Reading List · Lisanne Swart
Authors Like
By Lisanne Swart · 6 authors · Investigative Journalism · Updated July 2026
Ronan Farrow's reporting on Harvey Weinstein, published despite enormous institutional pressure to kill the story, exemplifies a specific kind of investigative persistence: methodical documentation pursued over years against subjects with the resources and motivation to make it disappear. Catch and Kill reads as much like a thriller about the mechanics of suppression as a work of journalism, because that suppression effort was itself part of the story. The writers below share his commitment to pursuing a story institutions actively work to bury.
Readers who enjoy Ronan Farrow often turn to Brooke Kroeger for the historian of the undercover reporting tradition Farrow's own persistence belongs to, Nellie Bly for the pioneering undercover method that established this kind of institution-challenging journalism, Janet Malcolm for rigorous interrogation of journalism's own ethical compromises, Gay Talese for narrative nonfiction elevating investigative reporting to literary craft, Jodi Kantor for a fellow journalist who broke related reporting on the same Weinstein story, and Lawrence Wright for long-form investigative journalism examining institutions with comparably exhaustive persistence.
Similar Voice & Approach
Brooke Kroeger
Kroeger's historical study of undercover reporting documents the broader tradition of institution-challenging journalism that Farrow's own persistent, methodical reporting on Weinstein belongs to, even though Farrow's method is documentation rather than disguise.
Read Kroeger for the historian's perspective on the tradition of journalism Farrow's own reporting continues and extends.
→ Read more about Brooke KroegerNellie Bly
Bly pioneered the specific tradition of institution-challenging journalism Farrow's own reporting extends, going undercover to expose abuses that powerful institutions wanted kept hidden, establishing the template for persistence against active suppression.
Read Bly for the pioneering undercover investigative tradition that established this kind of institution-challenging journalism. Ten Days in a Mad-House is essential.
→ Read more about Nellie BlyJanet Malcolm
Malcolm shares Farrow's interest in the ethical complications inherent in reporting on powerful, often manipulative subjects, arguing that journalism itself always involves a form of betrayal, a question underlying the institutional pressure Farrow describes navigating in Catch and Kill.
Read Malcolm for a rigorous interrogation of the ethics underlying the kind of high-stakes reporting Farrow himself practices.
Gay Talese
Talese, a pioneer of the New Journalism movement, shares Farrow's ambition to elevate investigative reporting into genuinely literary narrative nonfiction, treating Catch and Kill's institutional suppression narrative with the same craft attention Talese brought to profile journalism.
Read Talese for journalism treated as literary craft, sharing Farrow's ambition to make investigative reporting genuinely readable as narrative.
Jodi Kantor
Kantor, who co-broke the New York Times's related reporting on Harvey Weinstein alongside Megan Twohey, shares Farrow's specific subject and the same methodical persistence against institutional pressure, her book She Said documenting a parallel investigative effort on the same story.
Read Kantor for a parallel account of breaking the same story Farrow covers in Catch and Kill, from a different newsroom and investigative angle. She Said is essential.
Lawrence Wright
Wright shares Farrow's commitment to exhaustive, methodical investigation of powerful institutions, whether religious organizations or entertainment executives, bringing the same patient, evidence-based rigor to long-form investigative journalism that Farrow brings to his own reporting.
Read Wright for institutions examined with comparably exhaustive, methodical persistence. The Looming Tower is essential.
More from the shelf
Frequently asked questions about authors like Ronan Farrow
Who should I read if I like Ronan Farrow?
Readers who enjoy Ronan Farrow often turn to Brooke Kroeger for the historian of the undercover reporting tradition Farrow's own persistence belongs to, Nellie Bly for the pioneering undercover method that established this kind of institution-challenging journalism, Janet Malcolm for rigorous interrogation of journalism's own ethical compromises, Gay Talese for narrative nonfiction elevating investigative reporting to literary craft, Jodi Kantor for a fellow journalist who broke related reporting on the same Weinstein story, and Lawrence Wright for long-form investigative journalism examining institutions with comparably exhaustive persistence.
Is Jodi Kantor's book similar to Ronan Farrow's Catch and Kill?
Yes, Kantor co-broke the New York Times's related reporting on Harvey Weinstein alongside Megan Twohey, and her book She Said documents a parallel investigative effort on the same story Farrow covers in Catch and Kill, from a different newsroom and reporting angle, sharing his methodical persistence against institutional pressure.
What should I read after Catch and Kill?
Jodi Kantor's She Said offers a parallel account of breaking the same Weinstein story from a different investigative angle. Lawrence Wright's The Looming Tower shares Farrow's commitment to exhaustive institutional investigation. For the historical tradition of undercover, institution-challenging journalism, Nellie Bly's Ten Days in a Mad-House is essential.
Is Janet Malcolm's work related to Ronan Farrow's?
Both share an interest in the ethical complications inherent in reporting on powerful subjects. Malcolm's The Journalist and the Murderer argues that journalism itself always involves a form of betrayal, a question that runs underneath the institutional pressure and manipulation Farrow describes navigating throughout his own reporting on Harvey Weinstein.
