Recent publications

• ‘Everything is a being’ for South Africa’s amaMpondo fighting to protect nature, Mongabay, 19 August 2024.

• Negative spaces in Invisible Ink, July 2024.

• Buddha behind the wheel in Invisible Ink, July 2024.

• Invisible Ink in Invisible Ink, June 2024.

• Eye for an eye in Invisible Ink, June 2024.

• Wild child in Invisible Ink, May 2024.

• Homo hubris in Invisible Ink, May 2024.

• The end in Invisible Ink, April 2024.

• Half way home in Invisible Ink, April 2024.

• Going mad: a foreword of sorts, in Invisible Ink, April 2024.

• High in court — lawyers in bid to have psilocybin decriminalised, Daily Maverick, 2 November 2023.

• South African psychiatrists gear up to treat depression with psychedelics, Daily Maverick, 22 October 2023.

• South Africa’s penguins heading toward extinction; will no-fishing zones help? Mongabay, 17 October 2023.

• An exceptional wilderness: To help protect its largest wildlife preservation, Mozambique is giving local people a stake in its success, National Geographic magazine, September 2023.

• One of Africa's largest wildernesses is thriving—because locals have a stake in its success, National Geographic digital, September 2023.

• Soup-splattered Van Gogh vs Derna’s 11,300 dead — going overboard in the name of climate activism, Daily Maverick, 27 September 2023.

• Thanks, but no thanks: Standard Bank can have its journalism award back, Daily Maverick, 21 September 2023.

• Cape’s missing great white shark mystery solved, with implications for cross-border conservation, Daily Maverick, 13 September 2023.

• Orcas blamed for missing great white sharks: A thriving population in South Africa has all but disappeared after a visit from killer whales, Nature Africa, 5 September 2023.

• Congo Basin’s elephants boost carbon capture, but need salt-licks to survive, Mongabay, 15 August 2023.

• S. Africa to purge bird-eating mice from key albatross breeding island, Mongabay, 5 July 2023.

• Fatal mouse attacks on adult birds spark red alert at world’s biggest wandering albatross colony, Daily Maverick, 16 June 2023.

• Mice preying on adult albatross population in major global nesting site: Rodent eradication programme planned for South African island to protect seabirds, Nature Africa, 15 June 2023.

• A Perfect Storm: How the deadly 2022 Durban floods hold crucial lessons for the future of the city and others like it, published in The Outlier and the Daily Maverick in May 2023.

• Voices from the Frontline, African Climate Mobility Initiative (assist with writing, developing or editing text and captions) and African Shifts (helped develop and edit the scientific report and supporting material).

• Will shipping noise nudge Africa’s only penguin toward extinction? Mongabay, 21 November 2022.

• Rising heat puts the Kalahari’s ecosystem on the edge of survival, National Geographic magazine, August issue, 2021: ‘On the parched savanna of southern Africa, searing temperatures and crippling droughts threaten a delicate balance of life.’

• Africa’s only penguins face an uncertain future, National Geographic digital, 25 October 2021: ‘As the birds formerly known as “jackass penguins” struggle to find food, South Africa debates whether to give them a leg up by banning commercial fishing near their island colonies.’

• Living with dementia in southern Africa is a heartbreaking challenge, National Geographic digital, 22 June 2022: ‘In a region where family members have historically served as caretakers for older relatives, proper care for an aging population has become more difficult.’

• National Geographic Kids.

• Occasional contributor to Daily Maverick’s Our Burning Planet climate series.

• Former contributor to the Heinrich Boll Foundation’s Energy Transitions.

• Rapporteur for the 2020 Food Dialogues Report: how food hunger pre-dates the humanitarian crisis brought on by the coronavirus. October 2020.

• Many hurdles hamper protection of water catchment areas, Business day, 5 November 2018.

• Greening Africa’s city transport, HBF Energy Transitions, 21 June 2018.

• Mind the (food) gap, Daily Maverick, 12 December 2017.

• Conflict of Interest, Earthworks, Issue 40, 2017.

• See You in Court: SA Public vs Nuclear, HBF Southern Africa, 20 June 2017.

Awards, fellowships & acknowledgements

• 2024 Covering Climate Now Awards, in the category ‘extreme weather and its impacts’. A Perfect Storm received this award alongside global legacy titles like the New Yorker, the LA Times, Atlantic, the Guardian and more.

• 2023 Vodacom South African Journalist of the Year — national winner (sustainability category, narrative writer on team entry)

• 2023 Africa Science Journalist of the Year, Science for Africa Foundation (narrative writer on team entry)

• 2023, Vodacom South African Journalist of the Year 2023 — Gauteng regional winner (sustainability category, narrative writer on team entry)

• [Leonie distanced herself from the 2023 Standard Bank Sikuvile Journalist of the Year Award (feature category), given to the team behind A Perfect Storm, owing to Standard Bank’s suppression of journalists and climate activists in the same month as the award was announced.]

• 2022 Distinguished Alumni Award from the School of Journalism & Media Studies, Rhodes University

• 2009 SAB Environmental Journalist of the Year Award (print/internet category)

• 2007 Ruth First Fellowship

• Mail & Guardian’s 200 Young South Africans You Must Take to Lunch (2008)

• Shortlisted for the 2016 City Press Tafelberg Nonfiction Award

• Honorary mentions in the Sunday Times Alan Paton Nonfiction Awards (2007 and 2010)

In the media 

Leonie regularly appears on air or in the press, speaking on topics she's most familiar with. 

Highlights

• Talking ’bout South African ethics, in the Daily Maverick by Rebecca Davies.

• Live appearance on Al Jazeera, Is sugar killing us?, 2 Dec 2015.

• Cape Talk with Pippa Hudson on Pippa’s Planet, speaking about why our cities’ food systems leave many of us hungry, heavy, and sick, following the launch of Tomatoes & Taxi Ranks.

• Cape Talk, the Science & Technology slot with Pippa Hudson, speaking about the podcast The Psychonauts (13 November 2018). 

• Cape Talk with Pippa Hudson, speaking on cities, hunger, and malnutrition, during the Open Book Festival in 2017.

• Cape Talk, with Mike Wills hosting for John Maytham, August 2017, talking about the launch of The Psychonauts.

• The Money Show with Bruce Whitfield on CapeTalk/702, 5 February 2013 (see Our Future Cities).

• Polity's Shannon de Ryhove interviews Leonie Joubert after the launch of The Hungry Season.

• Aards vriend, in Vrouekeur, August 2011.

On the Stage

Regular speaking engagements on topics including climate change, food security, narrative journalism and storytelling methods, at various events locally and abroad.

Highlights

• Ruth First Memorial Lecture, August 2007.

• Berlin International Literature Festival, 2008.

• TEDxCapeTown: Amazing People, Crazy Places, speaking on how we need to find a diet that's sustainable both for ourselves and the environment, at the Baxter Theatre, August 2013.

• The EthicsXchange at the Fugard Theatre, November 2013.

• In conversation with Tim Noakes on why the city makes us fat and sick.

• Speaking at the opening of Daylin Paul’s photographic exhibition Broken Land in Cape Town on 22 February 2020.

Conferences

Leonie has presented at various conferences over the years.

highlights

• ‘Tools for Storytelling’ Narrative Journalism Conference: hosted by Fray Intermedia and Wits University School of Journalism in 2008 and 2011.

• ‘Power Reporting’: conference hosted by Wits University School of Journalism in 2010.

• African Science Communication Conference: Scorched: South Africa’s changing climate presented as example of accessible science communication, Port Elizabeth; 4 - 7 Dec 2006.