Amisha Padnani spends her days thinking about death. As an editor on the Obituaries desk of The New York Times, she works with a team to cover the noteworthy deaths of the day. In 2018, she launched the Times’ Overlooked series to tell the stories of remarkable people who were not recognized in their lifetimes—women and people of color who, long passed over by papers of record, might have otherwise been lost to history.¹
 

Elle Hunt: How did you come to join the Obituaries desk?

Amisha Padnani: I started on the desk in early 2017. Initially, my role was to think about the digital side: How could we be faster with breaking news, or gain new readers? Now I’m more of a traditional story editor, responding to that day’s deaths. We have some 2,000 obituaries already in our system that we have to stay on top of so that we’re ready whenever they’re needed. 

EH: How do you select who to feature?

AP: If the person made news in their lifetime, chances are their death is news as well. We look through the Times’ archives and talk to colleagues to help us determine a person’s importance. But we also look for figures who didn’t seek out the spotlight, and quirky or interesting tales, like the woman who popularized the sock puppet. I’m always pushing to diversify our coverage: There are so many more people who made a mark on the world than the ones we learn about in textbooks.

EH: Is this what inspired you to start the Overlooked series?

AP: We used to get emails from readers asking why we didn’t feature more women and people of color, and the explanation given was that in past generations they hadn’t been invited to the table. We launched the project in March 2018, on International Women’s Day. That morning, I received hundreds of emails from people saying that they’d felt seen. As a young woman of color, I knew just what they meant.

EH: How do you put together the “definitive record” of someone’s life?

AP: It can be hard: In the case of the Overlooked series, the people are long gone and there may not be much data. You’re really a detective, and you don’t want to get anything wrong. For advance obituaries, we can sometimes talk to the subject. I remember, years ago, overhearing one of our writers interviewing the inventor of the poodle skirt: “What scissors did you use to cut the fabric?” When the woman realized it was for her obituary, she was thrilled, but we don’t always get that response.