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  • Chris Walker

    Writer and Journalist

  •  

    About

     
    Chris Walker is an award-winning investigative journalist and staff writer for Denver's alt-weekly, Westword, where he specializes in narrative feature stories.
     
    He has also had work featured in The Atlantic, Playboy, the Atavist, VICE, NPR, Forbes, and LA Weekly. In 2012, he and another reporter rode bicycles 16,000 miles from France to China. Named Postulate One, the project was a bootstrap experiment in on-the-ground reporting. Cycling allowed the pair to find scoops off the beaten track. The result was a number of breaking stories, some of which were followed up upon by other publications. A story from Turkey's Black Sea Coastline, about a village's fight against a multi-billion dollar coal operation, became one of Sierra Magazine's top 10 environmental hotspots of 2013. Walker's feature on child boxing in Thailand for NPR was a finalist in 2014's Livingston award for international reporting.
     
    Currently, Chris lives in Denver, Colorado. 
  • Selected Feature Stories

    Listed Below

  • The Old and the Restless

    Published by The Atavist, 1.31.18
     
    In an enclave of bohemian retirees in central Mexico, one woman's name is synonymous with murder. Inside the twisted, sordid saga of Donna McCready. READ MORE -->

  • Acid Trip: Denver's Secret LSD Labs Fueled the Psychedelic Revolution

    *Winner of the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi Award for Newspaper Feature writing 
     
    Published in Westword, 10.31.17
     
    Acid tests, free love, the Grateful Dead, cat-and-mouse games with federal agents...Fifty years after the Summer of Love, it’s still a little-known fact that Denver had been home to two major LSD laboratories. Even though the operations were short-lived, they created significant repercussions — not just legally for their operators, but for the psychedelic movement as a whole --> READ MORE

  • Sovereign Notion

    Published in Westword, 5.23.17
     

    In Colorado's Costilla County, officials have to contend with off-the-grid residents who hold “sovereign” beliefs and don't believe they must observe all the laws of the U.S. government. In May of 2017, I travelled to the San Luis Valley, which has seen standoffs, arrests, and instances of "paper terrorism." It's all part of a movement that's growing across the country. READ MORE -->

     

  • Rhymes to Die For

    *First Place Winner in the category of Arts and Entertainment at SPJ's 2016 "Top of the Rockies" Awards
     
    Published in Westword, 11.17.15
     

    Rachel Aboytes' life was cut short when she was murdered in a drive-by shooting in Denver. What happened next seems surreal to her family: Aboytes has become canonized as a cult icon of Spanish rap.

     

    Nicknamed “Baby Smiley,” Aboytes was relatively obscure when she was alive. In death, the Chicana rapper's legacy has taken on a life of its own. READ -->

  • Photo Credit: Ryan Orange

    Street-Tough Racers Fight for Supremacy in L.A.'s Underground Cycling World

    Published in LA Weekly, 2.4.15
     
    Most of L.A.'s cycling competitions remain underground, like The Fast and the Furious on bikes. Cyclists meet late at night for races throughout the city, usually organized on social media so that police cannot know the locations and shut them down ahead of time. Most people agree the scene took off thanks to a single group: Midnight Ridazz, whose origins can be traced to a chilly evening in February 2004, when six cyclists and two skateboarders spontaneously decided to tour the fountains of downtown Los Angeles. READ MORE -->

  • As Gamblers Gather, Thailand's Child Boxers Slug It Out

     

    Published by NPR, 5.14.13   

    Co-Authored with Morgan Hartley

     

    If someone asked you to bet on the outcome of a nine-year old’s boxing match, would you do it?

     

    In Thailand’s rural villages, it happens all the time, where child boxers and gambling are among the oldest traditions of Muay Thai fighting. This feature digs into the lives, ethics, and economics behind one of Thailand’s most controversial sports. The story follows the daily routine of a nine-year old fighter named Chai, and the pressures he faces as his village puts its money on him. --> CLICK


  • Cambodia's Orphan-Industrial Complex

     

    Published in The Atlantic, 6.3.13

    Co-Authored with Morgan Hartley

     

    Seyma is an eleven year old Cambodian boy who lives at an orphanage on the outskirts of Phnom Penh. Carl is a 24 year old Australian volunteer who has become like a father figure to him.

     

    The problem is that Seyma is not actually an orphan. Neither are any but one of the children who live at SCAO -- the Save Poor Children in Asia Organization. In fact, 71 percent of all children in Cambodia’s “orphanages” have parents, but that hasn’t stopped a recent surge of parents like Seyma’s who have sacrificed the upbringing of their kids to provide education and opportunity for them at a center. Seyma’s mother leaves it up to volunteers like Carl to raise her son. Is this a good thing? --> CLICK

  • Selected Archive

    • 1.24.18 Playboy - 'An Outing with Country Band Midland'
    • 10.31.17 Westword - 'Denver's Underground LSD Labs'
    • 7.18.17 Westword - 'Russian Cyberattacks Hit Colorado'
    • 6.27.17 Westword - 'Rocky Mountain Rescue'
    • 5.23.17 Westword - 'Sovereigns are Gunning for Justice'
    • 12.7.16 Westword - 'Meet the Gonzo Lawyer Suing Denver'
    • 11.17.15 Westword -- 'Rhymes to Die For'
    • 2.4.15, LA Weekly -- 'Inside L.A.'s Underground Cycling World'
    • 1.8.15, LA Weekly -- 'A Profile of Xander Mozejewski'
    • 7.8.14, LA Weekly -- 'The Wildest Party in L.A. History'
    • 2.6.14, LA Weekly  -- 'The Tragic Death of Local Musician Ryder Buck, and His Uplifting Story'
    • 10.29.13, The Atlantic -- 'China's Uighur Minority Finds a Voice Through American-Style Hip-Hop'
    • 10.19.13, The Globalist -- 'NSA on Steroids: Georgia Republic's Mass Surveillance'
    • 10.9.13, Afar Magazine -- 'The Great Central Asian Bike Trip'
    • 6.3.13, The Atlantic -- 'Cambodia's Orphan-Industrial Complex'
    • 5.14.13, NPR -- 'As Gamblers Gather, Thailand's Child Boxers Slug It Out'
    • 12.16.12, Forbes -- 'The Culture Shock of India's Call Centers'
    • 9.6.12, Let's Be Wild -- 'Ushba: The Irresistible Climb'
    • 8.12.12, The Ecologist -- 'A Tale of Coal and Controversy'
  • "Go out and make people
    feel something"

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    Chris Walker © 2018
    Photographs by Morgan Hartley and Jon Reed
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