Author and journalist Alice Driver remembers her first time meeting people from other countries as a child in rural Arkansas – they were all workers at meatpacking facilities. Her book, “Life and Death of The American Worker: The Immigrants Taking on America’s Largest Meatpacking Company,” which won the $25,000 J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Prize, focuses on the struggles those immigrant workers face today – specifically those employed by Tyson, America’s largest meatpacking company. 

In this episode, Alice Driver joins the J School Prizes Department’s Abi Wright and Lisa Cohen to talk about her award-winning book, the impact it’s had on migrant workers and the meat industry, and how young journalists can keep their momentum going if they decide to tackle longform projects of their own.  She urges

Read more about “Life and Death of The American Worker,” and Driver’s other books, here. 

Do you, or someone you know, have a non-fiction work-in-progress that is currently under a book contract? If so, enter to win the J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Prize - or other Lukas Book Prizes - before the Dec. 4, 2025 deadline. Go to https://journalism.columbia.edu/lukas for more information and to enter.

Phil Williams, titan of local journalism, five-time duPont-Columbia Award winner and dubbed “Nashville’s Nosiest Bitch” - by satirist John Oliver - talks about his most recent duPont Award-winning investigation, Hate Comes to Main Street. In the series, Williams squares off with local right-wing politicians and white supremacists to expose how conspiracy theories are shaping political life in Tennessee.

“I don't want to have my chain yanked. I do not want to report on things in the news because a bad faith actor is driving me to do that. I do not play requests.’” – Rachel Maddow

2020 duPont-Columbia Award winner and MSNBC host Rachel Maddow talks to Dean Jelani Cobb about the urgency of reporting on the 2024 Presidential election. She also shares advice to young journalists and her take on the state of journalism in this unprecedented political season.

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