Offline with Jon Favreau,” and Slate’s “What Next,” and has been on CNN, C-SPAN, and CNBC. For bookings, email nancy@nancyscola.com.

Nancy graduated from the George Washington University with a B.A. in anthropology and Africana studies, and holds a master’s degree from Boston University in anthropology. She was born and raised in New Jersey, and lives in Washington D.C.’s Hill East neighborhood.

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