Daniel Barban Levin is a writer, educator, and author of Slonim Woods 9 (Crown, 2021), an “extraordinary, biting, observant” (Nylon) memoir that vividly details his experience as a survivor of a college cult, offering a profound exploration of manipulation, resilience, and the path to recovery.

He produced the Hulu docuseries Stolen Youth, which provided an honest depiction of the tragic consequences of coercive control, and the remarkable resilience of its survivors.

He has spoken on the topics of mental health, trauma recovery, and the psychology of coercion in classrooms across the country and for national media, including a recent appearance on Radiolab. His work has appeared in numerous publications, from Provincetown Arts to Psychology Today. His poetry collection, Worms, Dirt (2026) is forthcoming from Four Way books.

Levin holds an MFA from the University of California, Irvine and is pursuing a Masters in Marriage and Family Therapy from Chapman University. He lives in Los Angeles.