The podcast “74 Seconds,” from Minnesota Public Radio, examines the July 2016 shooting death of Philando Castile by police officer Jeronimo Yanez. The entire incident, which started as a traffic stop in a suburb of St. Paul, unfolded in just 74 seconds. Over 22 episodes, the Minnesota Public Radio team deconstructed the killing and its aftermath, within its local context and as a flashpoint for an evolving national dialogue around race, policing and the justice system. Through meticulous and balanced reporting, the series put a human face on both the victim and the officer who pulled the trigger.

As one of the reporters who unleashed the #MeToo movement with the publishing of his New Yorker stories, Ronan Farrow accomplished something that other reporters, for decades, had failed to do. Through more than 140 interviews, and the persistence to find an editor to publish his work, he gathered the first on-the-record accounts of alleged assault and rape by Hollywood producer and powerbroker, Harvey Weinstein. Farrow’s reporting drew legal threats and intimidation. His exposé of the sprawling system of spies Weinstein employed to keep stories silent hastened the mogul’s downfall.

Emily Steel and Michael Schmidt’s reporting for The New York Times uncovering $45 million in sexual harassment settlements involving Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly ignited media outlets everywhere to report on allegations of sexual misconduct against powerful men and emboldened a progression of women to come forward and tell their own stories of sexual abuse. Publication of Steel and Schmidt’s work and all that followed forced a worldwide conversation about gender, power and sexual harassment in the workplace.

While stories about conflicts in Africa have fallen off the radars of many American news outlets, Christina Goldbaum’s on-the-ground reporting on growing U.S. military engagement and counter-terrorism efforts in the region has become essential reading. In her series for The Daily Beast, Goldbaum pieces together a military raid that is alleged to have resulted in the deaths of 10 Somali civilians, including at least one child.