Dhashen is senior producer of podcasts for Radio Workshop --- a non profit that trains youth reporters in Africa, supports community radio stations, and produces a longform, narrative non-fiction podcast --- where he leads production of stories. He blends storytelling techniques with rigorous reporting to understand people and the problems they're trying to solve. He aims to make person-first, narrative, immersive, cinematic-style audio stories.
Before joining Radio Workshop, Dhashen spent 14 years working his way through nearly every newsroom position in public radio and television in South Africa, including news anchor, reporter, and editor.
As a freelancer, he has contributed to The New York Times, NPR, BBC, Voice of America, UNICEF, 99% Invisible, Foreign Policy, Vanity Fair, Vice, Channel 4 News, Dateline, School of Humans, Pacific Content, VRT News, YLE, Stars & Stripes, SciDev, Mail & Guardian, and The Africa Report.
Dhashen is a past fellow of the United Nations' Reham Al-Farra journalism program, the Bloomberg Media Initiative in Africa, the Netherlands Fellowship Program, the Internews' Environmental Journalism Network, and the International Visitor Leadership Program.
He is a recurring juror for the IDA Documentary Awards in the podcasting category, and a former podcast advisor for the PRX Africa Podcast Lab. He was Non-Executive Director at South Africa's first podcast company, Sound Africa.
His past series on youth unemployment was a finalist at the 2023 Third Coast/Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Competition, the first African podcast to be nominated for The Ambies® Awards for Excellence in Audio (2023), and won a One World Media award (2023). His story on the Just Energy Transition won Best Standalone Audio Documentary at the International Documentary Association 2023.
Dhashen holds a bachelor of commerce degree in marketing and management; and advanced certificates in climate journalism, newsroom management, data journalism, and science reporting.
He lives in Cape Town with his partner, and three dogs who all want more walks at the park.