IRE Radio: Recent Episodes
IRE Radio
Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. is a grassroots nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the quality of investigative reporting. IRE was formed in 1975 to create a forum in which journalists throughout the world could help each other by sharing story ideas, newsgathering techniques and news sources.
In this episode of the IRE Radio Podcast, veteran reporter, editor and computer programmer Ben Welsh discusses his journalism career and how he got to where he is today. As founder of the Reuters News Applications Desk, where he is currently an editor, Welsh has gained a multitude of tips and tricks for data journalism. We explore his career advice and his personal website’s archive of data journalism resources.Production credit: Graduate editorial assistant Nakylah Carter hosted the episode. IRE editorial director Doug Meigs edits the podcast. We are recorded in the studios of KBIA at the University of Missouri School of Journalism.Music credit: Thoughtfulness (De Wolfe Music)
In this episode of the IRE Radio Podcast, two judges for the 2024 IRE Awards share a behind-the-scenes look at their committee’s selection process. Judges chose winners and finalists from a pool of 546 entries across 19 categories. IRE announced the contest results on April 16, 2025. Featured guests: Contest Committee Chair and Emmy-winner Walter Smith Randolph (executive producer of investigations at CBS New York) and Paroma Soni (IRE Board member and Politico data and graphics reporter).Production credit: Graduate editorial assistant Nakylah Carter hosted the episode. IRE editorial director Doug Meigs edits the podcast. We are recorded in the studios of KBIA at the University of Missouri School of Journalism.Music credit: Thoughtfulness (De Wolfe Music)
In this episode of the IRE Radio Podcast, Bloomberg reporters Eric Fan and Zachary Mider take you inside the investigation that earned them the 2024 Phil Meyer Award. Their winning work, “How Thousands of Middlemen Are Gaming the H-1B Program,” (published July 31, 2024) explored new data developments that showed a pattern of certain staffing and outsourcing firms exploiting the U.S. H-1B visa lottery system. Along with Fan and Mider, Bloomberg journalists Denise Lu and Marie Patino co-authored the project. Production credit: Graduate editorial assistant Nakylah Carter hosted the episode. IRE editorial director Doug Meigs edits the podcast. We are recorded in the studios of KBIA at the University of Missouri School of Journalism.Music credit: Thoughtfulness (De Wolfe Music)
“40 Acres and a Lie,” a collaborative investigation by Mother Jones, The Center for Public Integrity, PRX and Reveal, dives into unfulfilled promises to formerly enslaved people after the Civil War. The investigation used artificial intelligence to unearth hidden documents from the Freedmen's Bureau, shedding light on the systemic failures and deliberate actions that prevented land redistribution to Black Americans.In this episode of the IRE Radio Podcast, Reveal producer Nadia Hamdan and The Center for Public Integrity’s April Simpson discuss their investigation and its significance. “40 Acres a Lie” was runner-up for the 2024 Phil Meyer Award. Production credit: Graduate editorial assistant Nakylah Carter hosted the episode. IRE editorial director Doug Meigs edits the podcast. We are recorded in the studios of KBIA at the University of Missouri School of Journalism.Music credit: Thoughtfulness (De Wolfe Music)
On this episode, Francisco Vara-Orta — IRE’s director of diversity and inclusion — reads an excerpt from his Nieman Lab Predictions for Journalism 2025 piece titled, “The quest for diversity evolves.” In it, he conveys what he believes is the future of diversity, belonging, equity and inclusion in the journalism industry, and how we, as journalists, can continue to strive for inclusion in these confusing times. Production credit: Graduate editorial assistant Nakylah Carter hosted the episode. IRE editorial director Doug Meigs edits the podcast. We are recorded in the studios of KBIA at the University of Missouri School of Journalism.Music credit: Thoughtfulness (De Wolfe Music)
More than 1 in 4 adults in the U.S. reported having a disability in 2022, yet people with disabilities have long been underrepresented in news coverage and in newsrooms. To explore this topic — and related concerns facing the news industry — IRE’s 2024 AccessFest Conference featured a panel titled, “Supporting journalists with disabilities and improving disability coverage.” In this episode of IRE Radio, you will hear excerpts from the panel featuring: • Pauline Arrillaga, executive director of the National Center on Disability and Journalism at ASU and former writer and editor for AP News• Samantha Hernandez, an education reporter at the Des Moines Register • Denise-Marie Ordway, managing editor for The Journalist's Resource at Harvard University• Wendy Lu, a senior staff editor at The New York Times and a global speaker on disability representation in the mediaOrdway also contributed an essay based on the panel to the Q4 2024 edition of The IRE Journal.IRE Radio is distributed across several podcast platforms, including Apple, Spotify and Amazon Podcasts. A full text transcript of the episode is available when accessed through the Apple Podcasts mobile app. Please contact editorial@ire.org if you need any assistance.Production credit: Graduate editorial assistant Nakylah Carter hosts the podcast. IRE editorial director Doug Meigs edits the script. We are recorded in the studios of KBIA at the University of Missouri School of Journalism.Music credit: Thoughtfulness (De Wolfe Music)
Although there has been a move to diversify journalism from the stories we tell to the people we interview, the sad reality is that not enough journalists prioritize disability coverage. As part of IRE’s virtual AccessFest conference in 2024, a group of distinguished disabled journalists discussed how to cover topics like climate change, mass incarceration, and poverty through the lens of disability. In a panel titled, “Disability is part of every beat,” three accomplished journalists joined in discussion. We have excerpted from their panel in this edition of The IRE Radio Podcast. The panelists are Jen Deerinwater, founding executive director of Crushing Colonialism; Lygia Navarro, award-winning disabled freelance journalist and editor for NAHJ’s multimedia platform, palabra; and Cara Reedy, former CNN documentarian and founder and director of the Disabled Journalists Association.IRE Radio is distributed across several podcast platforms, including Apple, Spotify and Amazon Podcasts. A full text transcript of the episode is available when accessed through the Apple Podcasts mobile app. Please contact editorial@ire.org if you need any assistance.Production credit: Graduate editorial assistant Nakylah Carter hosts the podcast. IRE editorial director Doug Meigs edits the script. We are recorded in the studios of KBIA at the University of Missouri School of Journalism.Music credit: Thoughtfulness (De Wolfe Music)
On this episode, host Nakylah Carter chats with Knight Election Hub’s Erica Peterson and Scott Klein.The hub — an initiative funded by the Knight Foundation — contains more than 100 free and discounted resources for reporters and editors covering elections. There are voter guides, data sets, source lists and other helpful tools to answer questions about candidates’ backgrounds, policies, election trends and more.“Any newsroom that can hear my voice please come to us and use our resources to do incredible election coverage," Klein said of the one-stop destination to prepare for Election Day coverage.Resources:• Visit the Knight Election Hub at: https://accounts.muckrock.com/election-hub/• Read more in The IRE Journal's 2024 elections issue: https://www.ire.org/product/ire-journal-q3-2024/Production credit: Graduate editorial assistant Nakylah Carter reported and hosted the episodes. IRE editorial director Doug Meigs edits the podcast. We are recorded in the studios of KBIA at the University of Missouri School of Journalism.Music credit: Thoughtfulness (De Wolfe Music)
On this episode of the IRE Radio Podcast, host Nakylah Carter discovers how the Georgia Department of Corrections came to win the 2024 Golden Padlock Award for frequently and deliberately withholding public information. Guest Lois Norder, senior editor for investigations at The Atlanta Journal Constitution, explains her colleagues’ struggle to cover the government agency despite heavily redacted incident reports, suppressed news of worker arrests linked to contraband, undisclosed prisoner escapes, withheld video footage and more!Music credit: Thoughtfulness (De Wolfe Music)
On this episode, host Nakylah Carter chats with the 2024 Don Bolles Medal winner Eric Meyer, publisher of The Marion County Record. The Don Bolles Medal acknowledges investigative journalists who have “exhibited extraordinary courage in standing up against intimidation or efforts to suppress the truth about matters of public importance.”Victim to a police raid in August 2023, the newsroom of the Marion County Record received the 2024 Don Bolles Medal for refusing to be silenced. Just a mile down the road in the small Kansas town, the home of Meyer and his 98-year-old mother, Joan Meyer, was raided at the same time as the newsroom. His mother died the day after the raid.Meyer and Carter unpack what happened with the raid, the importance of support from fellow journalists, and how he and his newsroom persevered. You can find the podcast on Soundcloud, Spotify for Podcasts, Apple Podcasts and Amazon Music. If you have a story you think we should feature on the show, drop us a note at web@ire.org. We’d love to hear from you.Music credit: "Thoughtfulness," De Wolfe Music
On this special episode of the IRE Radio Podcast, IRE editorial assistant Nakylah Carter pulls from 2023 and 2024 NICAR Conference recordings to explore how Phil Meyer inspired countless reporters, students and colleagues. Meyer pioneered the field of computer-assisted reporting and introduced social sciences methods to newsrooms. His groundbreaking book, “Precision Journalism,” turned 50 years old in 2023. He died on Nov. 4, 2023, due to complications from Parkinson’s diseaseThis episode also includes excerpts from an interview with Meyer by Charles Lewis from a decade prior. Nakylah Carter reported this episode and is our host. IRE Editorial Director Doug Meigs edits the podcast. We are recorded in the studios of KBIA at the University of Missouri.You can find the podcast on Soundcloud, Spotify for Podcasts, Apple Podcasts and Amazon Music. If you have a story you think we should feature on the show, drop us a note at web@ire.org. We’d love to hear from you.Music credit: "Thoughtfulness," De Wolfe Music
In this episode, IRE editorial assistant Nakylah Carter tackles the topic of mass shootings and how one team changed the way some newsrooms report on them. In the spring of 2022, an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas was victim of a mass shooting, resulting in 21 lives lost – a massive tragedy for the community. The ABC News Investigative Unit, lead by Cindy Galli, decided it was time to stay. Uvalde: 365 was a yearlong project where the ABC News team stayed in Uvalde for more than a year to report the aftermath of this tragedy. You can watch the ABC News team’s new documentary, “21: Loyal and True,” streaming on ESPN+ and Hulu. Members of the Uvalde 365 team also have a new book coming out, “One Year in Uvalde,” a story of hope and resilience that will be released in May 2024. Nakylah Carter reported this episode and is our host. IRE Editorial Director Doug Meigs edits the podcast. We are recorded in the studios of KBIA at the University of Missouri.You can find the podcast on Soundcloud, Spotify for Podcasts, Apple Podcasts and Amazon Music. If you have a story you think we should feature on the show, drop us a note at web@ire.org. We’d love to hear from you.Music credit: "Thoughtfulness," De Wolfe Music
On this episode, IRE editorial assistant Nakylah Carter recaps “Separate and unequal: 5 must-have stories from the K-12 education beat,” a panel from IRE’s inaugural AccessFest 2023 conference, featuring two veteran journalists who cover education. Melissa Barragán Taboada is the editor of the Globe’s “Great Divide” education team, which examines inequities in education. Prior to coming to the Globe in 2021, Taboada was a reporter and editor for 20 years at the Austin American-Statesman, where she led the paper’s education coverage. Taboada taught a "Reporting on Education" course in the School of Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin, her alma mater.Chastity Pratt is the education bureau chief responsible for leading The Wall Street Journal's coverage of pre-kindergarten through higher education, including managing education reporters based in bureaus across the country. She previously covered education at Bridge Magazine, the Detroit Free Press, Newsday and The Oregonian.Nakylah Carter reported this episode and is our host. IRE Editorial Director Doug Meigs edits the podcast. We are recorded in the studios of KBIA at the University of Missouri.You can find the podcast on Soundcloud, Spotify for Podcasts, Apple Podcasts and Amazon Music. If you have a story you think we should feature on the show, drop us a note at web@ire.org. We’d love to hear from you.Music credit: "Thoughtfulness," De Wolfe Music
Police rely on alcohol breath tests to convict drunken drivers. But what happens when the machines they use aren’t reliable? Stacy Cowley of The New York Times looked into the problem of faulty breath test machines and found thousands of cases where the tests were thrown out. On this episode, Stacy breaks down how she discovered unreliable breath tests and the consequences they pose for real people.
EPISODE NOTES: https://www.ire.org/archives/40664
Opioid addiction is a decades-long crisis that killed roughly 47,000 people in 2017 alone, largely due to the potency of fentanyl. But despite all the warning signs, Congress didn’t pass any legislation on opioids until 2016. On this week’s episode, we’ll hear how Katie Zezima of the Washington Post tracked inaction in Congress and visited a small town in rural Massachusetts to witness the consequences firsthand.
EPISODE NOTES: ire.org/archives/40144
Investigative Reporters and Editors was formed in 1975, the year before Arizona Republic reporter Don Bolles was killed by a car bomb. He died days before he was scheduled to speak at IRE’s first annual conference. Now, decades after his death, the team at The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com found tapes Bolles recorded before he was killed. On this special episode, we’re sharing the first installment of the their new podcast “Rediscovering: Don Bolles, A Murdered Journalist.” We hope you love it as much as we do.
EPISODE NOTES: ire.org/archives/39877
On this bonus episode, we’re sharing audio from the 2016 IRE Conference. In a session on narrative storytelling, reporters T. Christian Miller and Ken Armstrong explain how they wrote their Pulitzer-winning story “An Unbelievable Story of Rape”. Their reporting is the basis of a new Netflix limited series called “Unbelievable".
EPISODE NOTES: bit.ly/2PXWzLW
When protests rocked Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, few realized the tensions could be traced to a policy-based problem — local police were fining residents at abnormally high rates to fund the city’s operating budget. Mike Maciag of Governing Magazine spent a year looking into other communities reliant on fines. He found a trend that’s destabilizing governments in low-income communities across the country.
EPISODE NOTES: www.ire.org/archives/39170
When police kill civilians, the victims are often people of color. So, when Arizona Republic reporters Uriel Garcia and Bree Burkitt decided to investigate police shootings in their state, they knew their sources should be as diverse as their community. On this week’s episode, we’ll go behind the reporting to learn how they tallied police shootings, identified sources, and used data and documents to show the true scope of the problem.
EPISODE NOTES: bit.ly/2ms5dFy
On this week’s episode, we’re sharing audio from the 2019 CAR Conference. Reporters from Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting, Newsy, KUT Austin and ProPublica explained how they got data on “cleared” cases from more than 100 police departments across the country. The data showed police weren’t solving as many rape cases as they claimed.
EPISODE NOTES: www.ire.org/archives/38358
On this special episode, students at the Missouri Investigative Journalism Workshop discuss their experiences at the weeklong summer program. Investigative Reporters & Editors supported the workshop, which was held at the Missouri School of Journalism. Corey Johnson of the Tampa Bay Times and Paula Lavigne of ESPN served as guest instructors.
Host: Matthew O'Stricker of Woodward Academy (Georgia) Guests: Renee Born of Olathe North High School (Kansas), Ellianna Cierpoit of Blue Valley North High School (Kansas) and Kaden Meyer of Washington High School (Missouri).
Music: Sunday Morning by Podington Bear Production: Sarah Hutchins, IRE& NICAR
Investigations today are full of data, documents and computer programming, but that wasn’t always the case. On this bonus episode, we’re sharing audio from the 2019 CAR Conference. Data journalism pioneer James B. Steele discusses his work with longtime reporting partner Donald L. Barlett. He also offers tips for finding stories and staying curious.
EPISODE NOTES: www.ire.org/archives/37860
For decades, children passed through the doors of Catholic orphanages. Some never walked out. On this week’s episode, Christine Kenneally takes us behind her work investigating hidden abuses in orphanages around the world. Her BuzzFeed News investigation uncovered that dozens of children had died violently, their deaths covered up and lost to time.
EPISODE NOTES: http://bit.ly/2ZJEXWH
Think about the last time you got a call, email or direct message from someone who wanted to share a crazy story. You might have thought there was no way what they were telling you could be true. That’s what happened to Brett Kelman, a reporter at the Tennessean. A tip about military health care fraud back in 2015 seemed too wild to be true — until it wasn’t. On this episode, Brett breaks down how he reported the story years after getting the tip and how there’s still more fraud to be uncovered.
EPISODE NOTES: ire.org/archives/37432
On high school graduation day, the future looks bright, especially for Boston’s valedictorians. But as years pass, things come to look quite different for the city’s top students. A quarter of them didn’t finish college within six years. Many wanted to be doctors, and today, none of them are. On this episode, Meghan Irons and Malcolm Gay of the Boston Globe take us behind their investigation into how the city’s valedictorians are fairing more than a decade after graduation. The project offered a new approach to investigating inequality and could be replicated in any community.
EPISODE NOTES: http://bit.ly/2XWSLfl
In Oregon’s memory care facilities, confirmed abuse cases are more than twice as common as in other types of senior centers. Residents live in filthy conditions, develop bedsores, even die in the care of overworked and overwhelmed caregivers. But the failures of that system can be opaque unless you’re already trapped inside it. On this episode, Fedor Zarkhin walks us through The Oregonian’s investigation into memory care centers and discusses a tool his team made to help Oregonians find safe elder care facilities for their family members.
EPISODE NOTES: bit.ly/2H2CuzA
Journalism has always been a stressful job, but new challenges and pressures have made the work even more daunting. On this bonus episode, we’re reaching into our archives for audio from the 2018 IRE Conference. During a panel about managing stress, reporters Ken Armstrong, Mike Hixenbaugh and Lulu Ramadan recounted difficult experiences and talked about how they balance their jobs and personal lives. Ken also surveyed three dozen journalists to find out how they unwind.
EPISODE NOTES: http://bit.ly/2TbFL2Z
Mice, mold and lead paint. Tenants in Illinois public housing complexes were doing their best to make their conditions more livable. But even after the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development swooped in and seized control, change wasn’t swift. On this week’s episode, Molly Parker, an investigative reporter for the Southern Illinoisan and a member of ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network, walks us through her deep dives into public housing. Her reporting found the federal government failed many of the citizens it was supposed to be sheltering.
EPISODE NOTES: bit.ly/2CaEHES
As podcast audiences continue to grow, more newsrooms are making the leap to telling stories with sound. Podcasts can be a great vehicle for investigations, allowing journalists to reach interested audiences around the world. But the format also presents challenges, especially when it comes to working with watchdog staples like data and documents. On this episode, Robin Amer takes us behind her USA TODAY podcast “The City” and shares how she made the 10-episode investigation work for audio.
EPISODE NOTES: http://bit.ly/2LmxPbP
In 2016, nearly 2.2 million adults were behind bars. If that were a city, it would be the nation’s fifth largest. That’s a critical community and one journalists often struggle to reach. On this episode, we’ll be exploring ways journalists can amplify the voices of inmates. The Marshall Project’s Eli Hager discusses the nonprofit’s popular “Life Inside” feature that highlights first-person essays from inmates and others close to the criminal justice system. Next, Shaheen Pasha and Razvan Sibii, senior lecturers in UMass Amherst’s journalism department, walk us through their prison journalism course. Their class pairs university students with inmates to tell stories from inside and out.
EPISODE NOTES: bit.ly/2Q9q8KV
Every year, more than 2,000 women in Minnesota report to police that they were raped or sexually assaulted. So, the Minneapolis Star Tribune decided to take a look at what happens after a report is made, analyzing more than 1,000 cases. They found that in almost half, police failed to interview potential witnesses. In roughly a third, the investigator never interviewed the victim. And in a quarter, police never assigned an investigator to the case. Reporter Brandon Stahl takes us behind the investigation.
EPISODE NOTES: bit.ly/2JHBPD9
Blood delivers oxygen to our tissues. It fights off infections. It courses through our veins. But can it help us catch a murderer? A little-known arm of forensic science, known as bloodstain pattern analysis, believes it can. On this week’s episode, Pamela Colloff, a senior reporter at ProPublica and writer-at-large for The New York Times Magazine, takes us through her investigation into the case of Joe Bryan, a high school principal serving 99 years in prison for the murder of his wife. His conviction was based largely on expert testimony surrounding bloodstain patterns prosecutors argued placed Joe at the scene of the crime. EPISODE NOTES: bit.ly/2RPFKBb
After Hurricane Harvey devastated homes and businesses in southeast Texas, construction workers began the long process of rebuilding. But when payday came, some found their checks were short or that they didn’t get one at all. An investigation from the Dallas Morning News and Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting found that Texas officials did little to protect workers, both legal and undocumented, from wage theft. On this episode, reporter James Barragán takes us through his investigation into worker exploitation after the storm.
EPISODE NOTES: bit.ly/2xZ4bnt
Sometimes seeing is believing. But in Texas, at least, it’s not always that easy. Thanks to an obscure loophole in the Texas Public Information Act, law enforcement agencies can withhold evidence, including dash cam footage and recordings, if a suspect didn’t go through the court process. On this week’s episode, Josh Hinkle and Sarah Rafique of TV station KXAN discuss their investigation into the law’s unintended effects. Information in cases involving dead suspects — including deaths in police custody — can remain confidential, even to family of the deceased.
EPISODE NOTES: bit.ly/2OvR1EP
More than 1.4 million people in the U.S. alone have fallen victim to a mail scam centered around a psychic named Maria Duval. Officials around the world have tried to shutter the multimillion-dollar scheme with little success. It was unclear if the scam’s namesake was even a real person. So, CNN investigative reporters Blake Ellis and Melanie Hicken decided to follow the fraud back to its source and uncover its leaders. Their reporting took them through a maze of shell companies, to a Brazilian surfing school and even the South of France.
EPISODE NOTES: bit.ly/2LVastF
We’ve often wondered what happens with the investigations featured on the podcast. So, we decided to check in with three newsrooms featured on previous episodes and find out. Brian Rosenthal will share the impact of his Houston Chronicle investigation into Texas special education. Journalists at Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting share an exciting discovery about the identity of Mountain Jane Doe. And the Associated Press reporters behind the 2015 investigation “Seafood from Slaves” take us through their latest investigation.
EPISODE NOTES: bit.ly/2zMhxaa
An anonymous tip led the Los Angeles Times to a shocking revelation about the University of Southern California’s medical school dean, an internationally renowned physician. Faculty and staff had complained for years about dean Carmen Puliafito’s conduct, but it wasn’t until the Times uncovered his secret drug use and partying that he was removed from the university. On this week’s episode, Paul Pringle of the L.A. Times takes us through his investigation into the dean’s double life.
EPISODE NOTES: bit.ly/2IDYGSQ
February 14, 2018 started out as a relatively calm day for Florida’s Sun Sentinel newsroom. Then, Nikolas Cruz walked into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School with a semiautomatic rifle. Before the day was done, 17 people would be dead and 17 more would be wounded in one of the deadliest school shootings in modern American history. On this week’s episode, reporters Megan O’Matz and Brittany Wallman discuss how they investigated Cruz’s background amid the chaos of breaking news. Interviews, leaked documents and records requests revealed that officials had been warned of the shooter’s troubled past.
EPISODE NOTES: bit.ly/2Fuhi0P
If you’re walking down the street in San Francisco, it’s impossible to ignore. On any given day there are nearly 7,500 homeless people on the city’s streets. It’s an issue many of America’s largest cities are struggling to keep up with. But some have found a cheap solution to reduce their homeless populations: one-way bus tickets out of town. On this week’s episode, we talk with The Guardian’s Alastair Gee and Julia Carrie Wong about their 18-month nationwide investigation that revealed the extent to which cities were abandoning their homeless.
EPISODE NOTES: bit.ly/2Gik8bq
If someone dies under suspicious circumstances, it’s a medical examiner’s job to figure out what happened. But in New Jersey, 40 years of neglect has made it difficult for forensic pathologists to do their jobs. The result: grieving families without answers and potentially innocent people behind bars. On this week’s episode, Stephen Sterling and Sean Sullivan of NJ Advance Media take us through their investigation into New Jersey’s broken system.
EPISODE NOTES: bit.ly/2CLlUyw
A 1982 Virginia law meant to reduce recidivism had a pretty simple concept: Three strikes and you’re out. Or, in prison terms, you’re in for good. On this week’s episode, we talk with Virginian-Pilot reporter Tim Eberly about his three-month investigation into the law. Tim interviewed 41 “three-strikers” and found that the majority had never been to prison before and hadn’t harmed anyone in their crimes, and for that, they were serving more time than many murderers. Hear how Tim’s reporting could change the lives of hundreds of inmates affected by the law. EPISODE NOTES: bit.ly/2E1Ig3u
President Donald Trump’s pick for education secretary caused quite a stir. Betsy DeVos barely passed her senate confirmation hearing, sparking protests from teachers and education advocates across the country. Their biggest complaint? Her support of something called school vouchers or scholarships. These programs give students public money to attend private schools. On this week’s episode, we talk with Orlando Sentinel reporter Leslie Postal about her on-the-ground look at Florida’s program, one of the largest in the country. Leslie, along with colleagues Annie Martin and Beth Kassab, visited 35 schools, dug through thousands of pages of documents and looked beyond the political debate to the people most affected: parents and students.
EPISODE NOTES: bit.ly/2D8IXVQ
A slow-moving housing crisis has been tearing apart communities in the city of Detroit. Homeowners have been replaced by renters. Mortgage and tax foreclosures have allowed landlords to scoop up potential rental properties on the cheap. On this episode, Detroit News reporter Christine MacDonald walks us through her data-driven investigation into evictions. Christine explains how the paper analyzed nearly 285,000 eviction cases and developed sources who could put a human face on the problem. EPISODE NOTES: http://bit.ly/2keesFx
The Society of Professional Journalists advises that reporters should only use undercover methods when absolutely necessary to get information that’s vital to the public. But even if a reporter follows those guidelines, where do they stand in the eyes of the law? Are they still vulnerable to civil suits and criminal charges? On this bonus episode, Jane Kirtley, the head of the Silha Center for the Study of Media Ethics and Law at the University of Minnesota, talks about some of the legal implications of going undercover in the U.S.
EPISODE NOTES: bit.ly/2ivROuC
When you think about temp work, short-term office jobs are likely to come to mind. But across North America, all of that is changing. These days, factories and other industrial companies are using temporary laborers to fill jobs that used to go to employees. The combination of low pay, minimal training and reduced liability has created a recipe for tragedy. On this episode, Sara Mojtehedzadeh of the Toronto Star talks about her decision to go undercover in an industrial bakery to understand the realities of a workforce at risk. EPISODE NOTES: http://bit.ly/2iZuUci
The numbers are striking: Across the country, some 700-900 women die every year from pregnancy or childbirth-related causes. The U.S. has the worst rate of maternal deaths in the developed world. For more than six months, ProPublica’s Nina Martin and NPR’s Renee Montagne dug into the stories behind these statistics. On this episode of the podcast, Nina and Renee discuss how they shed light on a system that places a greater emphasis on caring for newborns than the mothers who birthed them.
EPISODE NOTES: bit.ly/2zFf7s7
For a local sheriff, Joe Arpaio can’t seem to stay out of the national news. The longtime Maricopa County Sheriff made headlines again this summer when, in the wake of a criminal conviction, he was was pardoned by President Trump. But Arpaio’s story goes back nearly two decades. On this episode we’re turning back the clock to the late 2000s, when reporter Ryan Gabrielson and Paul Giblin of the East Valley Tribunethe launched an investigation into some of the questionable things happening in Arpaio’s office. Their investigation would go on to win a Pulitzer Prize and change the conversation around "America’s toughest sheriff."
EPISODE NOTES: bit.ly/2gDyO8S
On this week’s episode, former Chicago Tribune reporter Jason Grotto explains why investigating municipal finance isn’t as dry and daunting as you might think. What started with a dig through county property taxes ended with a three-part series delving into how and why Chicago’s broken property tax system benefited the wealthy and burdened the poor. During his two-year investigation, Jason ran up against complex data analysis, tight-lipped officials and hesitant sources.
EPISODE NOTES: bit.ly/2yFdqrA
Investigations often don’t go according to plan. Dead-end data and stubborn sources are just some of the factors that can throw off a months-long reporting project. Other times, breaking news can put your work on the fast track to publication. That’s exactly what happened to the Tampa Bay Times when reporter Corey Johnson and colleague John Romano started digging into Henry Lyons, a powerhouse preacher who once swindled millions as the head of one of the largest religious organizations in the country. On this episode, we talk to Corey about how he was able to obtain church records and how breaking news forced the paper to make a detour from their original plans.
EPISODE NOTES: bit.ly/2wD765W
After the 2016 election, reporters across the country began noticing what seemed like a wave of hate crimes, harassment and abuse. But with limited data, they weren’t sure if what they were seeing marked an increase. To solve that problem, more than 100 news organizations united to tell the story of hate in America. They’re led by ProPublica’s Rachel Glickhouse, the partner manager for the project “Documenting Hate.” On this episode, we talk to Rachel and Jessica Weiss, a Univision reporter participating in the collaboration.
EPISODE NOTES: bit.ly/2hZRinG
Federal regulators counted 99 cases of advanced black lung over a five-year period in the U.S. So why is it that hundreds of miners with the most serious stage of the disease are walking into clinics across Appalachia? That’s the question NPR’s Howard Berkes set out to answer last year. Howard ultimately found that the number of advanced black lung cases was at least 10 times the number generated by federal regulators. On this episode, Howard takes us through his reporting and explains how he found and counted cases the regulators missed.
EPISODE NOTES: bit.ly/2uIxT04
If there's one word to describe Craig Harris and Dennis Wagner's Arizona Republic investigation, it’s diligence. They spent 18 months untangling a complex web of issues feeding the Navajo Nation's housing crisis, all while turning other stories. Their investigation put the Navajo Housing Authority and HUD under a microscope for consistently failing to provide the homes and renovations needed by thousands on the reservation.
EPISODE NOTES: bit.ly/2qfGbXw
Thomas Hargrove spent decades reporting for the Scripps Howard News Service — until he was abruptly laid off in 2015. Then things got interesting: Court battles, destroyed records, and an algorithm that just might be able to spot serial killers.
EPISODE NOTES: bit.ly/2q5nxSj
How do you cover a topic as complicated and divisive as immigration? On this episode, Jay Root and Todd Wiseman take us through the Texas Tribune’s approach. Their “Bordering on Insecurity” project went beyond border walls and sanctuary cities to explain the deeper issues at play in the immigration debate. The reporters talked their way onto a crime scene in El Salvador, calculated how many people in Texas prisons were undocumented, and investigated what feeds the demand for immigrant labor.
EPISODE NOTES: bit.ly/2nxWv8H
If there’s a sweet spot in investigative journalism, Brian Rosenthal found it. His investigation into special education in Texas schools managed to pull back the curtain on a policy that was felt by thousands of students, teachers and parents – and was understood by none. Brian’s reporting for the Houston Chronicle revealed that state officials were arbitrarily blocking hundreds of thousands of children from the services they needed. On this episode, Brian talks about his investigation and its impact.
EPISODE NOTES: bit.ly/2o9lqfx
What happens when you investigate the leader of your own country? There’s perhaps never been a more relevant time to ask that question. On this episode, we’ll hear from two journalists who went up against some of the most powerful people and institutions in their own backyards. Rita Vásquez of Panama’s La Prensa and Vlad Lavrov, a staff writer for the Kyiv Post in Ukraine, discuss how they contributed to the massive Panama Papers investigation and offer tips for journalists wanting to afflict the powerful in any country.
EPISODE NOTES: http://bit.ly/2krqUCx
Soaring heroin and opioid addiction rates have left journalists across the country looking for new ways to cover the crisis and make the statistics stick. On this episode, we talk to reporters at two papers who found innovative ways to humanize America’s heroin epidemic. Stephen Stirling of NJ Advance Media takes us on a tour of “Herointown,” the state’s fourth largest city. Then Pat Beall and Mike Stucka of the Palm Beach Post discuss how they identified and profiled all 216 heroin deaths that occurred in one county in one year.
EPISODE NOTES: http://bit.ly/2jvIYLM
It’s been 50 years since the federal Freedom of Information Act was signed into law. A lot’s happened since then – not all of it good for the press. We’re calling this bonus episode "The State of the FOIA" because, over the next 30 minutes, we’ll be talking to three experts to figure out what our open records law looks like today and where we go from here. Media law scholar Jonathan Peters will provide some context on changes to the law, and reporters Philip Eil and Jason Leopold will help prepare us for our next FOIA battle by sharing stories of their hard-fought cases.
EPISODE NOTES: bit.ly/2i6VQUq
One of the biggest scoops this election cycle came from Washington Post reporter David Fahrenthold. His relentless shoe-leather reporting – and list making – revealed that Donald Trump wasn’t exactly the philanthropist he was claiming to be on the campaign trail. Instead of donating his own money to charity, Trump would give away or spend dollars donated to his foundation by other people. On this episode, David shares his experiences investigating Trump, talks about how he felt the morning after the election and offers tips for journalists covering the president-elect.
EPISODE NOTES: ire.org/archives/30480
If you’re listening to this podcast, you’re affected by the topic of our show today. The phone, computer or tablet you’re using to play this episode is likely powered by a lithium-ion battery. And one of the main ingredients in those batteries is cobalt. Much of our cobalt comes from the Congo, where miners often dig by hand in unsafe conditions to find and sell the valuable mineral. On this episode, Washington Post journalists Todd Frankel, Michael Chavez and Jorge Ribas discuss their work in the Congo and explain how they tracked the supply chain back to the U.S.
EPISODE NOTES: http://bit.ly/2genkrx
How many people in the U.S. die of antibiotic-resistant infections? It seems like a simple question. But when a team of journalists from Reuters set out to gather the numbers, they realized that the answer would be anything but straightforward. They found out no one was properly keeping track of how many people die from these “superbugs” every year. On this episode, Deborah Nelson, Ryan McNeill and Yasmeen Abutaleb discuss their reporting process, from death certificate text analysis to interviewing loved ones left behind.
EPISODE NOTES: bit.ly/2fgYBSA
If you’ve ever been stopped by police, it’s likely an officer filled out something called a field contact report. Officials say the documents can be useful crime-solving tools, but they also have an unintended side effect: police now have massive digital databases tracking law-abiding citizens. On this episode, Glenn Smith and Andrew Knapp of The Post and Courier in Charleston, South Carolina, discuss how they investigated field interview practices across the country.
EPISODE NOTES: http://bit.ly/2eBGhVE
Brandon Stahl has spent years reporting on foster care for the Minneapolis Star Tribune. But at a meeting with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, he stumbled across a fact he’d never heard before: Minnesota places a higher share of American Indian kids into foster care than any other state. A year-long investigation with data journalist MaryJo Webster left them with a series of articles, some heartbreaking stories, and one big question.
EPISODE NOTES: http://bit.ly/2dDV6JK
What happens when a state cuts $100 million from its mental health budget? Reporters from the Tampa Bay Times and Sarasota Herald-Tribune spent 18 months finding out. Their Pulitzer-winning investigation exposed deadly violence in Florida's mental hospitals, where staff shortages, regulatory fumbling and years of neglect were, for years, hidden from the public eye. In today's episode, we hear from Anthony Cormier and Leonora LaPeter Anton, two of the reporters who helped spur reform in the broken mental health system.
EPISODE NOTES: bit.ly/2bLZz74
A team of journalists at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution uncovered a nationwide phenomenon of sexual abuse in the medical community. Thousands of doctors, many still practicing, had a lurid history of sexual misconduct, their crimes hidden from the public. On this episode, we’re talking to reporter Carrie Teegardin and illustrator Richard Watkins about how they found victims of abuse all over the country and told their stories.
EPISODE NOTES: http://bit.ly/2b3vEdK
Prisons have long posed a challenge for investigative journalists. And when you’re trying to report on a private prison – one owned by a company, not the government – the situation becomes even more challenging. On this episode, we’re talking to three reporters who managed to pull back the curtain on the for-profit prison system. Shane Bauer describes his risky decision to go undercover as a prison guard on assignment for Mother Jones. Then Marshall Project reporters Eli Hager and Alysia Santo take us through their less extreme but equally powerful investigation into the dangerous and deadly world of prisoner transportation companies.
EPISODE NOTES: bit.ly/2a3K8bR
No parent wants to put their child in danger. But when parents in some states enroll their children in religious day cares, that’s exactly what happens. On this episode, Reveal reporter Amy Julia Harris discusses what she found when she began investigating the exemptions granted to faith-based day cares. In a handful of states, religious day cares are free from government regulation, a fact some parents learned the hard way.
EPISODE NOTES: bit.ly/1ts8hjG
You’ve probably heard of Jason Leopold, even if his name doesn’t immediately ring a bell. He’s the journalist who forced the release of Hillary Clinton’s emails. He’s also unearthed shocking details on CIA torture and spying. Jason works at VICE News, and he's the master of the federal FOIA request. In fact, he’s such a prolific requester that a government employee once called him a “FOIA terrorist.” On this episode, we’re sharing some audio from the 2016 CAR Conference, where Jason shared some of his best tips for prying records out of the government.
EPISODE NOTES: bit.ly/1OIUl8E
No es un secreto en México, ni en Colombia, que la gente desaparece, muchas veces por los carteles y sin razón clara. Daniela Guazo y su equipo de datos de El Universal trabajo con El Tiempo de Colombia para darle una cara humana a la grave situación de los desaparecidos en ambos países.
NOTAS DEL EPISODIO: bit.ly/1QWqr0a
It’s no secret to Mexicans or Colombians that people are disappeared, all the time, often at the hands of cartels and with seemingly no reason. We talked with Daniela Guazo from Mexico’s El Universal about the work she and her team did along with Colombia’s El Tiempo to give a human face to an issue that has affected nearly 100,000 families.
EPISODE NOTES: bit.ly/1YhMrsp
For nearly 15 years, a journalism professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks has been investigating the case of the Fairbanks Four, a group of men convicted in the 1997 beating death of a teenager. And he hasn’t been working alone. Each year, students in Brian O’Donoghue’s investigative reporting class picked up the case. Their work had a huge impact: In December 2015, the Fairbanks Four were exonerated, freed after nearly two decades behind bars. On this episode, Brian takes us through the investigation.
EPISODE NOTES: bit.ly/26otklP
Approximately 2,700 women are serving time at Lowell Correctional Institution, the nation’s largest women’s prison. On this episode, Miami Herald reporter Julie Brown discusses her year-long investigation into Lowell. Documents, interviews and a Facebook page for former inmates helped her expose a world of sexual extortion, abuse and corruption inside the Florida prison.
EPISODE NOTES: bit.ly/1XcWQFa
There are certain pieces of advice you hear over and over again at our annual computer-assisted reporting conference: Get out there, take risks and experiment. So at our recent conference in Denver, we sent University of Missouri journalism student Jack Howard to do just that. On this bonus episode, you’ll hear his five-minute experiment: capturing the NICAR experience and turning it into audible data.
Chicago drivers have forked over more than $600 million for traffic fines captured by red light cameras. But an investigation by the Chicago Tribune found that the largest robotic camera system in the country hasn’t done much to make the streets safer. Instead, city officials have used Chicago drivers like a network of cash machines. Reporter David Kidwell takes us behind the story.
EPISODE NOTES: http://bit.ly/1OXFuWk
All across America, you can find foreign guest workers peeling crawfish, setting up carnival rides and trimming trees. But the visa program that legally brings them here is rife with problems. On this episode, Ken Bensinger and Jessica Garrison take us through their BuzzFeed News investigation into H-2 visas, a program that condemns thousands of workers to abuse and exploitation.
On this episode, reporter A.C. Thompson discusses his investigation into the deaths of five Vietnamese-American journalists between 1981 and 1990. Officials seemed to think that an anti-Communist group called the Front had been behind the slayings, but law enforcement agencies never charged anyone and the cases went cold. Thompson reopened the investigation for ProPublica and Frontline, tracking down former members of the Front to try and find out who silenced the press more than 30 years ago.
EPISODE NOTES: bit.ly/1PwEf5v
If you attended an IRE Conference in the early 2000s, the plot of the movie "Spotlight" might have sounded familiar. That’s because the Hollywood depiction of the Boston Globe’s investigation into the clergy sex abuse scandal stayed surprisingly true to the real behind-the-scenes story. How do we know? A few of the journalists depicted in the film – Walter Robinson, Marty Baron and Sacha Pfeiffer – discussed the reporting process at conferences in 2002 and 2003. We’re sharing some of that archival audio on this special bonus episode.
EPISODE NOTES: bit.ly/1kFoZqz
Every reporter has their own version of the story bucket list – a collection of ideas or issues they can’t die without covering. On this episode, we’ll hear how G.W. Schulz of The Center for Investigative Reporting crossed one off of his. G.W. spent nearly eight years reporting on America’s missing and unidentified dead, unearthing stories about the victims, their loved ones and the sleuths trying to close their cases for good.
EPISODE NOTES: http://bit.ly/1P2oCmq
There are some phone calls that will always be hard to make as a reporter. Reaching out to grieving relatives in the wake of a death is one of them. On this episode, Minneapolis Star Tribune reporter Jeff Meitrodt discusses what it was like to do that over and over again as he pieced together a powerful four-part investigation on deaths on family farms.
EPISODE NOTES: http://bit.ly/1XrUlTs
Meet Steve Fainaru and Mark Fainaru-Wada. You might have guessed from their names that they’re brothers. They’re also both investigative journalists working for ESPN. On this episode, we’re sharing pieces of our conversations with the brothers during their recent trip to the University of Missouri. We talk about everything from their reporting on the NFL’s concussion crisis to the much-discussed relationship between ESPN and the NFL, and how they decide when to team up on a reporting project.
EPISODE NOTES: http://bit.ly/1WPh9qG
How do you get the truth out of a liar? On this bonus episode, experts weigh in on just that. You’ll hear from investigative reporter Matt Apuzzo, former CIA polygraph examiner Barry McManus, and former FBI counterterrorism agent Don Borelli. In this audio pulled from the 2015 IRE Conference, the three discuss how to develop rapport, when to get confrontational and how to spot kernels of truth hidden in all those lies.
EPISODE NOTES: bit.ly/1k55MP5
For years, the U.S. has pushed education as one of its major triumphs in Afghanistan. The government helped build schools, train teachers, issue textbooks and educate scores of girls. And for years, that legacy went relatively unchecked. But when Azmat Khan of BuzzFeed News began questioning the numbers and visiting schools in the region this year, she found a very different reality. On this episode, Azmat walks us through her reporting into Afghanistan’s "ghost schools."
EPISODE NOTES: http://bit.ly/1G5YfJZ
You don’t want to have a run-in with a police dog in North Port, Florida. A year-long investigation by Michael Davidson of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune found that North Port’s canines have been biting people at an alarming rate. And the dogs aren’t just drawing a little blood. Many of suspects on the receiving end of K-9 unit attacks have been left with serious, lasting injuries. On this episode, Davidson takes us behind the story and explains how he tackled the reporting while covering other assignments.
EPISODE NOTES: http://bit.ly/1JAfrC6
What happens to immigrants convicted of sex crimes? The answer, Maria Sacchetti found out, is often unsettling. Her investigation for the Boston Globe revealed that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was quietly releasing violent offenders back into the U.S. when their home countries wouldn’t take them. On this episode, Sacchetti talks about the reporting process – including a lawsuit that forced ICE to give up the names of released criminals.
EPISODE NOTES: http://bit.ly/1QAIXxA
With students across the country heading back to campus, we thought it was time to take a behind-the-scenes look at a student investigation. This week we’re talking to Megan Jula, a journalism student at Indiana University, about her reporting on the school’s mental health care services. Megan found that Indiana (and many other large public universities) wasn’t meeting nationally recommended student-to-counselor ratios, resulting in scheduling delays that put students at risk.
EPISODE NOTES: http://bit.ly/1JfAN8Z
This week we're taking a look at a joint investigation between The Marshall Project and NPR. The two teamed up to look at what happens when prisoners go straight from solitary confinement back to the streets. Reporters Christie Thompson and Joseph Shapiro will discuss how they worked through common prison reporting roadblocks.
EPISODE NOTES: http://bit.ly/1S8jLD7
How do you earn the trust of a source like, say, Edward Snowden? Or the former bodyguard of Osama bin Laden? On this bonus episode of the podcast we’ll hear from someone who did just that. Earlier this year documentarian Laura Poitras spoke with Toronto Star reporter Robert Cribb at the 2015 IRE Conference. In the three clips you’re about to hear, Poitras discusses each of her films: "My Country, My Country," "The Oath" and "Citizenfour." She’ll talk about getting access, capturing candid moments and more.
Episode notes: http://bit.ly/1O6SE5u
When Tampa Bay Times reporters Alexandra Zayas and Kameel Stanley got their hands on state and local data about bike tickets, they found some sobering statistics. Tampa police were stopping bicyclists at an alarming rate. And eight out of 10 of the bicyclists ticketed were black.
It’s a great story, and even if your community isn’t handing out bike tickets like candy, this is one that could be replicated in communities across the country. So grab a notebook. On this episode, Alex and Kameel walk us through how they made it happen.
SHOW NOTES: http://bit.ly/1IGaHLf
Seymour Hersh is an investigative reporter with a storied career dating back to his reporting on the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War. Recently, his reporting on the killing of Osama bin Laden, a narrative that runs counter to the one widely circulated, has garnered a wide range of reactions. Hersh addressed all of that and more at the recent IRE Conference in Philadelphia. Today we’re sharing a section of his conversation with Leonard Downie Jr., former executive editor of the Washington Post.
If you’re having seafood for dinner, there’s a chance it was caught by a slave. That’s what the Associated Press uncovered when reporters traveled to the remote island of Benjina, Indonesia. They found workers trapped in cages, forced to work 22-hour days for almost no pay. And when they followed the fish, they learned some of it ended up in US restaurants and supermarkets. Reporters Martha Mendoza, Margie Mason and Robin McDowell walk us through their high-impact investigation.
When the Washington, DC police chief bristled over a question about witness executions, Washington Post reporter Cheryl W. Thompson knew she was on to something. On this episode we’ll be talking to Thompson about her investigation into witness killings and intimidation. And for the second half of the show we dug into our audio archives for some interview tips from Tisha Thompson, an investigative reporter at NBC4 Washington.
Meet Nigel Jaquiss, the Pulitzer-winning journalist whose reporting brought about the resignation of Oregon’s longest-serving governor. Today we’re exploring Jaquiss’ path from Wall Street oil trader to muckraking journalist. He’s sharing his process for working through an investigation and explaining how he broke stories about some of the state’s most powerful politicians. We’ll also take a look at his most recent investigation, "First Lady Inc.," which recently won IRE’s highest honor for investigative reporting.
We’re taking a break from our reported podcasts this week to bring you audio from a conversation between legendary investigative reporter Bob Woodward and former Washington Post Executive Editor Leonard Downie, Jr.
During a session at the 2009 IRE Conference in Baltimore, the two covered media failures, the editor-reporter relationship, and what dinner with Al Gore is like.
When a Navy helicopter crashed off the coast of Virginia in January 2014, Jason Paladino lost one of his childhood friends - Petty Officer Third Class Brian Collins. But instead of grieving the loss and moving on, Paladino, a journalism grad student at UC-Berkeley, decided to investigate. Working with The Virginian-Pilot and NBC News he helped expose serious problems with the MH-53E Sea Dragon, the Navy’s oldest and most crash-prone helicopter.
On this episode of the podcast we’re going behind the investigation with Paladino, Mike Hixenbaugh of The Virginian-Pilot and Anna Schecter of NBC News.
IRE’s Shawn Shinneman talks with Los Angeles Times reporter Richard Marosi about his 18-month investigation into the working conditions of Mexican agribusinesses supplying produce to major U.S. supermarkets and restaurants. Tune in to hear Marosi discuss the reporting challenges he faced on the ground in Mexico. Also on this episode: A 3-minute guide to mapping by former NICAR database library student Travis Hartman.
How many times a year do police kill people? And what happens to officers after they fire a fatal shot? Those were just some of the questions prompted by the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and Eric Garner in New York. On this episode of the IRE Radio Podcast we’ll be talking to some of the journalists working to answer those questions.
Americans donate about $300 billion a year to charities, with about 30 percent of that taking place in December. But not all charities are good stewards of donated dollars. For our last podcast of 2014 we’re talking about how to investigate nonprofits and charities. Here’s the lineup:
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Justin Elliott of ProPublica talks about investigating the American Red Cross’ Superstorm Sandy relief efforts.
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Craig Harris of the Arizona Republic explains how he exposed major problems with the nonprofits running the Fiesta Bowl
It’s a special Halloween episode of the IRE Radio Podcast, and this week we’re telling some housing horror stories. Here’s the lineup:
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Marisa Kwiatkowski of The Indianapolis Star talks about her story "The exorcisms of Latoya Ammons," which became the most-read story in the Star’s history.
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Kate Berry of American Banker explains "zombie foreclosures" and offers tips for reporters looking to track them.
It's not easy prying information out of hospitals and health departments. On our podcast this week we’ll hear from journalists who successfully negotiated for the data or documents they needed to fuel an investigation. Here’s the lineup:
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Gary Dotson of the Belleville News-Democrat shares the paper’s 2012 story about the state’s failure to investigate after disabled adults living at home died from abuse or neglect.
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Robin Fields of ProPublica explains how she successfully argued for data on dialysis facilities across the country.
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Ellen Gabler of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel discusses “Deadly Delays,” an instigation that exposed processing delays that put newborn lives at risk.
You don’t have to be a full-time sports reporter to investigate athletes. This week we’re looking at sports investigations on several levels: college, military and professional. Join us for tips on getting around secretive athletics departments and digging deeper when players get in trouble. Here’s the lineup:
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Tom Roeder of the Colorado Springs Gazette discusses “Broken Code,” his investigation into the Air Force Academy’s athletics program.
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Jill Riepenhoff of the Columbus Dispatch explains how she tracked speeding tickets of Ohio State athletes.
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Brent Schrotenboer of USA Today Sports talks about investigating football team doctors.
Think oil and gas stories are just for reporters in a few key states? Think again. There are more than 1.1 million active oil and gas wells in 36 states. On this podcast we’ll explore the dark side of the oil and gas boom with journalists who have investigated elements of the industry. Here’s the lineup:
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Bob Marshall of The Lens discusses his reporting on "Losing Ground," a multimedia project that visualizes and explains the deterioration of the Louisiana coastline.
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Blake Morrison of Reuters talks about an investigation into Chesapeake Energy Corporation.
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Ed Williams of KDNK, a community radio station in Colorado, explains how he investigated gas spills on private property.
This week we bring you an education-themed podcast in two acts. First we’ll talk about campus coverage, specifically investigations into Title IX and sexual assault. In Act II we’ll turn to K-12 education with a piece on school segregation. Here’s the lineup:
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Paula Lavigne and Nicole Noren of ESPN talk about their investigation into Title IX complaints on college campuses.
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Nikole Hannah-Jones of ProPublica discusses the state of school segregation 60 years after the Brown v. Board decision.
When a story breaks, speed is key. But so are depth, context and accuracy. So how do you cover the news while simultaneously digging deeper? This week we’re talking about investigating breaking news. Our speakers will cover everything from identifying sources on the scene to developing a plan for watchdog coverage. Here’s the lineup:
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Scott Friedman from KXAS-TV in Dallas-Forth Worth, Texas explains the station’s three-step process for turning breaking news coverage into an ongoing and in-depth investigation.
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Leonard Downie Jr., former executive editor of the Washington Post, talks about how the paper got creative to find sources immediately following the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007.
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Jennifer Peck of Banjo discusses the free social media app and explains how journalists have used it to cover breaking news.
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Blair Hickman, previously of ProPublica, discusses how the non-profit newsroom used its audience to mine documents on spending during the 2012 presidential election.
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Brandon Quester of the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting explains how to use the Public Insight Network to find sources.
A good reporter-editor relationship can make or break your investigative project. This week's episode is all about building chemistry in your newsroom. Here’s the lineup:
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Alexandra Zayas and Chris Davis of the Tampa Bay Times talk about working together on the 2012 series “In God’s Name.”
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Alison Young and John Hillkirk of USA TODAY walk through some of the key moments in their work on “Supplemental Shell Game,” a multi-platform project on dietary supplement firms run by people with criminal backgrounds.
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Kate Martin, Nanci Wilson and Matthew Doig share tips for pitching investigative stories and managing project time.
This week we’re talking about investigating veterans issues, past and present. Here’s the lineup:
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Dennis Wagner of the Arizona Republic discusses how he helped break open the most recent scandal involving falsified wait-time data at the Phoenix VA hospital.
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Aaron Glantz of the Center for Investigative Reporting talks about benefit backlogs at the Veterans Benefits Administration.
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Michael Phillips of the Wall Street Journal walks through his 2013 series “The Lobotomy Files.” Using documents from the National Archive, Phillips was able to document how the U.S. lobotomized approximately 2,000 World War II veterans.
Welcome to another episode of the IRE Radio Podcast. On this week’s episode we’re talking about crime – everything from fact-checking police stats to building databases to track gun violence. Here’s the lineup:
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Michael Berens of The Seattle Times gets things started with a story about an odd beam of light, some dead rabbits and a police chopper.
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Debra Juarez, news director at NBC 5 Chicago, talks about the ethics of naming suspects involved in a prostitution sting.
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Steve Thompson of the Dallas Morning News and Ben Poston of the Los Angeles Times explain how to spot red flags in crime stat data.
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David Fallis of the Washington Post walks through how he combined two data sets to track down the sources of guns used in crimes.
Welcome to the third episode of the IRE Radio Podcast. We’re taking a cue from reporter Corey Johnson and calling this episode “True Believers.” This week we’ll be talking about how to find crucial sources and, more importantly, how to get them to talk. Here’s the lineup:
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Corey Johnson of the Center for Investigative Reporting talks about how he found "true believers" as he reported on unsafe schools for California Watch.
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Michael Isikoff explains how he got Department of Justice whistleblower Thomas Tamm to talk for his 2008 Newsweek story.
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Shawn Boburg of The Record in northern New Jersey discusses how he sourced his award-winning coverage of the George Washington Bridge scandal.
We're back with another episode of the IRE Radio Podcast. This week we're focusing on FOIA. Here's the lineup:
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Kirsten B. Mitchell, a former journalist and current facilitator with The Office of Government Information Services, talks about common FOIA problems and how to fix them.
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Deb Nelson, Michael Ravnitzky, Charles Ornstein, and Jennifer LaFleur share tips on beating FOIA fees, arguing for data, and more.
Looking for links to the stories, resources and events we discussed on this week's podcast? We've collected them for you: http://bit.ly/1oA5s7l
Welcome to the first episode of the IRE Radio Podcast. Here's what's coming up:
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Get caught up on IRE news, including information on the upcoming conference in San Francisco.
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NICAR Database Library Director Liz Lucas talks about her job and explains how NICAR can help journalists.
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Listen to three reporters discuss how they dealt with difficult data. We've got Will Evans (Center for Investigative Reporting), Ryan McNeill (Reuters) and Fredreka Schouten (USA TODAY).