The Journalism Salute

On this episode we're joined by Sam Donndelinger. Sam is an investigative journalist and lead designer for Uncloseted Media.

Uncloseted Media is a non-profit newsroom started by NYU professor Spencer MacNaughton to do investigative reporting on LGBTQ issues. It has 4 full-time employees and well-followed Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok accounts. Sam has won multiple awards for her reporting. She's a recent graduate of NYU.

Sam talked about the kinds of stories she covers and the importance of being an empathetic and present reporter. She explained the design role she has. And she shared why a job like this is the best fit for her.

Sam's salute: Liz Plank

Examples of stories:

Transgender men and struggles with eating disorders

https://www.unclosetedmedia.com/p/transgender-men-experience-eating

Google and conversion therapy

https://www.unclosetedmedia.com/p/google-sends-parents-of-lgbtq-kids

Unequitable access to drugs that would deter HIV

https://www.unclosetedmedia.com/p/unraveling-the-urgent-unspoken-struggle

More on Sam's life and backstory

https://www.unclosetedmedia.com/p/why-am-i-still-explaining-being-bisexual

You can find all our episode guides for teachers and professors here,

Please support your local public radio station: adoptastation.org

Thank you for listening. You can e-mail me at [email protected]

Visit our website: thejournalismsalute.org 

Mark’s website (MarkSimonmedia.com)

Bluesky at @marksimon.bsky.social

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On this episode we're joined by Ben Chase. Ben is a two-time guest. We talked to him in 2021 when he was a reporter for the Huron Daily Plainsman in Huron, South Dakota (population ~14,000, one-third of which is Hispanic or Asian). Now he's the paper's managing editor, a role he's held for roughly a year … and it's been quite a year as he’ll share.

The paper was shut down (briefly), sold, and brought back, but with some changes, including fewer print editions and a directive to be more local.

Ben talked about running a small-town newspaper, the types of things the paper covers, how he writes his weekly op-ed piece, and how his stress relief is … more journalism (of a different type).

Ben's salute: South Dakota Searchlight

Example of Ben's Op-Eds – "It's Not The Same."

https://www.plainsman.com/stories/its-not-the-same,163806

Background on the sale of the newspaper

https://www.plainsman.com/stories/plainsman-three-other-south-dakota-papers-purchased-by-champion-media,148535

https://www.midstory.org/can-local-news-survive-south-dakota-says-yes/

You can find all our episode guides for teachers and professors here,

Please support your local public radio station: adoptastation.org

Thank you for listening. You can e-mail me at [email protected]

Visit our website: thejournalismsalute.org 

Mark’s website (MarkSimonmedia.com)

Bluesky at @marksimon.bsky.social

Subscribe to our newsletter– journalismsalute.beehiiv.com

On this episode we're joined by Jules Roscoe. Jules is an independent journalist (freelance writer) who covers labor and technology from a national perspective and politics from a local perspective.

Jules has written for (among other places), 404 Media, The Boston Guardian, Vice, Wired, and Matter News, is a 2024 graduate of NYU, and works full-time as a legal proofreader.

We talked about Jules' experience, approach to writing stories (why it needs to sound good to the ear) and why a 'stupid question' is often a good question.

Plus, we'll get an update from Anita Pinto, adviser to The Gateway Times at Urban Assembly Gateway School for Technology in New York City. She's been providing monthly reports on what her students have been doing. One highlight: They got to visit the New York Post. You can hear Anita's original interview with me here.

Jules' salutes: 404 Media, and journalists Ken Klippenstein and Matthew Gault

Work examples

UPS workers driving in heat story

https://www.vice.com/en/article/ups-workers-share-horror-stories-about-driving-in-heat/

Indonesian fishermen story

https://www.404media.co/they-sometimes-worry-that-im-dead-already-deep-sea-fishers-fight-for-wi-fi/

Other stories

https://muckrack.com/julesaroscoe

You can find all our episode guides for teachers and professors here,

Please support your local public radio station: adoptastation.org

Thank you for listening. You can e-mail me at [email protected]

Visit our website: thejournalismsalute.org 

Mark’s website (MarkSimonmedia.com)

Bluesky at @marksimon.bsky.social

Subscribe to our newsletter– journalismsalute.beehiiv.com

On this episode we're joined by Megan Tagami. Megan is a reporter covering education for Honolulu Civil Beat, a non-profit newsroom in Hawaii. She's a native of Honolulu and a 2023 graduate of UCLA with a degree in political science and government. 

Megan talked about her entry into journalism, how she overcame her hesitance to ask people questions, explained her writing process, and shared the kinds of stories she covers on the education beat. Lots of good lessons for aspiring journalists from the perspective of a young writer beginning her career.

Megan's story about mental health and Hawaii schools

 https://www.civilbeat.org/2025/08/the-crisis-isnt-over-maui-kids-mental-health-needs-are-mounting/

Megan's story about the librarian shortage

https://www.civilbeat.org/2025/03/hawai%ca%bbi-school-libraries-are-shrinking-when-students-may-need-them-most/

Megan's story about how teachers are dealing with free speech and challenging discussion topics, like Charlie Kirk's assassination

https://www.civilbeat.org/2025/11/whats-controversial-teachers-grapple-with-free-speech-in-hawaii-schools/

Megan's salute: Joe Hong, WNYC

You can find all our episode guides for teachers and professors here,

Please support your local public radio station: adoptastation.org

Thank you for listening. You can e-mail me at [email protected]

Visit our website: thejournalismsalute.org 

Mark’s website (MarkSimonmedia.com)

Bluesky at @marksimon.bsky.social

Subscribe to our newsletter– journalismsalute.beehiiv.com

On this episode we're joined by Alyssa Rosenberg. Alyssa is a former editor and columnist for The Washington Post. She was at the Post for 11 and a half years, the last year and a half was spent as the letters and community editor.

After the Post declined to endorse a candidate in the 2024 presidential election she invited readers to write in. The result was 21,000 letters. And over a 6-month period, Alyssa read every one. She wrote about this recently for NOTUS (News of the United States) and she joined us to talk about her work and career.

Alyssa explained what her job as a letters editor was like, her process for editing (and shortening letters), what one goes through when they read 21,000 letters on the same subject, and the value of allowing someone to feel heard.

 Alyssa's article for NOTUS about the 21,000 letters

https://www.notus.org/perspectives/the-washington-post-got-21-000-emails-after-it-didnt-endorse-i-read-them-all

Youth 250 Writing Program

https://historymadebyus.org/youth250

 Across The Movie Aisle Podcast

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/across-the-movie-aisle/id1491840893

 The Shop Around The Corner- Children's Book Newsletter

https://alyssarosenberg.substack.com/

Alyssa's salutes: Shane Harris, The Atlantic, Richard Just, Notus

You can find all our episode guides for teachers and professors here,

Please support your local public radio station: adoptastation.org

Thank you for listening. You can e-mail me at [email protected]

Visit our website: thejournalismsalute.org 

Mark’s website (MarkSimonmedia.com)

Bluesky at @marksimon.bsky.social

Subscribe to our newsletter– journalismsalute.beehiiv.com

On The Journalism Salute we talk to journalists about who they are and what they do with the intent of showing that journalists are not the enemy of the people.

On this episode we're joined by Babette Hogan and Julie Eisenberg. They are the filmmakers behind Running for the Mountains, a new documentary film about environmental policies and politics and the fight between activists and politicians about this issue in West Virginia. It's available on Amazon Prime and also, if you have a library card, on Kanopy.

Babette and Julie talked about the process by which they made their movie, which took 15 years to complete. They explained why they made the movie, how – as outsiders – they gained the trust of West Virginians, and shared some of the adventures they had along the way (including an arrest.

Babette and Julie's salutes: Chris Hayes of MS Now, Gasland director Josh Fox, and the movie Knock Down the House, as well as photojournalists Dorothea Lange, Gordon Parks, and Sebastião Salgado. 

You can find all our episode guides for teachers and professors here,

Please support your local public radio station: adoptastation.org

Thank you for listening. You can e-mail me at [email protected]

Visit our website: thejournalismsalute.org 

Mark’s website (MarkSimonmedia.com)

Bluesky at @marksimon.bsky.social

Subscribe to our newsletter– journalismsalute.beehiiv.com

On this episode we're joined by A'lauren Gilchrist. A'lauren is a senior at Norfolk State University, an HBCU in Norfolk, Virginia. She is also the student representative at the National Association of Black Journalists, NABJ.

A'lauren's experience includes an internship with WAVY 10 News and we talked about the different things she learned, including the importance of having Black voices in the newsroom and in pitch meetings. She also shared the goals she has in her position with NABJ and the work she's done as a student newspaper editor and an intern with Historically Black Since.

At the end of the episode, we'll hear an update from Urban Assembly Gateway School journalism club advisor Anita Pinto about what her students have been working on in the past month. We originally interviewed Anita in September.

A'lauren's salutes: Hampton Roads Black Media Professionals and its president Eugene Daniel, and her mentors April Woodard of WTKR, and Aesia Toliver of WAVY 10.

Article summarizing her internship:

https://www.wavy.com/blogs/intern-blog/wavys-fire-intern-from-smoke-filled-scenes-to-broadcast-success/

You can find all our episode guides for teachers and professors here,

Please support your local public radio station: adoptastation.org

Thank you for listening. You can e-mail me at [email protected]

Visit our website: thejournalismsalute.org 

Mark’s website (MarkSimonmedia.com)

Bluesky at @marksimon.bsky.social

Subscribe to our newsletter– journalismsalute.beehiiv.com

On this episode we're joined by Maryam Jameel. Maryam is a graduate of Northwestern and an engagement reporter for ProPublica focused on workers' rights, occupational safety, immigration, and the federal government.

Being an engagement reporter means both connecting with your audience and connecting with sources and Marayam is working on a campaign featuring ads on D.C. Metro cars encouraging federal workers to share their stories.

This follows a campaign that ProPublica did with a truck traveling around Washington D.C. also encouraging workers to call.

We talk to her about writing, innovative ways of sourcing, the challenges of ethical reporting, and her approach to stories.

Maryam's salute: Reporters covering the war and genocide in Gaza

Helpful links:

More on the way ProPublica is finding sources

https://www.niemanlab.org/2025/03/propublica-wanted-to-find-more-sources-in-the-federal-government-so-it-brought-a-truck/

Our interview with her reporting colleague, Melissa Sanchez

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/melissa-sanchez-pro-publica/id1526063503?i=1000615807775

You can find all our episode guides for teachers and professors here,

Please support your local public radio station: adoptastation.org

Thank you for listening. You can e-mail me at [email protected]

Visit our website: thejournalismsalute.org 

Mark’s website (MarkSimonmedia.com)

Bluesky at @marksimon.bsky.social

Subscribe to our newsletter– journalismsalute.beehiiv.com

On this episode we're joined by Joe Coughlin. Joe is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Record - North Shore, a non-profit newsroom serving Chicago's North Shore suburbs.

Joe has 20 years in the journalism industry to draw upon. The Record and The Journalism Salute started at around the same time. In fact, Joe reached out to me not long after he started to tell me what he was doing. I said – I'll talk to you eventually. Eventually is now – 5 years later!

Joe talked about why he has such a passion for local news, how he started and manages a small, local, award-winning non-profit and how it has been able to survive. He also provided examples of the kind of stories that work and why he thinks sports is so important to local news coverage.

Joe's salute: Block Club Chicago

You can find all our episode guides for teachers and professors here,

Please support your local public radio station: adoptastation.org

Thank you for listening. You can e-mail me at [email protected]

Visit our website: thejournalismsalute.org 

Mark’s website (MarkSimonmedia.com)

Bluesky at @marksimon.bsky.social

Subscribe to our newsletter– journalismsalute.beehiiv.com

On this episode we're joined by Nicole Lewis. Nicole is the engagement editor for The Marshall Project, leading the organization’s strategic efforts to deepen reporting that reaches communities most affected by the criminal legal system. She also leads certain investigative reporting projects.

The Marshall Project is a non-profit nonpartisan newsroom covering America's criminal justice system with the belief that the system is broken and needs reform.

We talked to Nicole about both her purpose as a journalist and The Marshall Project's purpose as an organization. She provided examples of stories she's worked on, everything from 'as-told-to' pieces with incarcerated people dealing with pregnancy issues to lawmakers' response to a supposed shoplifting crisis, to a massive survey of those incarcerated about the 2024 election (which featured a surprising level of support for Donald Trump).

Nicole's salutes: Outlier Media and New York Magazine

Related interviews on this podcast:

Trina Reynolds-Tyler & Sarah Conway (Invisible Institute)

Justin Baxley, More Than A Number

Erin Perry, Outlier Media

You can find all our episode guides for teachers and professors (including this one) here,

Please support your local public radio station: adoptastation.org

Thank you for listening. You can e-mail me at [email protected]

Visit our website: thejournalismsalute.org 

Mark’s website (MarkSimonmedia.com)

Bluesky at @marksimon.bsky.social

Subscribe to our newsletter– journalismsalute.beehiiv.com