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IRE Radio Podcast | The Human Face of Heroin
Soaring heroin and opioid addiction rates have left journalists across the country looking for new ways to cover the crisis and make the statistics stick. On this episode, we talk to reporters at two papers who found innovative ways to humanize America’s heroin epidemic. Stephen Stirling of NJ Advance Media takes us on a tour…
Read MoreIRE Radio Podcast | BONUS: The State of the FOIA
It’s been 50 years since the federal Freedom of Information Act was signed into law. A lot’s happened since then – not all of it good for the press. We’re calling this bonus episode “The State of the FOIA” because, over the next 30 minutes, we’ll be talking to three experts to figure out what…
Read MoreTranscript: Making a List, Checking it Twice
The following is a transcript of the IRE Radio Podcast episode “Making a List, Checking it Twice.” The audio version is available at: http://bit.ly/2gtrlaQ <<Begin Daniela Vidal narration>> 2016 brought us one of the most interesting election seasons in American history. President-elect Donald Trump came out on top, basing his qualifications in part on his…
Read MoreIRE Radio Podcast | Making a List, Checking it Twice
One of the biggest scoops this election cycle came from Washington Post reporter David Fahrenthold. His relentless shoe-leather reporting – and list making – revealed that Donald Trump wasn’t exactly the philanthropist he was claiming to be on the campaign trail. Instead of donating his own money to charity, Trump would give away or spend dollars donated…
Read MoreIRE Radio Podcast | Mobile Tech, Human Cost
If you’re listening to this podcast, you’re affected by the topic of our show today. The phone, computer or tablet you’re using to play this episode is likely powered by a lithium-ion battery. And one of the main ingredients in those batteries is cobalt. Much of our cobalt comes from the Congo, where miners often…
Read MoreIRE Radio Podcast | The Killer That Got Away
How many people in the U.S. die of antibiotic-resistant infections? It seems like a simple question. But when a team of journalists from Reuters set out to gather the numbers, they realized that the answer would be anything but straightforward. They found out no one was properly keeping track of how many people die from…
Read MoreThe power of IRE
.@markhorvit spreading the good news of Excel at #IJAsia16 pic.twitter.com/koPokVlwmm — Liz Lucas (@eklucas) September 23, 2016 As a reporter who covered multiple beats, from night cops to politics, IRE’s tip sheets were a great source of ideas and inspiration. As an editor, whether working the city desk or managing an investigative team, IRE’s conference…
Read MoreIRE Radio Podcast | Protect and Surveil
If you’ve ever been stopped by police, it’s likely an officer filled out something called a field contact report. Officials say the documents can be useful crime-solving tools, but they also have an unintended side effect: police now have massive digital databases tracking law-abiding citizens. On this episode, Glenn Smith and Andrew Knapp of The…
Read MoreIRE Radio Podcast | Fostering Disparity
Brandon Stahl has spent years reporting on foster care for the Minneapolis Star Tribune. But at a meeting with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, he stumbled across a fact he’d never heard before: Minnesota places a higher share of American Indian kids into foster care than any other state. A year-long investigation with data journalist…
Read MoreIRE Radio Podcast | Wards of Neglect
What happens when a state cuts $100 million from its mental health budget? Reporters from the Tampa Bay Times and Sarasota Herald-Tribune spent 18 months finding out. Their Pulitzer-winning investigation exposed deadly violence in Florida’s mental hospitals, where staff shortages, regulatory fumbling and years of neglect were, for years, hidden from the public eye. In…
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