Sonali Kolhatkar

Sonali Kolhatkar is the host, creator, and executive producer of Rising Up With Sonali, a program built on the foundation of her earlier show, Uprising, which became the longest running drive-time radio show on KPFK in Los Angeles hosted by a woman.

Sonali has won numerous awards for her journalism, including Best TV Anchor from the LA Press Club in 2015, and was also nominated for Best Radio Anchor four years in a row.

She won First Place at the Los Angeles Press Club Annual Awards for Best National Commentary Political Online (2022) for her YES! story, “Afghan Feminists Told Us War Wouldn’t Free Them.” She also won Best Election Commentary (2016) for her Truthdig essay, “We Need to Understand What Happened on Election Night, and Fast.”

Sonali is the author of the Talking About Abolition: A Police-Free World is Possible (Seven Stories, 2025) and Rising Up: The Power of Narrative in Pursuing Racial Justice (Citylights, 2023). Her earlier book was Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence, coauthored with Jim Ingalls.