From 2017 to 2021, Bowles covered technology for The New York Times in the San Francisco Bay Area.[11][12] In 2020, she was awarded the prestigious Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award and the Gerald Loeb Award for investigative reporting along with two colleagues for her investigation into online child abuse; according to editor Dean Murphy, their "deep, persistent and compassionate reporting" served to "hold both government and big tech accountable, and tell the stories of untold children who have endured this abuse in silence."[13][14] She covers the technology and business world of hi-tech startups and venture capital, and she has written about personalities such as Elon Musk,[15]Eric Schmidt,[15][1] and iHeartMedia CEO Bob Pittman.[16] She covered the exclusive conference of technology CEOs called Further Future,[17] and has written about subjects such as doxxing[18] and cryptocurrencies.[19] She appeared twice on the Charlie Rose nationally broadcast television interview show.[20]
Bowles's reporting is often controversial; for example, her account of her interview with Jordan Peterson attracted much attention.[21][22][23] She has moderated televised discussions on the subject of free speech in the digital age,[24] and she has written about gender equality in the tech world.[25] Her reports regarding the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians have sometimes generated additional controversy.[26][27] She and The New York Times were sued for defamation by Harvard professor and legal scholar Lawrence Lessig over her reporting of Lessig's writings about Jeffrey Epstein's donations to the MIT Media LabinThe New York Times.[28][29] Lessig subsequently dropped the lawsuit after the headline and lede were changed to better represent his views.[30]
In 2021, Bowles along with Bari Weiss launched Common SenseonSubstack. The publication changed names to The Free Press in 2022.[10][31][32]The Free Press is now the top earning Substack with more than 630,000 total subscribers. Bowles is the company's head of strategy and writes a weekly column called TGIF.[33][34][35]
Her story “The Sperm Kings Have a Problem: Too Much Demand” was turned into a feature-length documentary, produced by The New York Times and FX and came out in March 2024.[36][37][38]
Her first book, titled Morning After the Revolution, was released in May 2024 by Thesis, a new imprint of Penguin Random House.[39] The book laments what Bowles describes as a far-left/radical progressive takeover of institutions in the US, including the governments of many major cities and media outlets, such as San Francisco and The New York Times.[40] She found "the left can be somewhat goofy."[41] and "The book’s ambient contempt for progressives is legible; its actual thesis much less so."[42]
Bowles is a descendant of Henry Miller, who was dubbed the "Cattle King of California" and was at one point one of the largest landowners in the United States, and a descendant of Thomas Crowley, who founded the transportation and logistics company Crowley Maritime.[43]
Bowles is married to political commentator Bari Weiss,[46] a relationship she says led her to convert to Judaism.[47] She also says the conversion was part of a personal drive to be more empathy-driven in her reporting.[48][49] They have a daughter, born in 2022.[50][51]
^ abAnna Escher (September 25, 2016). "WTF is clickbait?". TechCrunch. Retrieved February 11, 2018. ...In the tech world, Nellie Bowles has suggested that executives and investors will disparage any story that paints them in an unflattering light as "clickbait"...
^ ab"Nellie Bowles". Hachette Book Group. February 11, 2018. Retrieved February 11, 2018. ...Nellie Bowles is a journalist at Re/code, a live tech journalism company, and has been covering tech and culture in San Francisco for four years ... business reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle. ... Columbia University ... degrees in Comparative Literature and Psychology ... traveled extensively for research. She won a fellowship to McGill University to write about transcultural psychiatry and hypnosis ... lived in Buenos Aires and interned for The Buenos Aires Herald ... awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to Swaziland....
^Adweek, Richard Horgan, December 11, 2015, Guardian US Boosts Tech Reporter Ranks, Retrieved February 11, 2018, "...Nellie Bowles (pictured) ... a contributing writer to The California Sunday magazine ... working on a book for Hachette and TV show based on one of her stories for 20th Century Fox .. previously covered the tech world for Re/code..."
^Todd Spangler, June 1, 2016, Variety magazine, Vice News Touts New Hires in Staff Reshuffle Under Josh Tyrangiel, Retrieved February 11, 2018, "... Vice News employees are ... Nellie Bowles, formerly with the Guardian and Vox Media’s Recode, who will head up the soon-to-open San Francisco office and cover tech..."
^Nellie Bowles (February 4, 2018). "Early Facebook and Google Employees Form Coalition to Fight What They Built". The New York Times. Retrieved February 11, 2018. ...SAN FRANCISCO — Silicon Valley technologists ... alarmed over the ill effects of social networks and smartphones, are banding together to challenge the companies they helped build...
^Agility, June 9, 2017, Journalists on the move – Week of June 5, Retrieved February 11, 2018, "Notable journalist and media industry moves: ...The New York Times: Nellie Bowles, correspondent for VICE News, joins as business reporter on technology and digital culture beat..."
^New York Times, June 8, 2020, Staff writers, Times Investigation Wins Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, Retrieved June 10, 2020, "...'Journalists seldom write about this horrific abuse beyond high-profile arrests and stings,' ... said Dean Murphy, who edited the series...."
^ abStaff writers Ellen and Pui-Wing (June 5, 2017). "Nellie Bowles to Join Bizday". The New York Times. Retrieved February 11, 2018. ...from Vice News Tonight on HBO, where she has been an on-air correspondent for the past year, working on segments about venture capitalists and tech companies, and traveling the world on a broad range of assignments. ... She previously worked at The Guardian and Recode, ... Nellie began ... intern at the San Francisco Chronicle...
^Billboard magazine, Andrew Flanagan, August 28, 2014, Clear Channel CEO Bob Pittman Channels Dissent and Tents at Burning Man, Retrieved February 11, 2018, "... intrepid Nellie Bowles, writing for Re/code, visited Pittman at his Burning Man home, a "spider house" or "Dhome" that Pittman had... designed? ... Pittman's reasons for sleeping in the desert ... are quite obvious, according to Bowles' ..."
^Heer, Jeet (May 21, 2018). "Jordan Peterson's Tired Old Myths". The New Republic. Retrieved June 10, 2018. 'The messages he delivers,' Bowles wrote, 'range from hoary self-help empowerment talk (clean your room, stand up straight) to the more retrograde and political (a society run as a patriarchy makes sense and stems mostly from men's competence; the notion of white privilege is a farce)' [...].
^January 29, 2018, Columbia University, Alumni in the News, Retrieved February 11, 2018, "...Journalist Nellie Bowles ’10’s work for The New York Times appeared on the front pages of two sections of the paper (Sunday Styles and Sunday Business)..."