June 25, 2015

Podcast from @ProPublica, or, how news sausage is made

My new favorite podcast is from online news outlet ProPublica.

The official blurb about it is:


The ProPublica Podcast is a weekly program featuring interviews with reporters about the latest investigations published by ProPublica.

I love the interviews with reporters, most of whom write for ProPublica. But they also interview reporters covering stories for other news organizations. These interviews are on all topics, though health reporter Charlie Ornstein has interviewed a lot of reporters recently. His podcasts include:

Meet the Reporter Behind That Bogus Chocolate Study (Ornstein talks with John Bohannon about his reporting of a fake scientific study about the health value of chocolate; June 8, 2015)
Inside an HIV Epidemic (Ornstein talks with WTHR's Bob Segall about southeast Indiana's recent HIV outbreak; June 1, 2015)
MuckReads Podcast: When Diet Drugs Harm Instead of Help (April 27, 2015)

The New York Times two-part story on conditions for nail salon workers was a both health story and a long-term investigative piece; ProPublica reporters Lois Beckett and Marian Wang spoke with Times reporter Sarah Maslin Nir in Behind the Scenes of Your Mani-Pedi (May 26, 2015).

If you like investigative journalism, or if you're interested in any of these topics, the ProPublica podcast is excellent listening.