Michael Edison Hayden is a author, investigative reporter and analyst focused on right-wing populism and extremism. Bold Type Books/Hachette is slated to publish his first creative non-fiction book, Strange People on the Hill, in the Spring of 2026.

From 2018 to 2023, Michael served as a Senior Investigative Reporter and Spokesperson for Southern Poverty Law Center, where he regularly broke stories that garnered national and international news coverage.

He has written for publications like The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and National Geographic Magazine, among others. In 2019, he wrote the guide on OSINT reporting for Columbia University’s Tow Center.

Michael lives in New York.