The Journalism Salute

On this episode, we’re joined by Em Espey . Em is an education reporter for MoCo360 Media, which covers Montgomery County, Maryland, comprehensively online at Moco360.media . Em is transgender non-binary and uses the pronouns they/them. They’ve previously worked as a transcriptionist and court reporter and as an investigator for a group that worked with religious organizations on improving their r...

On this episode, we’re joined by Jen Sorensen . Jen is an award-winning editorial cartoonist whose work can be seen at magazines, newspapers, and websites (including her own). She was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2017 for her coverage of the 2016 presidential race. Jen talked about how she comes up with her cartooning ideas, how alt-weekly newspapers have influenced her work, and the mecha...

On this episode we’re joined by Kadjata Bah. Kadjata is an incoming freshman at Yale University. She was the 2023 Wisconsin JEA Student Journalist of the Year from Madison East High School in Madison, Wisconsin. Kadjata spoke about her journalism origin at Simpson Street Free Press ( a journalism program for local students), writing both about stories that were personal and that brought attention...

On this episode, we’re joined by Grace Hamilton . Grace is an incoming freshman at Columbia University. She was the 2022-23 Journalism Education Association Student Journalist of the Year after completing her studies at the American School of London . Grace talked about how her passion for journalism developed, the award-winning piece she wrote exploring sexual harassment at her school , a story s...

On this episode, Mark Simon is joined by Patricia Gallagher Newberry . She’s an enterprise and watchdog reporter for the Cincinnati Enquirer who began her journalism career as a student at the University of Nebraska in 1979. There’s an interesting career path here – Reporting until 1997 and then, after dealing with repetitive strain injuries, a transition to being a professor at Miami of Ohio, whe...

On this episode we’re joined by Isiah Holmes . Isiah has been an award-winning reporter for Wisconsin Examiner since 2019. He’s a multimedia journalist who will be a Type Media fellow for the next year, which allows him to further his investigative reporting pursuits. He’s a lifelong resident of Milwaukee. Isiah talked about his journalism origin story, one that might inspire future reporters who...

Note that this episode was recorded and produced before the June 30 news broke about the Coast Guard's failure to pursue criminal investigations of a large number of sexual assaults of former students at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. You can read about that here . Sonner Kehrt is an investigative reporter for The War Horse , a non-profit newsroom covering the military and veterans. She’s based...

On this episode we’re joined by Lyndsay C. Green . Lyndsay is a dining and restaurant critic for the Detroit Free Press . This past year she was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for criticism for a body of work described thusly by her employer. Eye-opening, thought-provoking and mouthwatering, Lyndsay’s work brings fresh perspective and uncommon courage to readers hungry for brave dining criticis...

A caution: This episode includes brief discussion of sexual abuse in the Catholic church and of suicidal thoughts. On this episode of The Journalism Salute , we're joined by John Casey . John is a senior editor and columnist at The Advocate , the world’s oldest and largest LGBTQ news outlet. John is in his late 50s. He’s spent much of his career in public relations, first on Capital Hill, then...

On this episode of The Journalism Salute, Mark Simon is joined by Amber Payne . Amber is the publisher and general manager of The Emancipator . This struck us as an important episode to release on Juneteenth. The Emancipator is the Reimagining of the first abolitionist newspaper for a new day. Explaining and exploring solutions to racial inequality. It began as a partnership between Boston Univers...

On this episode of The Journalism Salute , Mark Simon is joined by C.J. Janovy . C.J. is the director of content for KCUR , the NPR affiliate in Kansas City, Missouri. She has previously worked as editor of The Pitch , Kansas City’s alt-weekly, and as an editor at Kansas Reflector, a non-profit covering state government in Kansas. She’s also the author of the book No Place Like Home, Lessons in Ac...

On this episode of The Journalism Salute , Mark Simon is joined by Melissa Sanchez . Melissa is a bilingual reporter for Pro Publica , which does investigative journalism in the public interest. Melissa is based in Chicago and covers labor and immigration. She just won a Studs Terkel award for her work (that’s a very important award to Chicago journalists). Her stories are deep investigative piece...

On this episode of The Journalism Salute , Mark Simon is joined by Justine Harman. Justine is a journalist and podcaster and current host of the podcast Killed . Killed is a podcast about journalism that gets … killed … for a variety of reasons. Season 2 from Audiochuck is currently ongoing. It’s ranked among the most downloaded podcasts in Seasons 1 and 2. We talked about Justine’s former career...

On this episode, Mark Simon is joined by Richard Ruelas . Richard has been a reporter and metro columnist at the Arizona Republic for 30 years. He has moderated debates, written a book, and also reported and anchored a podcast series about a murdered Arizona journalist, Don Bolles . And he’s an adjunct professor at Arizona State. Richard talked about all aspects of his career, including his report...

On this episode, Mark Simon is joined by Peter Rice. Peter is the editor of Downtown Albuquerque News in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He’s been a reporter for both print outlets and local NPR stations and has written multiple books. Downtown Albuquerque News is what it says it is – a digital news outlet serving downtown Albuquerque and surrounding neighborhoods. Hyperlocal news. Peter talked about his...

On this episode of The Journalism Salute, Mark Simon is joined by Rebecca Johnson . Rebecca is a graduating senior from the University of Pittsburgh who plans a career in journalism. She’s just finishing her tenure as editor in chief of The Pitt News , overseeing a staff of 18 editors and 150 contributors. She’s also done multiple internships, including one covering education for the Austin Americ...

On this episode of The Journalism Salute, Mark Simon is joined by Sydney Ross . Sydney is a graduating student at North Carolina A&T majoring in multimedia journalism. She’s the managing editor of The A&T Register , the school’s newspaper and the founder of the non-profit, Change the Type. Sydney is headed to North Carolina’s journalism school graduate program but took time to reminisce ab...

With some of our student listeners looking for work, Mark Simon thought this would be a good episode of The Journalism Salute to provide guidance should any of them wish to do freelance work. Pete talked about his freelancing career and provided instructive examples from work he’s done, including a recent Q&A with former Super Bowl-winning coach Tom Coughlin , as well as feature profiles , mov...

On this episode of The Journalism Salute, Mark Simon is joined by Monica Samayoa . Monica is a climate reporter for Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) and is co-chair of the steering committee for The Uproot Project , a network of environmental journalists of color. Monica did not expect to become a climate reporter and filled us in on the path that took her to this job. She walked us through the di...

On this episode of The Journalism Salute, we’re joined by Idaho Capital Sun reporter Mia Maldonado . Mia never took a journalism class in college but was able to start her career as part of the Voces Internship of Idaho program, which coordinates internships for aspiring Latino/Latina journalists with local newsrooms. Mia talked about her time as an intern at the Capital Sun and as a breaking news...

On this episode of The Journalism Salute we’re joined by Tim Whitaker . Tim has been a teacher and a journalist and is the executive director of Mighty Writers . Mighty Writers is a Philadelphia-based non-profit that teaches 3,500 kids per year to think clearly and write with clarity. It works out of Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey. Tim talked about the highlights from his lengthy career as...

On this episode of The Journalism Salute, we’re joined by Laurie Ezzell Brown. She was the publisher and editor of The Canadian Record , a community weekly covering Hemphill County in the northeastern Texas Panhandle from 1893 to 2023, and a legacy business owned and published by the Ezzell family since the late 1940s. Laurie spoke about being born into her journalism origin story and provided an...

Note: As of February 2025, our interview subject is Charlie Spicer (he/him). This interview was conducted in March 2023. On this episode of The Journalism Salute, we’re joined by Sarah Spicer . Sarah is a news editor for the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). She was just named to Editor & Publisher’s “ 25 Under 35.” Sarah is a graduate of Emporia State University in Kansas, where she was...

On this episode of The Journalism Salute, we’re joined by Tiffany Tan , a reporter for the non-profit VTDigger who covers southwest Vermont. Tiffany’s career has taken her around the globe, in the Philippines as a TV producer, in Singapore and China as a writer and editor. She’s worked in the United States in both South Dakota and Vermont. Tiffany talked about her reporting experiences both abroad...

On this episode of The Journalism Salute, Mark Simon is joined by Luella Brien . Luella is the editor-in-chief at Four Points Press , an independent media company which covers the Crow Indian Reservation in southern Montana. Luella also teaches high school journalism and has taught college in the past too. She was the primary narrator in the new Showtime docu-series, Murder in Big Horn . Luella ta...