Russell Gold

Russell Gold was born somewhere east of the Sabine River, arrived in Texas in 1996 and stuck around. He worked as journalist for more than three decades, nearly all of it in Texas. He spent two decades as an award-winning investigative journalist at the Wall Street Journal. That job was bookended by a stint at the San Antonio Express-News in the 1990s and Texas Monthly in the 2020s. He has written about wildcatters, exploding offshore rigs, renewable energy developers and Bruno, the oil-rig dog who disappeared and found his way home. He dodged polar bears on Alaska’s North Slope, climbed a wind turbine in Oklahoma and spent more time on drilling pads than anyone with uncalloused hands should. His work has been recognized with a Peabody Award and two Loeb Awards. He is also very good at being a runner up. His work was twice a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize and once for a National Magazine Award. He has written two books. His 2014 book, The Boom, was long listed for the FT Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year prize. His 2019 book, Superpower, wasn’t—but it is even better. He currently works at T1 Energy, a solar-manufacturing company in Austin.