In January 2018, the world watched as a united, courageous army of more than 150 survivors testified at the sentencing hearing of Larry Nassar, the U.S.A. Gymnastics doctor who sexually abused girls and young women for more than 20 years. Then media attention moved on. Yet the story did not feel over for Michigan Radio reporters Kate Wells and Lindsey Smith. The team produced the podcast series “Believed,” offering a multifaceted account of Nassar’s belated arrest and an intimate look at how women - a detective, prosecutor and survivors- brought down the serial sex offender.

On April 21, 2005, a 64-year-old prison gang leader, Manuel Torrez, was pummeled to death in a caged exercise yard by two fellow inmates. The murder occurred in broad daylight, under the gaze of multiple video cameras, at the highest security prison in the United States. Yet it took more than 10 years for prosecutors to secure the murder convictions. Chris Outcalt’s riveting narrative “Murder at the Alcatraz of the Rockies,” for The Atavist Magazine tells the story of the rookie FBI agent who sought to crack this case and exposes the inner workings of the Mexican Mafia, known as la Eme, a homegrown criminal prison organization.

The recent series of triumphant, demagogic political campaigns worldwide has drawn attention to a new phenomenon: how easy it is to manipulate public opinion and spread fake news in the age of social media. Davey Alba’s BuzzFeed News investigation of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s Facebook-fueled rise to power shows the Orwellian depths such campaigns can reach — and their deadly consequences.