Austa Somvichian-Clausen

Lead Respect Writer at Changing America by The Hill, City Editor at InsideHook covering Washington, D.C. and New York City. Dynamic freelancer with a deep love of travel, culture, and the environment. Proud member of the LGBTQ+ community.







I'm also a freelance writer and creative consultant living in New York City. My primary beats are social justice, culture, food, and travel, but I've covered everything from the rise of organic marijuana (for National Geographic) to social media slacktivism (for Women's Health in print), and beyond. 


Though I'm currently based in NYC, I've also called Washington, DC and Los Angeles home (and take assignments in both cities). I hold dual U.S. and Icelandic citizenship, so I'm also able to work across Europe without requiring a visa. 


Formerly: Apartment Therapy, National Geographic.

DC

Thrillist •

How to Safely Celebrate the Biden-Harris Inauguration in DC

The 2021 presidential inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will take place on Wednesday, January 20, starting at 12 pm eastern time, following Biden’s train journey from his home in Wilmington, Delaware to the nation’s capitol—a trip the President-Elect took daily for 36 years while he was a U.S. senator. Biden will then take his oath of office on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol, the same building that just last week was attacked by a mob of Trump supporters, leaving five dead. Thus, i
Thrillist •

How to Have a Safe and Fun New Year’s Eve in Washington DC

As the highly anticipated end to 2020 draws near, it’s natural to have mixed feelings. Typically, New Year’s Eve is a time to dress to the nines, let your figurative hair down, and clink champagne glasses. It’s a time to now look toward what is considered to be a clean slate, making resolutions about going to the gym every day or finally becoming a vegetarian. This year it comes as no surprise to anyone that New Year’s Eve will look and feel very different. Most important now is to keep yoursel
Thrillist •

Everything You Can Do in DC This Holiday Season

November 11 - January 3 Various locations Some holiday displays like the iconic Zoolights at the National Zoo have chosen to delay festivities until next year, but there is still plenty of illumination to see this season. Meadowlark’s Winter Walk of Lights is reopening soon, a stunning half-mile of lights through the Meadowlark Botanical Gardens, as well as the annual Georgetown GLOW which illuminates the neighborhood with light art exhibits. Cost: Prices vary Of course, please stay home if you
Thrillist •

10 Spooky Ways to Celebrate Halloween in DC This Year

There is certainly a lot to be spooked by this Halloween season—and we’re not just talking about your typical ghouls and goblins. Between a high stakes presidential election and an ongoing global pandemic, getting into the holiday spirit on October 31 is certain to look and feel pretty different this year. Social distancing is still of the utmost importance, and the DC Department of Health even released official guidance on how to have fun while staying mindful during Halloween and Día de los Mu
Thrillist •

Washington, DC: How to Make Sure Your Vote Counts in the 2020 Election

The weeks leading up to a historic election are hectic enough without the added bonus of a pandemic to worry about. Thankfully, DC is making it easier than ever to avoid the polls this year, even sending all registered voters mail-in ballots the first week of October. Those not yet registered can do so easily online, by mail, or in person, and anyone is allowed to vote via absentee ballot if they don’t feel comfortable visiting a voting center in person. Possibly the most stressful part of votin
Thrillist •

Escape DC Without Leaving Town By Visiting These 8 Places

Once in a while, a quick escape from the norm is necessary. Take into consideration the year we’re all having -- one which can only be described time and time again as “unprecedented,” and the desire to escape only grows. Despite travel not being an option for many right now, there are still ways to get that quick but oh-so-sweet break from reality right now, without even leaving the DMV. With that in mind, we pulled together a list of our favorite places for escapism -- from secret gardens to s
thrillist •

How to Support DC’s Latino-Owned Businesses Right Now

In Washington DC, there is a diverse Latino presence to celebrate -- the 12th largest in the nation, to be exact. Many Salvadorans call DC home, and because of that Washingtonians never experience a shortage of delicious pupusas, the famous pork and cheese-filled pockets for which the country is known. For the past decade, the number of Latino business owners has also grown a whopping 34 percent according to American University, and the Latino community is the largest growing group in the metro
InsideHook •

Will the Pandemic Kill DC’s Food-Truck Scene?

DC Slices is one of many trucks that have left the city in search of greener pastures Perhaps you remember the movie Chef that came out a few years ago starring Jon Favreau. The one where he is married to Sofia Vergara, starts up a food truck with his young son in Miami, and is so immediately successful that Gordon Ramsay offers to fund the opening of his next restaurant? If you haven’t, apologies for the lack of spoiler alerts. Regardless, it’s just the kind of Hollywood magic that can paint
InsideHook •

The 5 New DC Watering Holes and Pop Ups That Might Just Save Summer

While there’s no way to delude ourselves into thinking that the rest of this summer will feel normal, or to totally forget about that long lost summer trip, we can at least sip some margaritas and take in the sunshine in one of DC’s brand new outdoor drinking locations — the very next best thing, in our opinion. From pop up spots with human-sized frozen-drink machines to the new Blagden Alley “streatery,” here’s where you can find us this month. This Park View bar has kept itself more than bu
InsideHook •

Five Brand New NYC Rooftops You Should Probably Visit ASAP

In what appears to be the turnaround of the century, life in New York has finally begun to form some semblance of what it was pre-pandemic. After two months of strict quarantine that simultaneously felt like a full year and one endless day, the number of new cases and hospitalizations have dropped to their lowest rates since March. It’s good news, but numbers don’t stay that good without exercising some pretty serious caution. Currently, more than half of the country is on a Tri-state quarantin
InsideHook •

How to Get an Excellent Workout at Your Local Track and Field

Summertime is usually something you prepare for in advance, whether that means booking some weekend trips or putting in extra gym visits to hopefully achieve the ever-elusive summer bod. This year is different for obvious reasons, and while we’ve all been focusing on flattening the COVID-19 curve, many of us have been gaining curves of our own — sometimes affectionately referred to as the “Quarantine 15.” We understand if you’ve been itching to get back into the gym for those reasons and more,
InsideHook •

Where DC Chef Kwame Onwuachi Will Eat His First Meal Back After Coronavirus

In honor of all of the restaurants we dearly miss and can’t wait to get back to, we’re asking some of the country’s most decorated chefs to tell us about the meals that will be at the top of their list when Stay at Home orders finally lift. This is First Meal Back. The coronavirus pandemic certainly isn’t the first time Chef Kwame Onwuachi, owner of DC Afro-Caribbean restaurant Kith/Kin, has had to deal with a little adversity. Growing up in the Bronx in New York, Onwuachi contended with plenty
InsideHook •

Why DC’s Original Modern Speakeasy Still Keeps People Coming Back

DC is home to plenty of great watering holes, but none is more beloved than the corner bar. Hence we bring you Know Your Corner Bar, an occasional, ahem, dive into the tales and characters behind one of the city’s most storied taverns. When the economy suffers, it’s hard, if not impossible, to tell what the long-term implications may be. That’s why nobody could have guessed that the 2008 recession, a time when jobs were lost and businesses were closed, could have catapulted the one-mile stretch
InsideHook •

NYC's Best Chefs Are Fighting Voter Suppression With Cooking Classes

It seems as if it were just yesterday that Americans became obsessed with bread-baking as an unexpected result of pandemic driven boredom, but, simultaneously, like it’s already been a full 100 years. Time is weird like that right now. Regardless, while many of us were raiding supermarkets for the last bags of flour and hopefully a few rolls of toilet paper, Frank Harris was emotionally recovering from the cancellation of an entire professional course he had enrolled in to learn about the art o
InsideHook •

Your Pandemic Guide to Outdoor Drinking and Dining in NYC

For the past three months we’ve been confined to our home kitchens and bars, attempting to rustle up from-scratch loaves of bread and palatable old fashioneds. So, while the coronavirus pandemic is still far from over, it comes as a relief that New York City began Phase 2 of reopening this week. The new phase includes the much-awaited return of outdoor dining, allowing us the chance opportunity for social interaction and a dish washing-free evening. It’s no secret that New Yorkers have been itc
InsideHook •

Your Pandemic Guide to Outdoor Drinking and Dining in DC

For the past three months we’ve been confined to our home kitchens and bars, attempting to rustle up from-scratch loaves of bread and palatable old fashioneds. So while the coronavirus pandemic is still far from over, it’s a relief to hear that restaurants and bars across the DMV are beginning to reopen their outdoor seating for on-premise customers, allowing us the opportunity for much-needed social interaction and a dish washing-free evening. Let’s not get too ahead of ourselves though, and r
InsideHook •

How to Be a Better Advocate for Black-Owned Businesses in DC

The last two weeks have been historic to say the least: tragic, above all, but also inspiring, vital and cathartic. Across the nation, thousands of Americans of all creeds have shown up to protest in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement after outrage was sparked by the death of George Floyd while in the custody of police officers in Minneapolis. Both on social media and IRL, people have been demanding police reform and equality for Black Americans, a group that continues to be
InsideHook •

What Will DC's Music Scene Look Like After the Coronavirus?

When the first few cases of the coronavirus hit the U.S. in late January, I was still looking forward to seeing Little Dragon, a funky Swedish electric band, play at the 9:30 Club in mid-April. It was, in retrospect, an all-too-optimistic view of how the pandemic would ultimately play out. And yet, still, a small voice of hope inside of me continued to say, “maybe Newport Folk Festival (another event for which I was a ticket holder) won’t be canceled. It’s in August!” Wrong again, and that more
InsideHook •

What Phase One of DC Reopening Means for You

Friday morning, DC will begin Phase One of the reopening process after hitting an encouraging key benchmark in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic: a 14-day decline in local spread of the virus. A spike in cases last weekend raised doubts of whether an additional delay to reopening might be needed, but on Tuesday Mayor Muriel Bowser announced that, for the first time in nearly two months, DC had gone a full 24 hours without registering a death attributed to COVID-19, and by Wednesday the ci
InsideHook •

How and Where to Responsibly Rent a Summer House Near DC

Summertime in DC is a postcard: biking under the trees on your way to the Lincoln Memorial, strolling the cobblestoned streets of Georgetown, oysters on the half shell and bottles of rosé by the waterfront. But man — that heat. No matter how idyllic the city can be amid the swelter, this summer will undoubtedly look different in many ways. While Maryland’s governor, Larry Hogan, announced a gradual easing of pandemic-related restrictions that started May 15, DC’s Mayor Muriel Bowser extended th
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