The Journalism Salute

On this episode we're joined by Nancy Martinez Preyor-Johnson. Nancy is a senior projects reporter for the San Antonio Express-News. She was formerly a metro editor and editorial page editor and won awards for her opinion writing about the Uvalde school shooting and about immigration. She also used to be a high school journalism teacher. She's on the executive board for the National Association of Hispanic Journalists as their vice-president of print. She is a graduate of Texas A&M-Kingsville with a masters from UTSA

Nancy talked about covering a scandal related to ex-congressman Tony Gonzales and the challenges of reporting such stories. She shared the goals of the NAHJ and related her experience as a middle school and high school journalism teacher.

Nancy's salute: All the non-profit journalism newsrooms

Example of coverage of congressman Gonzales

https://www.expressnews.com/news/article/tony-gonzales-texts-regina-santos-aviles-pictures-21362068.php

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On this episode we're joined by Amanda Perez Pintado. Amanda is a bilingual reporter covering health for The Center for Investigative Reporting in Puerto Rico (Centro De Periodismo Investigativo) and a journalism instructor teaching news writing and data journalism to college students. She's been in her current job for 2.5 years and has also worked at El Nuevo Dia and USA Today.

She's a part of Report for America, a graduate of the Universidad de Puerto Rico with a masters from NYU.

Amanda talked about her work as a bilingual reporter, why investigative reporting is a good beat for her, and what she hopes students get out of her from her work as a teacher.

Examples of her reporting

https://periodismoinvestigativo.com/2025/12/mentally-ill-defendants-puerto-rico-jail/

https://periodismoinvestigativo.com/2026/06/multimillonarias-multas-first-medical/

Amanda's salute: Her colleague Víctor Rodríguez Velázquez

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On this episode Mark Simon is joined by Nierra Coleman-Jones and Eric Jourgensen. Nierra is the senior manager of educator engagement for the News Literacy Project. Eric is a teacher and newspaper advisor in Palm Beach County, Florida. They were here to promote the National News Literacy Conference, which will take place Oct. 8-10 in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Nierra is one of the people running the conference. Eric will be one of the guest speakers. His presentation is titled " Dihydrogen Monoxide: The Deadly Chemical That Exposes How Misinformation Works." 

Each of them talked about their experiences with news literacy, the challenges in teaching students to be news literate, and what they hope people will get out of coming to the conference.

For more information about the News Literacy Project, visit them at newslit.org or find them on social media.

And learn more about the News Literacy Conference here:

https://newslit.org/conference/

Eric's GoFundMe to cover his expenses

https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-me-teach-news-literacy-at-a-national-level

Nierra's salute: The design team at the News Literacy Project

Eric's salutes: His first editor, Jon Sechrist

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On this episode we're joined by Nevin Kallepalli. Nevin was a reporter for Shasta Scout, a non-profit newsroom serving Shasta County, California.

We've talked to a lot of California-based reporters but I think Nevin is the first we've talked to in a politically-conservative part of the state. The demographics of Shasta are overwhelmingly white.

Nevin was a local news fellow who is particularly interested in covering religion. This was his first foray into daily reporting and he was a finalist for an award from the Institute for Non-Profit News this year. He's a graduate of UCLA with a masters from Columbia, and while there he worked for the Whitney Museum.

We talked with Nevin about his journalism origin story and some of the prominent stories he covered. He explained how he was able to cover a community with vastly different demographics from his in a fair and empathetic way. This is a good episode for early-career or student journalists wondering about what the local news experience is like.

Nevin's salutes: CalMatters and The Sacramento Bee

Nevin's story on police tactics:

https://shastascout.org/using-suspects-faces-rpd-weaves-compellingly-pro-police-narratives-its-a-practice-thats-known-to-cause-harm/

Other notable stories

https://shastascout.org/could-forced-treatment-for-substance-use-help-stabilize-the-chronically-homeless/

https://shastascout.org/in-hopes-of-saving-her-daughters-life-she-asked-for-her-rights-to-be-taken-away/

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On this episode Mark Simon is joined by Maddie Carr. Maddie is just starting graduate school for investigative and data journalism at the University of Missouri. She is a graduate of Emporia State University with a sociology degree. In 2024 she became the first college student to be named Kansas Journalist of the Year by the Kansas Press Association.

On this episode we're joined by Maddie Carr. Maddie is just starting graduate school for investigative and data journalism at the University of Missouri. She is a graduate of Emporia State University with a sociology degree. In 2024 she became the first college student to be named Kansas Journalist of the Year by the Kansas Press Association. We'll talk to her about that and much more.

Maddie talked about the work she's done to this point in her career, including the investigative piece that won her that big award. She also shared about her battle with imposter syndrome while working an internship at the Topeka Capital-Journal. And she explained why she wanted to go the graduate school.

Maddie's coverage of professor's sexual harassment history

https://esubulletin.com/10768/news/esu-assistant-dean-resigns-amid-public-outcry-of-sexual-harassment-its-not-the-first-time/

They grow up so fast (story about her brothers)

https://esubulletin.com/20165/opinion/they-grow-up-so-fast/

Maddie's salutes: Amy Goodman of Democracy Now and Steal This Story Please, and Stacy Saldanha-Olson of the Topeka Capital-Journal.

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On this episode, Mark Simon talks to Kuwilileni Williams-Hauwanga, the deputy director of Audience & Innovation at Capital B, a newsroom that covers stories of crucial importance to Black people across the country, such as politics, health, criminal justice, the environment, and rural issues.

Kuwilileni is an accomplished multimedia storyteller who previously worked at the Brookings Institution, IndieWire, Business Insider, and Buzzfeed. Our conversation focused primarily on an oral history project that Kuwilileni is helping to lead. It's the For The Record Archive, a joint venture of Capital B and PushBlack intended to provide 250 oral histories of the Black American experience.

We talked about Kuwilileni's work history, the project's origins, why it's important, and provided examples of the different types of oral histories shared.  

Kuwililileni's salutes: MLK 50 and The 19th

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On this episode Mark Simon is joined by Kamala Thiagarajan.

This will be a little different for us. Kamala is a science journalist who spent part of her childhood in the United States and is now based in Madurai, South India. She won The June Biedler Prize and a Solutions Journalism Award for outstanding reporting on cancer in 2025. She's also reported extensively on COVID in India. Sometimes she reports on human rights and culture. Kamala has had bylines in the New York Times, The Guardian, on NPR, and the BBC. She's also a contributor to the new book from The Open Notebook, The Best Science Stories And How They Work.

Kamala was recommended to us by Sandeep Ravindran, a recent guest who is the president of the National Association of Science Writers.

Kamala talked about freelance writing life and provided examples of the kind of stories she's covered. She explained the challenges of doing science writing in India, commented on the state of science writing in the United States, gave strategies for dealing with work stress, and explained how she mentors other journalists.

Kamala's salutes: The Open Notebook & The American Association For Cancer Research

Interview on FreedomWithWriting.com

https://www.freedomwithwriting.com/freedom/editor-interviews/interview-with-kamala-thiagarajan-publlished-in-the-new-york-times-npr-bbc-al-jazeera-scmp-and-others/

Kamala's Seaweed Diver Story

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2023/05/07/1129895843/its-not-for-the-faint-hearted-the-story-of-indias-intrepid-women-seaweed-divers

Kamala's story about blind women helping catch breast cancer

https://www.npr.org/sections/goats-and-soda/2024/09/08/g-s1-15690/breast-cancer-tumors-women-blind

Kamala A Day In The Life Story

https://www.theopennotebook.com/2025/03/04/a-day-in-the-life-of-kamala-thiagarajan/

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On this episode we're joined by Monique Madan. Monique is an award-winning investigative journalist, advisor, educator, and a mother of two. She's also the founder of a newsletter Two Can Be True.

Monique has been a reporter in many prominent newsrooms, 13 years at The Miami Herald, as well as at USA Today, The Boston Herald, The Markup, and short stints at The New York Times and The Boston Globe.

She's a graduate of Miami Dade and Emerson College, and has a masters from Harvard.

We talked to Monique about the challenges of being an independent investigative journalist, the stories she's written, the traits that make her a good journalist, and balancing her job with being a mom.

Monique's salute: Project C – The Home of Creator Journalism

Story about the Grim Reaper patch

https://moniqueomadan.substack.com/p/the-grim-reaper-patch-circulating

Coverage of Alligator Alcatraz

https://moniqueomadan.substack.com/p/fl-said-alligator-alcatraz-was-shutting

Story about her grandfather cooking for President Kennedy

https://moniqueomadan.substack.com/p/my-abuelo-cooked-for-jfk-i-retraced

Story about being called scrappy

https://moniqueomadan.substack.com/p/they-called-me-scrappy-heres-why

Story about Monique in Project C Newsletter

https://newsletter.projectc.biz/p/what-it-costs-to-leave

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On this episode I'm joined by Santiago Campos. Santiago is headed to Georgetown University in the fall. He went to school at DC International School where he learned journalism, and had a piece was featured on PBS News Hour and in Teen Vogue.

Santiago has been awarded multiple scholarships. One of them was from CBS in honor of broadcast legend Mike Wallace. He spoke critically of what is happening at the network. Very critically. If you're listening to this podcast, I'm guessing you saw clips of his speech or at least heard about it. I'm curious about that, but I'm more curious about everything that led up to it and what he thinks is coming after it. That's what we talked about.

Santiago's YouTube page - https://www.youtube.com/@sant1agocampos

Santiago's speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XG5obCt98zA

Santiago's PBS story about his family https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/family-who-lived-through-1950s-u-s-deportation-effort-reflects-on-current-climate

Santiago's story about a man detained by ICE and his family https://studentreportinglabs.org/youth-reporting/an-immigrant-father-detained-by-ice-shares-his-story-of-fear-and-survival/

Santiago's salutes: More Perfect Union and independent journalist Johnny Harris.

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On this episode we're joined by three reporters from the San Francisco Chronicle – Susie Neilson, Megan Fan Munce, and Sara DiNatale.

The three of them won the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting for the series of articles, Burned, which show how insurance companies using algorithmic tools have failed Californians who lost their homes to wildfires. They did so by systematically undervaluing properties, denying claims and making it impossible for them to rebuild. There were roughly 20 stories done on this project with a large team of contributors.

Susie, Megan, and Sara provided a behind-the-scenes perspective of how the stories came together. They also provided advice and insight for journalists who aspire to do such work.

Susie, Megan, and Sara's salutes: The other Pulitzer Finalists for Explanatory Journalism at Bloomberg (Staff) and ProPublica (Brett Murphy and Anna Maria Barry-Jester).

A full list of Thank Yous From Susie, Megan, and Sara

Brontë Wittpenn (and pitbull Mama Wittpenn), Stephen Lam, Ryan Gabrielson, Kate Galbraith , Demian Bulwa, Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, Michael Gray, Sarah McGrew, Erin Caughey, John Blanchard, Alex Fong, Joy Jeong, Nami Sumida, Jessica Christian, Alisha Jucevic, Brooke Park , Christian Leonard, Anthony Edwards, Maggie Beidelman, Nicole Fruge, Emily Jan, Dan Kopf, Hannah Hagemann, Caleb Pershan, Linda Houser/Tafur,Shoka Safiee

Full series

https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/susie-neilson-megan-fan-munce-and-sara-dinatale-san-francisco-chronicle

Inside Burned (3 1/2 minute video)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glFQduuo7qI

15-minute summary

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh5HW42fEII

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