The Journalism Salute

On this episode, Mark Simon is joined by Mary C Curtis . Mary is a longtime reporter and editor, and now columnist for Congressional Quarterly Roll Call – covering the intersection of politics, race and culture.  Mary is also a senior facilitator at The Op-Ed Project , a group that mentors people (mostly women) to share their stories and be thought leaders. She has 40 years in an NABJ Hall-of-Fame...

On today’s episode, Mark Simon interviews Jake Wittich . Jake is a reporter for Block Club Chicago covering different neighborhoods in the city and LGBTQ issues. He’s also the vice-president of the Chicago chapter of the NLGJA , which is the association of LGTBTQIA journalists. And – he’s part of Block Club thanks to Report for America , from which we’ve had many guests. Jake shares his journalism...

Denise Clay-Murray is a reporter with 30 years of journalism experience who was recently hired by Votebeat to cover the upcoming elections in Pennsylvania. Votebeat has reporters embedded around the country to cover stories related to the election process. Denise talked about the work she’ll be doing for Votebeat but also about her career covering elections and about why Votebeat is so important....

On this episode we’re joined by Gabrielle Hays . Gabrielle covers St. Louis for the PBS News Hour as a community correspondent. She both writes and does TV work.  She’s previously been a TV news reporter in Knoxville, Tennessee, and a reporter/producer for St. Louis’ PBS affiliate. Gabrielle talked about her career path, her current job, and the stories she’s covered, including multiple pieces on...

For episode number 75 of our podcast, we’re joined by Tionna Taite. Tionna will be attending the University of Alabama law school after completing her undergrad work there with a degree in News Media. Her minor is Advocacy, Voice, and Stewardship.   Two years ago, Tionna started a magazine for students, Nineteen Fifty-Six – the first Black student-led magazine at the school. It’s staffed by 50 stu...

On today’s episode, we’re joined by Nick Toso ( @rolliapp ). Nick spent 7 years at CNN, working largely in a production role on CNN Espa ñ ol. He supervised interviews with world leaders, including president Barack Obama, and was a senior producer for both a daily and weekly news show. He’s currently the founder of Rolli , an app that helps journalists find experts for any story they might be work...

Our guest today is Diana Kruzman. Diana is currently the Midwest Reporting Fellow for Grist which is a nonprofit, independent media organization that covers climate solutions.   But Diana has done a lot more than that. She also writes regularly about religion and urbanism, which includes some international reporting. Her Twitter bio asks – Journalist, or just plain nosy?   Diana talked about her u...

On this episode, we’re joined by Ted Bridis , a professor of investigative journalism at the University of Florida. Ted had a long career as an investigative journalist and editor. His team won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting on NYPD intelligence programs. He and his teams have done prominent work related to Hillary Clinton’s e-mail server, and Paul Manafort and Rick Gates’ cov...

On this episode of The Journalism Salute, we’re joined by Carol Marbin Miller and Daniel Chang of T he Miami Herald . With additional assistance from ProPublica, they produced a 5-part series published in April 2021 – Birth and Betrayal . This was about a Florida government program that was intended to help families of children who suffered catastrophic brain injuries at birth. But the program did...

On this episode, we’re joined by Kam Burns . Kam is an engagement editor at Politico, working on social media strategy after a couple of years in a similar position for Wired. Kam is also a founding member of the Transgender Journalists Association. He does freelance writing. In the last couple of years, he’s written pieces on the transgender travel experience published in Allure and National Geog...

On this issue, we talked with Susan LoTempio and Kristin Gilger of the National Center on Disability and Journalism . Susan, who had polio as an eight-month old and uses a wheelchair, talked about her long career as a newspaper editor and how she went from initially just writing headlines and editing to overseeing entire sections. Susan also gave examples of what you’ll see in writing about disabi...

On this episode, we’re joined by Jessica Meyers , editor-in-chief of Global Press Journal. Global Press builds and maintains independent news bureaus in some of the world’s least-covered places. Each bureau is staffed by local women journalists who are from the communities they cover. Jessica talked about Global Press’ mission, what sorts of stories Global Press Journal covers, what her role as ed...

On this episode, we’re joined by Starr Dunigan, a reporter for Reckon , an online website that covers the stories and tough and important issues facing the south. Her current primary role is writing the weekly Black Joy newsletter that comes out every Friday. Starr talked about her journalism career path, the different types of good news that she covers, the Birmingham 1963 project , and what it w...

On this episode, we’re joined by Anita Hofschneider, a staff writer with the non-profit Honolulu Civil Beat in Hawaii. Anita writes watchdog stories, investigative and explanatory deep-dives, features and breaking news. She has covered a variety of beats, including politics, housing, health care and the environment. In 2022, she became the Beat’s Pacific regional correspondent as the organization...

On this episode, we’re joined by Emma Restrepo. Emma is a freelance journalist focused on LatinX communities. She hosts a weekly Spanish-language radio show, Dos Puntos – out of Philadelphia. She’s also an adjunct professor at Temple, teaching Spanish for Media. Emma talked about her journalism origin story, some of her recent projects - one on disparities of education in Philadelphia suburbs, ano...

On this episode, we’re joined by Allie Singer . Allie is a senior editor for special projects at Time Magazine for Kids with previous stops at Scholastic and DK Publishing. Allie and I are both graduates of The College of New Jersey. I’m class of 1997. She’s class of 2009. Allie talked about the moment that changed her aspirations from a career in teaching to one in editing and journalism. She exp...

Rod McCullom is a Chicago-based science journalist and reports the “Convictions” column for Undark. His work has been published by Undark, Scientific American, Nature, MIT Technology Review, and The Atlantic, among other publications. Rod was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT. Rod discussed the different science topics he covers – a wide range but with special focus on health , artificial...

On this episode, we’re joined by Kelundra Smith . Kelundra ( @PieceofKay ) is the senior publications writer at Emory University but is also a journalist covering theatre, art and culture for a wide range of outlets, including The New York Times , Food and Wine, The Undefeated , and The Bitter Southerner . Kelundra talked about her path to a journalism career and some favorite pieces she’s written...

On this episode, we’re joined by Boston Globe senior newsroom developer Vince Dixon . Vince’s job is to create interactive and data-driven visuals for Boston Globe.com. He previously worked at Eater . Vince also does a lot of visual-oriented personal passion projects for his blog, Code Review – including a look at 28 Black Pioneers in Journalism, Design, and Technology in 2019. Vince talked about...

On this episode, we’re joined by Chris Jones . Chris is a photojournalist and investigative reporter and covers domestic extremism for the collaborative non-profit website, 100 Days in Appalachia as a member of the Report for America program.  He served as an infantryman in the United States Marine Corps from 2010–2014 and that included 2 deployments in Afghanistan.   Chris talked about his path t...

On today’s show, we’re joined by Katie Klingsporn. Katie is the managing editor of WyoFile , a non-profit member-supported public interest news service that covers the people, places, and policy of Wyoming. Katie is a former newspaper writer and editor with about 15 years experience. She’s done a lot of freelance reporting about life in the West as well. She’s a self-described word geek Katie talk...

On today’s show, we’re joined by Richard Davies . When you hear his voice, you may say “sounds familiar. He worked for ABC News Radio as a news reporter and host and worked in radio for 29 years. Richard currently heads his own podcast consulting business and co-hosts the solutions journalism podcast “ How Do We Fix It?” which has aired more than 300 episodes and is part of The Democracy Group . H...

On this episode, we’re joined for an interview by Carrington Tatum . Carrington is a reporter for MLK50 – a non-profit newsroom focused on poverty, power, and public policy that was founded in 2017 by journalist Wendi Thomas. He’s also a part of the Report for America program. Regular listeners know that we’re a huge fan of that organization, which is now taking applicants for its next reporting c...

On today’s show, Mark Simon is joined for an interview by Don Colacino . Don is a filmmaker who has just started production on a documentary, Trusted Sources , that is about the decline of trust in news and those working to restore it. Don talked about the work that he’s doing (including a considerable amount of research and reporting), outlined what the film will look like, and talked about some...

On this week’s episode, we are joined by Howard University junior Ashleigh Fields. Ashleigh is the editor in chief of The Hilltop , which is the student newspaper at the school. Ashleigh talked about her journalism origin story (she watched her mom, a TV news anchor) and her enjoyment of all forms of writing. She then discussed the big news story on campus – a housing crisis that led to the occupa...