Wallace House Awards Press Freedom Fellowship to Emilio Gutiérrez Soto

Emilio Gutiérrez Soto accepting the National Press Club’s John Aubuchon
Freedom of the Press Award in October 2017. Photo credit: Noel St. John

Read the announcement in  Spanish

The Knight-Wallace Fellowships for Journalists at The University of Michigan has invited Emilio Gutiérrez Soto to join its 2018-19 Fellowship class as a Senior Press Freedom Fellow. Gutiérrez, a Mexican journalist who is currently seeking asylum in the United States following death threats related to his reporting, has been held in a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility near El Paso, Texas since December.

“On World Press Freedom Day, and every day, we must uphold the vital role of a free and independent press in the United States and around the world,” said Lynette Clemetson, director of the fellowship program. “Emilio Gutiérrez Soto’s accomplishments, experiences and commitment ensure that he will contribute much to the class of exceptional journalists selected as Knight-Wallace Fellows. It is our hope that U.S. Immigration officials will release Emilio so that he may accept this special honor.”

The University of Michigan named its Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellows for the 2018-2019 academic year on Monday, April 30. The program invites a select group of accomplished, mid-career journalists to spend an academic year at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor pursuing individual research and collaborative learning through classes, seminars, training workshops and travel. If released and permitted to stay in the United States while his asylum case is appealed, Gutiérrez will join the class to study issues related to global press freedom and safety.

Gutiérrez, a longtime journalist in Mexico, came to the United States as a legal asylum seeker in 2008 to escape death threats tied to his investigative reporting on drug cartels. Mexico is consistently ranked as one of the most dangerous countries for reporters. “Mexican authorities have failed to prosecute the killers of journalists. They have also failed to provide adequate protection for journalists under threat,” said Joel Simon, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, which tracks threats and violence against reporters.

In 2017, an immigration judge in El Paso denied Gutiérrez’s asylum request and he was scheduled for deportation. The deportation was halted after protest from numerous journalism organizations including The National Press Club, Reporters Without Borders and the American Society of News Editors. The Knight-Wallace Fellowships for Journalists is one of several organizations that signed amicus briefs organized by The National Press Club in support of Gutiérrez’s case.

Clemetson will discuss the fellowship award to Gutiérrez at a press conference at 1 p.m. on May 3 at The National Press Club in Washington, D.C. The event will be live streamed on the organization’s website.

Knight-Wallace Fellows receive a stipend of $75,000 for the eight-month academic year plus full tuition and health insurance. The program is funded through endowment gifts by foundations, news organizations and individuals committed to journalism’s role in fostering an informed and engaged public.

Read the announcement in Spanish

2018 Livingston Award Finalists Announced

 

The Livingston Awards for Young Journalists and the University of Michigan announce the 2018 finalists in local, national and international reporting. The finalists, selected from over 500 entries, will move to the final round of judging. The awards honor the best reporting and storytelling by journalists under the age of 35 across all forms of journalism.

The national judges will introduce the winners on June 6, 2018, at a New York City luncheon.

Funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the University of Michigan to support the vital role of a free and independent press, the awards bolster the work of young reporters, create the next generation of journalism leaders and advance civic engagement around powerful storytelling. Other sponsors include the Indian Trail Charitable Foundation, the Mollie Parnis Livingston Foundation, Christiane Amanpour and Dr. Gil Omenn and Martha Darling.

“The exceptional work of the Livingston Awards finalists demonstrates the singular power of journalism to document and interpret the issues and events shaping our times. It is a privilege to recognize such a broad range of talented reporters, committed to bringing depth, nuance and truth to our understanding of the world.

The national judges will introduce the winners on June 6, 2018, at a New York City luncheon.

The Livingston Awards regional judges read all qualifying entries to select the finalists in local, national and international reporting. The regional judging panel includes: Raney Aronson-Rath, executive producer, “Frontline,” PBS; Molly Ball, national political correspondent, Time; Stella Chávez, education reporter, KERA Public Radio; Chris Davis, Vice-President of Investigative Journalism, Gannett; David Greene, host, “Morning Edition,” NPR; Stephen Henderson, host, “Detroit Today,” WDET; and Shirley Leung, columnist, The Boston Globe.

The Livingston Awards national judges review all finalist entries and select the winners. The national judges are Christiane Amanpour, chief international correspondent, CNNi and host, “Amanpour on PBS”; Ken Auletta, author and media and communications writer, The New Yorker; Dean Baquet, executive editor, The New York Times; John Harris, editor-in-chief and co-founder, Politico; Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune; Anna Quindlen, author; María Elena Salinas, host, “The Real Story with María Elena Salinas,” Investigation Discovery; Bret Stephens, op-ed columnist, The New York Times; and Kara Swisher, executive editor, Recode

Following are the 2018 finalists, for work produced in 2017. Links to their work here.

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Local Reporting

  • Evan Allen, Nicole Dungca and Jan Ransom, The Boston Globe
  • Bethany Barnes, The Oregonian/OregonLive
  • Neil Bedi, Jonathan Capriel, Anastasia Dawson and Kathleen McGrory, Tampa Bay Times
  • Jonathan Blitzer, The New Yorker
  • Lauren Caruba, San Antonio Express-News
  • Christopher Collins, The Texas Observer
  • Jose A. Del Real, The New York Times
  • Jonathan Edwards, The Virginian-Pilot
  • Mike Hixenbaugh and Mark Mulligan, Houston Chronicle
  • Vivian Ho, San Francisco Chronicle
  • Ed Mahon, York Daily Record/Sunday News
  • Tracy Mumford, Riham Feshir, Meg Martin, Minnesota Public Radio News
  • Tricia L. Nadolny, Philadelphia Media Network
  • Ese Olumhense, City Limits in partnership with The Investigative Fund
  • Maria Perez, Naples Daily News
  • Gregory Pratt, Chicago Tribune
  • Raven Rakia, The Intercept
  • Bigad Shaban, Michael Bott and Rachel Witte, NBC Bay Area (KNTV)
  • Joy Lukachick Smith and Joan Garrett McClane, Chattanooga Times Press
  • Stephen Stirling and S.P. Sullivan, NJ Advance Media (The Star-Ledger/NJ.com)

 National Reporting

  • Stan Alcorn, Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX
  • Amy Brittain and Irin Carmon, The Washington Post
  • Brian Burnsed, Sports Illustrated
  • Alana Casanova-Burgess, “On the Media,” WNYC Radio
  • Eliana Dockterman, Haley Sweetland Edwards, Kaitlyn Emerson, Spencer Bakalar, Julia Lull and Diane Tsai, Time
  • Steve Dorsey, CBS News
  • Ronan Farrow, The New Yorker
  • Emmanuel Felton, The Hechinger Report/The Nation
  • Cat Ferguson, The Verge
  • Connie Fossi, Daniel Rivero, Laura Juncadella and Kristofer Rios, Fusion
  • Brian Freskos, The Trace
  • Damian Garde, STAT
  • Rachel Glickhouse, ProPublica
  • Henry Grabar, Slate
  • Amy Julia Harris and Shoshana Walter, Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting
  • Sara Jerving, Vice News
  • Taylor Mirfendereski, KING 5
  • Brett Murphy, USA TODAY Network
  • Emily Steel and Michael S. Schmidt, The New York Times
  • John Woodrow Cox, The Washington Post
  • Jie Jenny Zou and Chris Young, The Center for Public Integrity

 International Reporting

  • Kimberly Brooks and Roberto Daza, Fusion Media Group
  • Mansi Choksi, Harper’s Magazine
  • Will Fitzgibbon, International Consortium of Investigative Journalists
  • Susannah George, The Associated Press
  • Christina Goldbaum, The Daily Beast
  • May Jeong, In These Times
  • Jacob Kushner, Foreign Policy
  • Kate Linthicum, Los Angeles Times
  • Micah Loewinger, “On the Media,” WNYC Radio
  • Lizzie Presser, The California Sunday Magazine
  • Kenneth R. Rosen, The Atavist Magazine
  • Juliana Schatz Preston, Show of Force
  • Kevin Sieff, The Washington Post
  • Ben C. Solomon, The New York Times
  • Sushma Subramanian, Slate

More on the finalists and links to their work »

Livingston winners discuss how to build trust at The Power of Narrative conference

Claire Galofaro and Ellen GablerBuilding Trust: How to report when your subjects and sources distrust the media.

March 25 | 10:15 – 11:15 a.m.
Boston University
George Sherman Union

 

 

Claire Galofaro won the Livingston Award this year for her portraits of rural Appalachia on the brink of extinction. From examining the rise of Donald Trump in real time to documenting a day in a small West Virginia city where 28 people overdosed in a four-hour period, there were no shortcuts to building the trust she needed to tell the stories of local residents at a time when many were feeling forgotten. Livingston Award winners Claire Galofaro and Ellen Gabler will share how to report when your subjects and sources distrust the media.

Speaker:

  • Claire Galofaro, 2017 Livingston Award winner for the Associated Press series “Surviving Appalachia,” a devastating portrait of economic despair and a rural landscape on the brink of extinction. Galofaro is a correspondent for the Associated Press, helping to lead news coverage of Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia. She previously reported for The Courier Journal (Louisville, Ky.), The New Orleans Advocate, The Times-Picayune, Outside and the Bristol Herald-Courier in the Appalachian mountains of southwest Virginia.

Moderator:

  • Moderator: Ellen Gabler, 2014 Livingston winner, for “Deadly Delays,” an investigation found that systematic delays in testing blood samples of newborn babies for deadly disorders led to preventable deaths and disabilities Gabler is an investigative reporter at The New York Times. Before starting at the Times in April 2017,  she worked for the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel as a reporter and deputy investigations editor.  In addition to the 2013 Livingston Award, Gabler was a Gerald Loeb and IRE finalist, and winner of the Pulliam First Amendment Award in 2016.

China’s Soft Power: Understanding Beijing’s Growing Worldwide Influence

Louisa Lim, Mark Magnier and Dayo Aiyetan

Knight-Wallace Fellows Louisa Lim, Mark Magnier and Dayo Aiyetan at the Eisendrath Symposium

March 20, 2018 | 3 p.m.
Rackham Amphitheatre, fourth floor
915 Washington Street, Ann Arbor

Watch the discussion
Have a question about the topic? Tweet using #WallaceHouse.

 

 

On stage with the foreign correspondents of Wallace House
China’s move to change the constitution, allowing President Xi Jinping to remain in power, could have a major impact on its global influence. A panel of Knight-Wallace international journalists examines China’s growing clout and how this power is being deployed around the world, with implications for media, academia and the entertainment industry. Is Beijing already influencing what we read and watch or are fears of its influence overblown?

The Eisendrath Symposium honors Charles R. Eisendrath, former director of Wallace House, and his lifelong commitment to international journalism.

 

About the Speakers
Dayo Aiyetan is a 2018 Knight-Wallace Fellow,  investigative reporter and founder and executive director of the International Center for Investigative Reporting, a nonprofit news agency in Abuja, Nigeria. In this role, he has trained more than 100 reporters, aiming to promote a culture of data-driven accountability journalism in Nigeria.

Louisa Lim is a 2014 Knight-Wallace Fellow and the author of “The People’s Republic of Amnesia; Tiananmen Revisited.” She reported from China for a decade for NPR and the BBC. She is now a senior lecturer in Audio Visual Journalism at the University of Melbourne and the co-host of the “Little Red Podcast,” a monthly podcast focusing on China beyond the Beijing beltway.

Mark Magnier is a 2018 Knight-Wallace Fellow and the Beijing-based China economics editor for The Wall Street Journal, where he oversees coverage of the world’s second-largest economy and its seismic impact on Chinese society and the rest of the world. Previously, he served as bureau chief in New Delhi, Beijing and Tokyo for the Los Angeles Times.

 

About the Moderator
Mary Gallagher is a professor of political science at the University of Michigan, where she is also the director of the Center for Chinese Studies, and a faculty associate at the Center for Comparative Political Studies at the Institute for Social Research. Her research areas are Chinese politics, comparative politics of transitional and developing states, and law and society.

 

Free and open to the public.

For questions about the event email: [email protected]

This event is produced with support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Michigan Radio is a co-sponsor of the event.

Wallace House Presents Bret Stephens of The New York Times

Bret Stephens
Bret Stephens, New York Times columnist

“Free Speech and the Necessity of Discomfort”

February 20, 2018 | 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre
University of Michigan
911 N. University Avenue
Free and open to the public

View video »

Join the conversation

New York Times columnist Bret Stephens calls disagreement “the most vital ingredient of any decent society.” Being able to reasonably take issue with an asserted stance or belief, he argues, enlarges our perspectives and energizes our progress. Shutting down disagreeable speech does more to imperil our principles than uphold them. Yet in this era of coarse polarization, the art of thoughtful disagreement has given way to hostile close-mindedness. And tolerance is often misinterpreted as the absence of discomfort.

Join Bret Stephens and Wallace House for a provocative discussion on the role of social and personal discomfort in education and its necessity in a functional democracy.

About the Speaker

Bret L. Stephens joined The New York Times as an Op-Ed columnist in April 2017. He came to The Times after a long career with The Wall Street Journal, where he was deputy editorial-page editor and, for 11 years, foreign affairs columnist. Before that, he was editor in chief of The Jerusalem Post. At The Post he oversaw the paper’s news, editorial and digital operations and its international editions, and also wrote a weekly column. He has reported from around the world and interviewed scores of world leaders.

Stephens is a Livingston Awards national judge. Winner of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for commentary, he is the author of “America in Retreat: The New Isolationism and the Coming Global Disorder.” He was raised in Mexico City and holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Chicago and a master of science from the London School of Economics. He lives in New York and Hamburg, Germany.

For questions about the event email: [email protected]

Co-sponsored by U-M College of Literature, Science, and the Arts.
This is a U-M 2018 series event “Speech and Inclusion: Recognizing Conflict and Building Tools for Engagement.”

Wallace House Presents NPR’s Joshua Johnson and “1A”

Joshua Johnson in 1A's studio
Joshua Johnson, host of NPR’s daily program “1A”

“Speak Freely: Debating the First Amendment in a Changing America”

February 15, 2018 | 6 to 7:30 p.m.

Rackham Auditorium
915 E. Washington Street
Free and open to the public

Watch the video»

Experience the Show

Join Wallace House and Michigan Radio for a special event with NPR’s daily talk show, “1A.” Joshua Johnson and his panel of guests will examine the First Amendment, free speech and what it means in a divided America. The discussion is of particular urgency and value, as the debate over allowing white supremacist Richard Spencer to speak at universities, including our own, rages across college campuses.  Come and participate in the national conversation, meet the production team and experience the show.

About “1A”

“1A” is an NPR daily radio program. Host, Joshua Johnson, convenes a national conversation about the most important issues of our time. The show takes a deep and unflinching look at America, bringing context and insight to stories unfolding across the country and the world. The program, production of WAMU in Washington, D.C., airs on more than 200 NPR stations and can be heard on Michigan Radio every Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to noon.

About Joshua Johnson

Joshua Johnson is host of “1A,” one of the most important daily conversations in America. Before joining “1A” at WAMU, he co-created and hosted the provocative nationwide public radio series, “Truth Be Told,” which explored race in America. Johnson also taught podcasting at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. He is an active member of the National Association of Black Journalists. Johnson began his public radio career helping launch a unique regional news partnership between Miami’s NPR station, WLRN, and The Miami Herald. Then he served for over five years as morning news host for KQED in San Francisco.

“2018 Speech and Inclusion: Recognizing Conflict for Building Tools for Engagement” Series

The series invites students, faculty and staff to openly discuss, listen and engage with differing views on free speech and to advocate for voices that have historically been silenced – important issues that continue to challenge both our campus and the nation.

Sponsored by several U-M units and part of overall Diversity, Equity & Inclusion efforts on campus, this series of events explores how views about speech and inclusion play out in politics, culture, higher education, sports and journalism, and how to engage in productive conversation that can promote a positive campus environment and help the community more deeply understand these complicated issues.

For questions about the event email: [email protected]

This is a U-M 2018 series event “Speech and Inclusion: Recognizing Conflict and Building Tools for Engagement.”

Michigan Radio is a co-sponsor.

The Livingston Lectures with Brooke Jarvis

Brooke Jarvis, Ann Lin and Jason De Leon

“Beyond the Wall:
The Human Toll of Border Crossings”

January 31, 2018 | 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy
Annenberg Auditorium

Free and open to the public
Reception with speakers following the event.
Watch the discussion »

A Conversation with Brooke Jarvis, Ann Lin and Jason De León

In the public debate over immigration policy, the mortal toll of border crossings are too often faceless statistics. A Livingston Award-winning journalist, a MacArthur Genius and anthropologist, and a U-M public policy expert will share the stories and findings behind immigration statistics and discuss the complexities, ramifications and human lives that are involved in clandestine migration.

About the Speakers

Brooke Jarvis is a contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine and The California Sunday Magazine. Her work has been anthologized in “The Best American Science and Nature Writing” and her story about working for a year at a remote leper colony in Hawaii was included in the collection “Love and Ruin.” Jarvis received the 2017 Livingston Award for national reporting for her feature story “Unclaimed,” the story of an anonymous man, an undocumented immigrant kept alive by machines for nearly 17 years in a San Diego hospital, and the networks of immigrant families that search for their missing loved ones.

Jason De León is an associate professor of Anthropology at the University of Michigan and director of the Undocumented Migration Project (UMP). His research interests include theories of violence, materiality, death and mourning, Latin American migration, crime and forensic analyses, and archaeology of the contemporary. De León was awarded a MacArthur Genius Grant in 2017.

About the Moderator

Ann Lin is Associate Professor of Public Policy in the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. She teaches courses on public policy implementation, gender and politics, qualitative research methods and immigration. Lin is currently studying potential immigration policies and the beliefs of American immigrants with a special focus on Arab Americans.

This Livingston Lecture event is co-sponsored by the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and the International Policy Center.

This Livingston Lecture event is produced with support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

Molly Ball Appointed to the Livingston Awards Judging Panel

 

Molly Ball
Molly Ball, National Political Correspondent
for Time

Wallace House is pleased to announce the addition of award-winning political reporter and Knight-Wallace alum, Molly Ball, to the Livingston Awards’ judging panel.

A prominent voice on U.S. politics, Ball serves as National Political Correspondent for TIME, covering the Trump administration, the national political climate, personalities, policy debates, and campaigns across America. She is also a political analyst for CNN and frequent television and radio commentator.

“Molly Ball brings a keen, intuitive eye and astute sensibility to everything she approaches,” says Lynette Clemetson, Wallace House director. “We are pleased to have her join us as a Livingston Awards regional judge. It is especially meaningful that Molly was a Knight-Wallace Fellow with a deep connection to our mission. We look forward to all she will add to our collegial and dedicated group of judges.”

Prior to joining TIME, Ball was a staff writer covering U.S. politics for The Atlantic. She previously reported for Politico, the Las Vegas Review-Journal and the Las Vegas Sun. She has worked for newspapers in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Cambodia, as well as The New York Times and The Washington Post.

Ball is the recipient of the Toner Prize for Excellence in Political Reporting, the Sandy Hume Memorial Award for Excellence in Political Journalism and the Lee Walczak Award for Political Analysis for her coverage of political campaigns.

“Molly Ball brings a keen, intuitive eye and astute sensibility to everything she approaches,” says Lynette Clemetson, Wallace House director.

A graduate of Yale University, she was a 2009-2010 Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellow at the University of Michigan. Ball grew up in Idaho and Colorado. She lives in Virginia with her husband and three children.

The regional judges read all qualifying entries and select the finalists in local, national and international reporting categories. In addition to Ball, the regional judging panel includes: Stella Chávez, education reporter, KERA public radio (Dallas); Chris Davis, Vice President of Investigative Journalism, Gannett; David Greene, host, “Morning Edition,” NPR; Stephen Henderson, host, “Detroit Today,” WDET; Shirley Leung, columnist, The Boston Globe; and Raney Aronson-Rath, executive producer, “Frontline,” PBS.

The Livingston Awards national judges review all final entries and meet to select the winners in local, national and international reporting. The national judging panel includes: Christiane Amanpour, chief international correspondent, CNN, and host of “Amanpour on PBS,” PBS; Ken Auletta, media and communications writer, The New Yorker; Dean Baquet, executive editor, The New York Times; John Harris, editor-in-chief and co-founder, POLITICO; Clarence Page, syndicated columnist; Anna Quindlen, author; María Elena Salinas, host, “The Real Story with María Elena Salinas,” Investigation Discovery; Bret Stephens, op-ed columnist, The New York Times; and Kara Swisher co-founder and executive editor of Recode.

The Livingston Awards is now accepting entries for 2017 work. Entry deadline in February 1, 2018.

An MLK Symposium Event with Lydia Polgreen

Lydia Polgreen
Lydia Polgreen, editor-in-chief of HuffPost and 2009 Livingston Award winner

“Who Gets to Define American Values”
with Lydia Polgreen

January 16, 2018 | 2 to 3:30 p.m.

Rackham Amphitheatre
University of Michigan
915 E. Washington Street
Free and open to the public

View video »

Join the conversation

Is kneeling during the national anthem a show of disrespect or a display of patriotism? Is extending a welcome to immigrants and refugees central to American ideals or a threat to them? Is the Confederate flag a symbol of heritage or racism? The social, cultural and political fabric of the country is increasingly torn by uncivil debates about the essence of American values. Lydia Polgreen, editor-in-chief of HuffPost and 2009 Livingston Award winner, will discuss the vital role of journalism and a free press in a thriving democracy and its responsibility in the current populist moment.

Fresh off the Listen to America road trip, a 25-city bus tour to engage with people and communities that feel left out of dominant national narratives, Polgreen will address the legacy and current relevance of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and engage the audience in a conversation about voice, power and participation in civil society.

About the Speaker

Polgreen was named editor-in-chief of HuffPost in December 2016 after spending nearly 15 years at The New York Times. There she led an initiative to expand its audience outside the United States, with an initial focus on Latin America. Previously, she was Deputy International Editor, South Africa bureau chief, correspondent for the New Delhi bureau and chief of the West Africa bureau. Before joining The Times, Polgreen was a reporter in Florida and New York state. She began her career as assistant editor and business manager for The Washington (D.C.) Monthly.

Polgreen was a 2006 recipient of the George Polk Award for foreign reporting. She received the 2009 Livingston Award for international reporting for her series, “The Spoils,” an account of how mineral wealth brought misery and exploitation to much of Africa. In 2007, she was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.

 

For questions about the event email: [email protected]

This is a 2018 Annual U-M Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Symposium event.

Co-sponsored by the Department of History, Department of American Culture and Department of English Language and Literature.

The Fellowship Life: Podcast Boot Camp

Mosi Secret, Alex Blumberg and Jonathan Menjivar
Mosi Secret, 2016 Knight-Wallace Fellow, Alex Blumberg, CEO and co-founder of Gimlet Media and Jonathan Menjivar
producer with “This American Life,” coach the Knight-Wallace Fellows at the Podcast Boot Camp.

 

During a typical Tuesday evening fellowship seminar at Wallace House, a reporter, author or professor joins our class of mid-career journalists for a stimulating off-the-record chat in front of the Wallace House fireplace. Our guest speakers are dynamic, all experts in their fields. Throughout these ninety-minute salons, Fellows get to sit back, soak up new ideas and ask probing questions. Our seminars are deeply engaging sessions, in a deeply comfortable environment.

Lynette Clemetson with Regina Boone, Candice Choi and Danielle Dreilinger
Wallace House Director, Lynette Clemetson assigns
Fellows into working teams.

A month before Thanksgiving break – just around the time our fellowship class settled into this cozy routine – we were thrust outside of our comfort zone.

Wallace House director, Lynette Clemetson, broke us up into teams, and gave us three weeks to develop a podcast pitch and gather and edit some sample audio. To up the ante, she told us we’d be pitching our concepts to producers from Gimlet Media and “This American Life” who would be joining us just before the holiday break for a two-day audio bootcamp.

Umm, yes please!

I’ve been a radio producer for nearly 15 years and I love “This American Life”-style narrative storytelling. So I was pumped at the chance to learn from two rock star producers. And I wasn’t the only one. You probably don’t need me to tell you that podcasts and audio storytelling are having a moment. Several Fellows had expressed interest in learning what it takes to create a successful podcast and how to make a story sing on air. We were about to get a very hands-on crash course.

Lynette handed out the piece of paper with our teams listed on it and surveyed the room, gauging reactions — a few smiles here, some nervous laughter there, more than a couple of blank stares. Most of the class had little to no experience in audio. Two of us came from radio, but we had never worked on podcasts, which differ in style and approach from broadcast news. We were all feeling a bit out of our element.

That’s one of the best things about this fellowship and what makes the time as a Knight-Wallace Fellow so special; it’s a chance to push yourself creatively in a supportive environment.

Jennifer Guerra and Lisa Wangsness
On assignment: Jennifer Guerra, Marcelo Moreira
and Lisa Wangsness report from a glassblowing studio.

I did a lot of solo work before coming to the fellowship, working on long-form audio pieces for months at a time with only the occasional check-in from an editor. So I welcomed the chance to work on a group project. My assigned podcast team consisted of a photojournalist, a print reporter, an international television editor, and me. Sounds like a joke set up, right? A photojournalist, a print reporter and a TV editor walk into a bar with a radio producer…

But seriously, it was a great project. Never in my career have I had the chance to collaborate on a new idea with such a varied group of smart, accomplished journalists. The medium might have been new, but we all knew how to dive into unknown territory on tight deadlines. It didn’t take long to settle on an idea. We decided to develop something kid-focused. We are all parents, and we knew from our own listening that podcasts for kids are an underdeveloped segment of the market. Within a few days we were in the field grabbing tape.

Our first stop? The city of Ypsilanti. With recording kits in hand and our own kids in tow, we visited a glassblowing studio where the kids felt the heat from the super-hot furnace and tried blowing some glass themselves through a long metal blowpipe.

The work was fun. But the thought of presenting it to our visiting experts was more than a little nerve wracking. Alex Blumberg is CEO and co-founder of Gimlet Media, a company that produces tons of podcasts you’ve probably listened to, including one of my favorites, “StartUp,” which Blumberg hosts. He also co-founded NPR’s “Planet Money” podcast and is a former “This American Life” producer. Jonathan Menjivar is a long-time producer with “This American Life” and has produced some of the show’s most memorable pieces.

Day two of boot camp: Fellowship team of
Chitrangada Choudhury, Azi Paybarah, Matt
Higgins and John Shields (not pictured)
pitch their podcast concept to the guest judges.

To help demystify the podcast process, Alex and Jonathan were joined by Mosi Secret, a 2016 Knight-Wallace Fellow. A print reporter who came to the Fellowship from The New York Times, Mosi had just turned a recent story about a 1960s experiment to integrate an elite private school in Virginia into an hour-long “This American Life” episode. He was there to make the process less intimidating and to push us to contemplate taking new chances post-Fellowship.

The first day of the bootcamp was like a typical seminar. Each speaker talked about their own careers and their editorial and stylistic approach. Jonathan was the producer who helped Mosi create his piece, and the two deconstructed their process for us, explaining how it differed from The New York Times Magazine print version of Mosi’s story.

Day two was more like a journalism version of “The Voice.” Alex, Mosi and Jonathan were the celebrity judges waiting to be impressed by our storytelling chops. We were the yet undiscovered podcast stars, hoping to blow their minds with our raw talent and bankable ideas. And we were asked to workshop our ideas in front of the entire fellowship class. I’ve never done a group edit before, and the idea of playing tape in front of a whole room of people was, frankly, kind of terrifying. But Alex and Jonathan are big proponents of the group edit — more voices in the room, more perspectives to draw from — and I’m happy to report that I am now, too.

Alex and Jonathan talked through each group’s pitch and showed us what it would take to get the concepts up and running as successful podcasts. Fellows chimed in with their own ideas on where to take the story, what voices to include and who would be the ideal host.

Everyone in the group encouraged each other and made the ideas stronger. The supportive input from other teams was invaluable. By the end of the bootcamp, I was convinced that the most important element of this Fellowship is fellowship.

And who knows, it could be one of us producing the hot podcast of 2018. 

Jennifer Guerra is a 2018 Knight-Wallace Fellow and a senior reporter at Michigan Radio, an NPR affiliate in Ann Arbor.