IRE Journal
IRE Radio Podcast | Eviction City
A slow-moving housing crisis has been tearing apart communities in the city of Detroit. Homeowners have been replaced by renters. Mortgage and tax foreclosures have allowed landlords to scoop up potential rental properties on the cheap. On this episode, Detroit News reporter Christine MacDonald walks us through her data-driven investigation into evictions. Christine explains how…
Read MoreIRE Radio Podcast | BONUS: The Rules of Undercover Reporting
The Society of Professional Journalists advises that reporters should only use undercover methods when absolutely necessary to get information that’s vital to the public. But even if a reporter follows those guidelines, where do they stand in the eyes of the law? Are they still vulnerable to civil suits and criminal charges? On this bonus…
Read MoreIRE Radio Podcast | A Workforce at Risk
When you think about temp work, short-term office jobs are likely to come to mind. But across North America, all of that is changing. These days, factories and other industrial companies are using temporary laborers to fill jobs that used to go to employees. The combination of low pay, minimal training and reduced liability has…
Read MoreIRE Radio Podcast | America’s Lost Mothers
The numbers are striking: Across the country, some 700-900 women die every year from pregnancy or childbirth-related causes. The U.S. has the worst rate of maternal deaths in the developed world. For more than six months, ProPublica’s Nina Martin and NPR’s Renee Montagne dug into the stories behind these statistics. On this episode of the…
Read MoreIRE Radio Podcast | Sheriff Joe
For a local sheriff, Joe Arpaio can’t seem to stay out of the national news. The longtime Maricopa County Sheriff made headlines again this summer when, in the wake of a criminal conviction, he was was pardoned by President Trump. But Arpaio’s story goes back nearly two decades. On this episode we’re turning back the…
Read MoreIRE Radio Podcast | The Adjustment Factor
On this week’s episode, former Chicago Tribune reporter Jason Grotto explains why investigating municipal finance isn’t as dry and daunting as you might think. What started with a dig through county property taxes ended with a three-part series delving into how and why Chicago’s broken property tax system benefited the wealthy and burdened the poor.…
Read MoreIRE Radio Podcast | Prison to the Pulpit
Investigations often don’t go according to plan. Dead-end data and stubborn sources are just some of the factors that can throw off a months-long reporting project. Other times, breaking news can put your work on the fast track to publication. That’s exactly what happened to the Tampa Bay Times when reporter Corey Johnson and colleague…
Read MoreIRE Radio Podcast | Hate, On the Record
After the 2016 election, reporters across the country began noticing what seemed like a wave of hate crimes, harassment and abuse. But with limited data, they weren’t sure if what they were seeing marked an increase. To solve that problem, more than 100 news organizations united to tell the story of hate in America. They’re…
Read MoreIRE Radio Podcast | Crisis in Coal Country
Federal regulators counted 99 cases of advanced black lung over a five-year period in the U.S. So why is it that hundreds of miners with the most serious stage of the disease are walking into clinics across Appalachia? That’s the question NPR’s Howard Berkes set out to answer last year. Howard ultimately found that the…
Read MoreIRE Radio Podcast | The Needs of a Nation
If there’s one word to describe Craig Harris and Dennis Wagner’s Arizona Republic investigation, it’s diligence. They spent 18 months untangling a complex web of issues feeding the Navajo Nation’s housing crisis, all while turning other stories. Their investigation put the Navajo Housing Authority and HUD under a microscope for consistently failing to provide the…
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