The Journalism Salute

On our 300th episode we're joined by Cate Charron . Cate is in her 2nd year as a First Amendment reporter for The Indianapolis Star . This is one of five such positions across papers in the USA Today Network, owned by Gannett. It's sponsored by The Freedom Forum's Local Press Initiative and Journalism Funding Partners . Cate has worked for other newsrooms in Indiana, and rose as high a...

On our 299th episode, Mark Simon is joined by Kae Petrin . Kae is a data and graphics reporter for Civic News Company's data visuals team. Kae collaborates with local reporters to tell data-driven stories about education, voting rights, and health care. Kae has been with this organization for nearly 5 years. They are also the co-founder of the Trans Journalists Association, which began in 2020...

On this episode we're joined by Nancy Martinez Preyor-Johnson . Nancy is a senior projects reporter for the San Antonio Express-News . She was formerly a metro editor and editorial page editor and won awards for her opinion writing about the Uvalde school shooting and about immigration. She also used to be a high school journalism teacher. She's on the executive board for the National Asso...

On this episode we're joined by Amanda Perez Pintado . Amanda is a bilingual reporter covering health for The Center for Investigative Reporting in Puerto Rico (Centro De Periodismo Investigativo) and a journalism instructor teaching news writing and data journalism to college students. She's been in her current job for 2.5 years and has also worked at El Nuevo Dia and USA Today. She's...

On this episode Mark Simon is joined by Nierra Coleman-Jones and Eric Jourgensen . Nierra is the senior manager of educator engagement for the News Literacy Project. Eric is a teacher and newspaper advisor in Palm Beach County, Florida. They were here to promote the National News Literacy Conference, which will take place Oct. 8-10 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Nierra is one of the people running the c...

On this episode we're joined by Nevin Kallepalli. Nevin was a reporter for Shasta Scout, a non-profit newsroom serving Shasta County, California. We've talked to a lot of California-based reporters but I think Nevin is the first we've talked to in a politically-conservative part of the state. The demographics of Shasta are overwhelmingly white. Nevin was a local news fellow who is part...

On this episode Mark Simon is joined by Maddie Carr . Maddie is just starting graduate school for investigative and data journalism at the University of Missouri. She is a graduate of Emporia State University with a sociology degree. In 2024 she became the first college student to be named Kansas Journalist of the Year by the Kansas Press Association. On this episode we're joined by Maddie Car...

On this episode, Mark Simon talks to Kuwilileni Williams-Hauwanga , the deputy director of Audience & Innovation at Capital B , a newsroom that covers stories of crucial importance to Black people across the country, such as politics, health, criminal justice, the environment, and rural issues. Kuwilileni is an accomplished multimedia storyteller who previously worked at the Brookings Institut...

On this episode Mark Simon is joined by Kamala Thiagarajan . This will be a little different for us. Kamala is a science journalist who spent part of her childhood in the United States and is now based in Madurai, South India. She won The June Biedler Prize and a Solutions Journalism Award for outstanding reporting on cancer in 2025. She's also reported extensively on COVID in India. Sometimes...

On this episode we're joined by Monique Madan . Monique is an award-winning investigative journalist, advisor, educator, and a mother of two. She's also the founder of a newsletter Two Can Be True . Monique has been a reporter in many prominent newsrooms, 13 years at The Miami Herald , as well as at USA Today , The Boston Herald , The Markup , and short stints at The New York Times and The...

On this episode I'm joined by Santiago Campos . Santiago is headed to Georgetown University in the fall. He went to school at DC International School where he learned journalism, and had a piece was featured on PBS News Hour and in Teen Vogue. Santiago has been awarded multiple scholarships. One of them was from CBS in honor of broadcast legend Mike Wallace. He spoke critically of what is happ...

On this episode we're joined by three reporters from the San Francisco Chronicle – Susie Neilson , Megan Fan Munce , and Sara DiNatale . The three of them won the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting for the series of articles, Burned , which show how insurance companies using algorithmic tools have failed Californians who lost their homes to wildfires. They did so by systematically u...

Hi. I'm Mark Simon and welcome to The Journalism Salute. On this episode we're joined by Sandeep Ravindran . Sandeep is a freelance science journalist based in Bethesda, Maryland. He's written for many publications, including The New York Times, National Geographic and Wired. Sandeep is also the president of the National Association of Science Writers . He's also a program manager...

I'm Mark Simon and welcome to The Journalism Salute. On this episode, I'm joined by Heather Morrison . Heather is a managing producer for MassLive.com, which covers the state of Massachusetts. She's previously been a reporter and a social media producer with them. Heather is a graduate of the University of Missouri, class of 2015 with degrees in religious studies and journalism. Heathe...

On this episode we're joined by Jay Dow . Jay is a well-known TV reporter and host in New York City. He's in his 15th year as a correspondent and host for PIX11, where he's won or shared 17 Emmys and 2 Edward R Murrow Awards. Prior to that he was a correspondent for WCBS TV for 9 years and did some national reporting as well. And he was a reporter for my family's favorite TV channe...

On this episode of The Journalism Salute, we're joined by Anita Pinto and Aron Dervishaj . Anita is a speech therapist the advisor to the student newspaper at Urban Assembly Gateway School for Technology in Manhattan at which she started a journalism club. Aron is a student who will be entering 11th grade in the fall (he's wearing a hockey jersey in our cover photo for a reason!). He's...

On this episode Mark Simon was joined by Dr. Ken Schneck . Ken is the founding editor of The Buckeye Flame , Ohio's LGBTQ+ newsroom. He's written for many prominent publications, including The Huffington Post and The Advocate. He also was a tenured professor at Baldwin-Wallace, a book author, a public speaker, and a former syndicated radio show host. And he's a board member for NLGJA -...

On this episode Mark Simon was joined by José Ralat . José is the taco editor, yes, the taco editor, for Texas Monthly magazine. He is the author of American Tacos: A History & Guide . Ralat is a two-time winning editor of a James Beard Award, which is foodwriting's most prestigious honor. He is a graduate of St. Andrews Presbyterian College. José explained what he does as a taco editor an...

On this episode we're joined by Nicole Carr. Nicole is a journalism professor at Morehouse College and author of the new book, The Price of Exclusion, The Pursuit of Healthcare in a Segregated Nation. She's previously been a TV reporter in North Carolina, and in Atlanta, where she won four Emmys. And she was an investigative reporter for ProPublica. Nicole has a degree in mass communicatio...

On this episode we're joined by Ben Camacho . Ben is a journalist, documentary photographer, and producer. His work focused on state-sponsored violence, subjects like police brutality, and the communities impacted by it. He's a graduate of the University of La Verne and is based around Los Angeles. Ben's work has been published in major outlets, like New York Magazine , and also on his...

On this episode we're joined by Dominic Di Palermo . Dominic just graduated from Western Kentucky University where he worked on both the student newspaper and the campus lifestyle magazine. He's also an intern at the Chicago Tribune and was a contributor to a project that won the Tribune a 2026 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting. The award was "For its powerful coverage of the Trump ad...

On this episode we're joined by Ginny Monk . Ginny is a reporter covering children's issues and housing for the non-profit Connecticut Mirror and along with three others just won a Pulitzer Prize. Wrote the Pulitzer Board: "For an impressive series exposing how the state’s unique towing laws favored unscrupulous companies that overcharged residents, prompting swift and meaningful consu...

A postponed guest meant we had to improvise, so we put together this episode based on the presentations that I've done at the College Media Association and Journalism Education Association national conventions. The subject: Lessons I've learned from 275+ interviews on this podcast. You'll hear from 14 different journalists that I've interviewed in the last five years, all of whom s...

On this episode we're joined by Maggie LeBeau and Divya Thamman . Maggie is a student at the University of Missouri majoring in journalism and history. Divya is a student at Edina High School just outside Minneapolis. Together, they are part of the reporting team for PBS News Hour Student Reporting Labs producing and reporting for the On Our Minds podcast. This is our second year talking to st...

On this episode we're joined by Kirk McKnight . Kirk is the editor-in-chief of The Eagle , a weekly newspaper in rural Washington that has been in existence since 1891. The paper recently came under new ownership. Kirk has previously been a writer and editor for a weekly newspaper in southwest Arizona, The Wickenburg Sun . Kirk is also the author of two books about sports broadcasting. He'...