The Journalism Salute

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...

On today’s episode, we’re joined by Russell Midori , a TV photojournalist and the president of Military Veterans in Journalism, an organization that mentors veterans who want to work in journalism after their service concludes. Russell talked about his military career and transition to video work, shooting, editing and producing features, news stories, and documentaries. He gave examples of work h...

On today’s episode, we’re joined by April Alonso. April is the co-founder of the award-winning Cicero Independiente , a bilingual news website and publication based in Cicero, Illinois, along with Irene Romulo and Ankur Singh. The Independiente just won two awards from the Institute for Non-Profit News for the 11-part series – Unrest in Cicero – How One Day Shook a Town – coverage of racial violen...

On today’s show, Mark Simon is joined by Insider investigative sports writer Bradford William Davis .   Bradford talked about his career path – from starting a newsletter with a friend to eventually (after time at several start-ups and HBO) as a sports columnist for the Daily News and now for the website, Insider.   Bradford often writes about social justice issues as they relate to sports. We dis...

On this episode, Mark Simon  is joined by one of his favorite sportswriters, enterprise reporter, Alex Coffey , who has written for The Athletic, The New York Times, USA Today, and FoxSports.com. Alex told the story of how she got into the business, following the path of her father as a sports enterprise writer and her mother as journalists, and explained how her appreciation of history is so impo...

On this episode, Mark Simon talks to Ken Partridge , a music journalist and author of Hell of a Hat, The Best of 90s Ska and Swing. Ken talked about how his interests in journalism and music began and evolved, some of the prominent musicians he’s interviewed and how he finds little tidbits to make stories on everything he does (including Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer) distinct. He also shared...

On this episode, we’re joined by David Cutler , a history and journalism teacher at Brimmer and May School in Massachusetts, as well as the Executive Director of the Private School Journalism Association . David discussed both the work of his organization and his journalism teaching. The PSJA is attempting to increase membership and work to develop policies with private and independent schools reg...

On today’s show, we’re joined by César Rodríguez , a photojournalist and GroundTruth fellow based in Mexico. You might have heard our recent interview with photojournalist Aryana Noroozi a couple of episodes ago. César has a distinct story to tell as well. César talked about his path to journalism through chocolate(!),a recent project he did for GroundTruth on a Mexican migrant camp, how he approa...

Farnoush Amiri is one of the busiest journalists we’ve gotten to interview. She is currently a reporter for the Associated Press as part of the Report for America , covering a broad range of stories out of Columbus, Ohio. She is also a vice-president for the South Asian Journalists Association (SAJA), and a co-director of the Voices program for the Asian-American Journalists Association (AAJA) .  ...

On this episode, Mark Simon joined by investigative reporter and data journalist Adam Rhodes . Adam is a queer, first-generation Cuban-American who works uncovering corruption and wrongdoing in our nation's health care and criminal justice systems. Adam reports for the Chicago Reader as a social justice reporting fellow and is president of the Chicago chapter of the NLGJA, which is the Associa...

On this episode, Mark Simon is joined by Aryana Noroozi , a photojournalist working with The GroundTruth Project and Pulitzer Center on impactful community reporting.   Aryana talked about her career path, her photography style, and the different projects she worked on as a recent student at Columbia Journalism School. She also discussed one of her biggest projects, documenting remote learning and...

On this episode, Mark Simon is joined by Sean Lahman , Watchdog Reporter for The Rochester Democrat & Chronicle . Sean talked about his career path - from working on baseball databases and sports encyclopedias to his current role with the D&C. Sean talked about developing both technical skills and storytelling skills and how that allowed him to differentiate from others in the field. He ga...

NOTE: We're going to an every-other-week schedule in June and July, so check out one of our first episodes ... This originally aired in August 2020 (hence the references to the Trump Administration). --- On this episode of The Journalism Salute, Mark is joined by Allison Augustyn, the executive director of InvestigateWest , a non-profit journalism studio based in Seattle.   In Allison’s words,...

On this episode of The Journalism Salute, Mark Simon is joined by Mona Holmes of Eater LA . Mona talked about her career path and the entrepreneurial ventures she tried before deciding that food journalism was what she wanted to do. She explained how food journalism is more than just about food, that it’s about telling stories about people and reporting on policy. She also discussed the process by...

NOTE: Taking the week off, so thought I'd dial it back to the very beginning - August 2020- with Episode 1a (I did 2 episodes to start- we'll call them both 1a). This one is one of my favorites because the topics are interesting and the approach is so different. Back next week with a new episode. Enjoy! --- On this episode of The Journalism Salute, Mark is joined by Eve Pearlman, the co-fo...

On this episode, Mark Simon is joined by Carol Robidoux , the founder and publisher of the Manchester Ink Link , a news website serving Manchester, New Hampshire and its surrounding community. Carol talked about her path to her current role and explained what’s in a name – both the name of the website and her self-appointed title of Chief Instigating Officer. She also discussed what a news organiz...

On this episode, Mark Simon is joined by 40-year copy editor and World War II oral historian Aaron Elson.   Aaron talked about his long career in newspapers, emphasizing his role as a counselor of wayward commas about their place in sentences, protecting the English language, and writing headlines   He also talked about his work compiling more than 600 hours of oral history of World War II and the...