Journalists Leah Sottile and Ryan Haas join Storyboard Editor Mark Armstrong to discuss the second and final season of their serialized podcast “Hush,” from Oregon Public Broadcasting. 

Sottile and Haas first began working together on the 2019 OPB/Longreads podcast “Bundyville,” and they've continued their collaborative work as journalists and podcasters ever since. This week, they've announced that they will be starting an independent publication called The Western Edge. (For updates, you can follow Sottile and Haas on Bluesky or on their individual Substacks.)

Get the full show notes: https://niemanstoryboard.org/2026/01/22/leah-sottile-ryan-haas-true-crime-podcasting-journalism/

Subscribe to the Nieman Storyboard newsletter: https://niemanstoryboard.org/about/subscribe-to-nieman-storyboard/

Reading list

• Leah Sottile: Bluesky, Substack
• Ryan Haas: Bluesky, Substack
• “Hush Season Two: The Case of Sarah Zuber”
• Justin St. Germain, Oregon State University professor
• “Dying for a Fight”
• “In Cold Blood,” Truman Capote
• Oregon Public Broadcasting
• “Hush Season One: The State of Oregon v Jesse Lee Johnson”
• “Bundyville”
• “Twin Peaks”
• Justice for Sarah Zuber Facebook Page
• “When the Moon Turns to Blood” (Leah Sottile)
• “Blazing Eye Sees All” (Leah Sottile)
• “A Living Manifesto on Journalism in 2026 and Beyond” (Leah Sottile, December 2025)

Show Credits

Hosted and produced by Mark Armstrong
Associate producer: Marina Leigh
Episode editor: Kelly Araja
Audience editor: Adriana Lacy
Promotional support: Ellen Tuttle
Operational support: Paul Plutnicki, Peter Canova

Nieman Foundation interim curator: Henry Chu
Music: “Golden Grass,” by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue)
Cover design by Adriana Lacy

Nieman Storyboard is presented by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard.

Award-winning journalist Tonya Mosley joins Storyboard contributor Christina M. Tapper for a discussion about interviewing, live coverage, and how to tell complex family stories. 

Mosley is the co-host of NPR’s “Fresh Air,” where she has in-depth conversations with newsmakers like politician and author Stacy Abrams, actor George Clooney, and artist Mickalene Thomas. It’s not just Mosley’s ability to have conversations with a wide range of people that make her one of the most notable interviewers in journalism and media. It’s also her research. 

“I have a wonderful team at ‘Fresh Air’ who puts together a research document and it's all the things that they can find out about the person, and they break it up: here's television work, here's audio work, here's what's been written about them. I read all of that,” she says. “But then the fun thing to do after that is to find the things that weren't in the document. So then I go digging myself.” 

In her own research, Mosley scours non-mainstream platforms, including Black media. It’s Mosley’s way of covering all of her bases and honoring the guest’s time.

Read the full show notes: https://niemanstoryboard.org/2026/01/08/nprs-tonya-mosley-on-the-art-of-the-interview/

Subscribe to the Nieman Storyboard newsletter: https://niemanstoryboard.org/about/subscribe-to-nieman-storyboard/

Show Credits

Hosted and produced by Mark Armstrong

Episode producer and interview by Christina M. Tapper

Episode editor: Kelly Araja

Audience editor: Adriana Lacy

Promotional support: Ellen Tuttle

Operational support: Paul Plutnicki, Peter Canova

Nieman Foundation interim curator: Henry Chu

Music: “Golden Grass,” by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue)

Cover design by Adriana Lacy

Nieman Storyboard is presented by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard.

On the latest episode of the Nieman Storyboard podcast, photojournalist and Pulitzer Prize finalist Stephanie Keith joins Storyboard Editor Mark Armstrong to discuss her latest project, which became a powerful cover story for New York magazine: a series of photos taken in the corridors of 26 Federal Plaza in New York City, where undocumented immigrants showing up for routine hearings were being arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. 

She captured the sudden and heartbreaking moments where people were separated from their families, or taken away without their loved ones even knowing what happened. 

Get the full show notes: https://niemanstoryboard.org/2025/12/04/photojournalist-stephanie-keith-documenting-ice-new-york-magazine-cover/

Subscribe to the Nieman Storyboard newsletter: https://niemanstoryboard.org/about/subscribe-to-nieman-storyboard/

Reading List: Authors, Stories, and Editors Mentioned 

• Stephanie Keith
• “Portfolio: The Trap at 26 Federal Plaza” (Photographs by Stephanie Keith. Article by Andrew Rice and Paula Aceves, New York magazine, 2025)
• Keith's coverage of the Standing Rock protests (2016)
• Jody Quon
• Andrew Rice
• Paula Aceves

Show credits

Hosted and produced by Mark Armstrong
Associate producer: Marina Leigh
Episode editor: Kelly Araja
Audience editor: Adriana Lacy
Promotional support: Ellen Tuttle
Operational support: Paul Plutnicki, Peter Canova

Nieman Foundation interim curator: Henry Chu
Music: “Golden Grass,” by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue)
Cover design by Adriana Lacy

Nieman Storyboard is presented by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard.

Writer, author, and cultural critic Sasha Bonét joins Storyboard contributor Christina M. Tapper for a wide-ranging conversation about Bonét’s writing process for “The Waterbearers,” a memoir about mothers and daughters. Bonét and Tapper discuss surrendering to how a story unfolds, rather than forcing it, and how to turn a physical place into a key character.

Subscribe to the Nieman Storyboard newsletter: https://niemanstoryboard.org/about/subscribe-to-nieman-storyboard/

Get the full episode show notes and reading list: https://niemanstoryboard.org/2025/11/13/sasha-bonet-leaving-room-for-story-family-home-character/

Show Credits

Hosted and produced by Mark Armstrong

Episode producer and interview by Christina M. Tapper

Episode editor: Kelly Araja

Audience editor: Adriana Lacy

Promotional support: Ellen Tuttle

Operational support: Paul Plutnicki, Peter Canova

Nieman Foundation interim curator: Henry Chu

Music: “Golden Grass,” by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue)

Cover design by Adriana Lacy

Nieman Storyboard is presented by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard.

On the latest episode of the Nieman Storyboard podcast, journalist Claudia Rowe joins Storyboard Editor Mark Armstrong to discuss her most recent book, “Wards of the State: The Long Shadow of American Foster Care,” which has been named a finalist for the 2025 National Book Awards. “Wards of the State” is a narrative nonfiction book told through the stories of six former foster kids to examine the failures of the American foster care system. 

Subscribe to the Nieman Storyboard newsletter: https://niemanstoryboard.org/about/subscribe-to-nieman-storyboard/

Show credits

Hosted and produced by Mark Armstrong
Associate producer: Marina Leigh
Episode editor: Kelly Araja
Audience editor: Adriana Lacy
Promotional support: Ellen Tuttle
Operational support: Paul Plutnicki, Peter Canova

Nieman Foundation interim curator: Henry Chu
Music: “Golden Grass,” by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue)
Cover design by Adriana Lacy

Nieman Storyboard is presented by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard.

On the latest episode of the Nieman Storyboard podcast, award-winning journalist, author, and producer Danyel Smith joins Storyboard contributor Christina M. Tapper to discuss building the confidence to tell her own story and being a model for others to do the same. 

Smith, the first woman and first Black person to serve as editor-in-chief of Vibe, and who later served as editor of Billboard, is the author of “Shine Bright: A Very Personal History of Black Women in Pop.” The book is part memoir, part cultural criticism, while giving Black female music artists their due. Smith is also the host of the podcast “Black Girl Songbook” and a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame selection committee member. 

Get the full reading list and show notes: https://niemanstoryboard.org/2025/10/09/danyel-smith-confidence-to-tell-your-own-story/

Subscribe to the Nieman Storyboard newsletter: https://niemanstoryboard.org/about/subscribe-to-nieman-storyboard/

Show credits

Hosted and produced by Mark Armstrong
Episode producer and interview by Christina M. Tapper
Episode editor: Kelly Araja
Audience editor: Adriana Lacy
Promotional support: Ellen Tuttle
Operational support: Paul Plutnicki, Peter Canova

Nieman Foundation interim curator: Henry Chu
Music: “Golden Grass,” by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue)
Cover design by Adriana Lacy

Nieman Storyboard is presented by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard.

What makes an editor-writer relationship work? We sit down with a reporter and editor who have achieved something of a rarity in the news business — a 16-year partnership across multiple publications. 

Michael Kruse and his editor, Bill Duryea, first teamed up at the Tampa Bay Times (then St. Petersburg Times) in 2009. They moved together to Politico and Politico Magazine in 2015, where they continued to work together for ten years. Kruse is a senior staff writer there, and now Duryea has just joined the Washington Post as the senior editor for America. 

With Duryea's move comes an opportunity to reflect on their work together and what they've learned about reporter-editor relationships. 

Get the full reading list and show notes: https://niemanstoryboard.org/2025/09/25/michael-kruse-bill-duryea-lessons-reporter-editor-partnership/

Subscribe to the Nieman Storyboard newsletter: https://niemanstoryboard.org/about/subscribe-to-nieman-storyboard/

Show Credits

Hosted and produced by Mark Armstrong
Associate producer: Marina Leigh
Episode editor: Kelly Araja
Audience editor: Adriana Lacy
Promotional support: Ellen Tuttle
Operational support: Paul Plutnicki, Peter Canova

Nieman Foundation interim curator: Henry Chu
Music: “Golden Grass,” by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue)
Cover design by Adriana Lacy

Nieman Storyboard is presented by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard.

The New Yorker’s Interactives Visual Features Editor Sam Wolson joins Storyboard Editor Mark Armstrong for a conversation about his latest story, “There’s No Place at Home: A Mother and Her Trans Teen Decide to Leave the U.S.,” about a mother and her trans teenager deciding to move to Mexico after President Trump’s efforts to restrict gender-affirming care. 

The story is an interactive visual feature that combines photorealistic 3D models — using photos taken at the family’s house in Maine — with illustrations by Lilli Carré and reporting and writing by Wolson. For Wolson, “ there was something really powerful in that raw physicality of their home and what it means to leave a home that felt really valuable to the telling of this story in a way that I don't think you would've had if you just were hearing them talking about leaving it."

Get the full show notes and reading list: https://niemanstoryboard.org/2025/09/11/new-yorker-sam-wolson-interactive-storytelling/

Subscribe to the Nieman Storyboard newsletter: https://niemanstoryboard.org/about/subscribe-to-nieman-storyboard/

Show Credits

Hosted and produced by Mark Armstrong
Associate producer: Marina Leigh
Episode editor: Kelly Araja
Audience editor: Adriana Lacy
Promotional support: Ellen Tuttle
Operational support: Paul Plutnicki, Peter Canova

Nieman Foundation interim curator: Henry Chu
Music: “Golden Grass,” by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue)
Cover design by Adriana Lacy

Nieman Storyboard is presented by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard.

Mark Armstrong sits down with Storyboard contributor and author-journalist Mallary Tenore Tarpley to discuss her new book, “Slip: Life in the Middle of Eating Disorder Recovery.”

“Slip” is a reported memoir, with Tarpley recounting her own diagnosis and treatment for anorexia following the death of her mother from breast cancer when Tarpley was 11 years old. She talks about the process of writing and researching the book, revisiting spaces from her childhood, and confirming memories through interviews, medical records, and journals that had been stored for years in her father’s attic. 

For resources including screenings, treatments, and free-to-low-cost support for eating disorders, please visit the National Eating Disorder Association to get help.

Subscribe to the Nieman Storyboard newsletter: https://niemanstoryboard.org/about/subscribe-to-nieman-storyboard/

Reading List: Authors, Books, and Stories Mentioned 

• “Slip: Life in the Middle of Eating Disorder Recovery” (Mallary Tenore Tarpley)
• Mallary Tenore Tarpley Nieman Storyboard archive
• Goucher College low-residency MFA 
• “The Night of the Gun” (David Carr)
• Write at the Edge (Mallary Tenore Tarpley's newsletter)
• “Write for Your Life” (Anna Quindlen)
• Other writing from Mallary Tenore Tarpley

Show Credits

Hosted and produced by Mark Armstrong
Associate producer: Marina Leigh
Episode editor: Kelly Araja
Audience editor: Adriana Lacy
Promotional support: Ellen Tuttle
Operational support: Paul Plutnicki, Peter Canova

Nieman Foundation interim curator: Henry Chu
Music: “Golden Grass,” by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue)
Cover design by Adriana Lacy

Nieman Storyboard is presented by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard.

Mark Armstrong sits down with Lane DeGregory, the Pulitzer Prize-winning enterprise reporter for the Tampa Bay Times covering "hope and humanity." 

DeGregory, whose work has been featured frequently on Storyboard over the years, is now celebrating 25 years at the Tampa Bay Times. She takes us through her process — from connecting with the community, to developing story ideas, and earning the trust of your subjects. She also reveals who inspires her work — from fellow journalists to musicians and songwriters.

DeGregory also hosts the journalism podcast WriteLane, and is the author of the 2023 anthology, "The Girl in the Window and Other True Tales: An Anthology with Tips for Finding, Reporting, and Writing Nonfiction Narratives." 

The title story from that book, "The Girl in the Window," won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing in 2009. DeGregory told the story of a girl named Dani who had suffered from severe neglect and was adopted by a new family. She returned to Dani's story ten years later, in 2017. 

Get the full show notes and reading list: https://niemanstoryboard.org/2025/07/31/pulitzer-lane-degregory-power-of-local-storytelling/

Subscribe to the Nieman Storyboard newsletter: https://niemanstoryboard.org/about/subscribe-to-nieman-storyboard/

Show Credits

Hosted and produced by Mark Armstrong
Episode editor: Kelly Araja
Audience editor: Adriana Lacy
Promotional support: Ellen Tuttle
Operational support: Paul Plutnicki, Peter Canova

Nieman Foundation interim curator: Henry Chu
Music: “Golden Grass,” by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue)
Cover design by Adriana Lacy

Nieman Storyboard is presented by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard.