“We have all these new media forms. But we haven't really found one that does what the old school news magazine still do well, which is sit across from someone and look them in the eye and turn TV into a lie detector.“ --HBO Real Sports’ Corre

#91 “The Janes” Doc Directors on Its Relevance Today

Nov 3rd, 2023 35m 17s

“These were just ordinary women turned outlaws.” - Director Tia LessinDirectors of the 2023 DuPont award-winning film ‘The Janes’, Emma Pildes and Tia Lessin join journalist and J School Adjunct Professor Jessica Bruder for a lively conversat

#90 CNN's Jake Tapper with Dean Jelani Cobb

Oct 6th, 2023 47m 48s

“The incentive structures in the worlds of politics and news media… are geared towards division and not just division, but demonizing people. And it's very dangerous. It has already resulted in loss of life."-CNN’s Jake TapperJake Tapper is

#89: The New Yorker's Masha Gessen with Dean Jelani Cobb

Sep 1st, 2023 44m 40s

#89: The New Yorker's Masha Gessen with Dean Jelani Cobb by On Assignment - From the duPont-Columbia Awards

#88: “Leave No Trace” Director Irene Taylor on the Boy Scouts’ Hidden History

Jul 7th, 2023 31m 56s

“I respect the Boy Scouts. I respect what they were founded on. But there was a really dark side and no one was talking about it.”–"Leave No Trace" Director Irene Taylo

#87: "Stolen's" Connie Walker on Her Personal Story with a Nationwide Reach

Jun 1st, 2023 28m 21s

“We all understand just how easily history is forgotten. And this history is being actively destroyed.” –Podcast Host Connie Walker“Stolen: Surviving St. Michael’s” is a 2023 duPont-winning series that uncovers the horrific abuse many young

#86: Erika Alexander on Finding Tamika

May 5th, 2023 22m 44s

“They had told the story of how Tamika died, but not how she lived.”—Podcast Producer Erika Alexander“Finding Tamika” is the 2023 duPont-winning Audible series about Tamika Huston, a Black woman who went missing in 2004. The media paid scant

#85: “Navalny”: Daniel Roher’s Real Life Political Thriller

Mar 10th, 2023 39m 5s

“People are often surprised when they watch the film and they realize that it's sort of a dark comedy.”“Navalny” follows Alexei Navalny, his team and his family as he investigates his own poisoning, and heads back to Russia to meet his fate.

#84: Arizona Law Enforcement Under Fire: ABC 15's Dave Biscobing

Dec 2nd, 2022 27m 53s

“I've seen officers lie in reports or stretching the truth -- that's not new - - but to entirely make something up completely and unequivocally, that just was really disturbing."- Dave Biscobing, ABC15 Chief Investigative ReporterDave Bis

#83: NBC Bay Area’s “The Moms of Magnolia Street”

Nov 4th, 2022 26m 5s

“We knew it was important to let the cameras continue to roll live. But I'll be honest, we were nervous about where this was going to go when we saw those armored vehicles show up.”- VP of News Stephanie Adrouny, NBC Bay AreaThe 2022 du

#82: Director Malachy Browne on the January 6th “Day of Rage”

Oct 6th, 2022 20m 48s

“We understood the magnitude of the event fairly early on and the need to start collecting evidence…That's how we think of this. As evidence, not just cover or B-roll.”— New York Times Visual Investigations Lead Malachy Browne on the January

#81: Revisiting Ira Glass Behind the Scenes at This American Life

Sep 2nd, 2022 33m 54s

“A story is an engine for feelings.”- This American Life founder, host and producer Ira GlassIn 2019, This American Life founder, host, and producer Ira Glass gave his special brand of insight into how he crafts “This American Life,” from

#80: Director Loira Limbal’s Heartfelt Homage to Working Mothers

Aug 5th, 2022 22m 37s

“I felt like I don't have to tell you how brutal racial capitalism is in the United States if I am showing you. I wanted capitalism to indict itself in the film.”-- director and producer Loira LimbalIn her 2022 duPont Award-winning documen

#79: Nanfu Wang’s Brave COVID Doc Draws Dramatic Parallels

Jul 1st, 2022 26m 26s

“Finding people who praise the government is easy. Finding people who are critical of the government is easy. What is the most difficult is convincing some people who are ordinary citizens who have information to come out and speak up. ”--- d

#78: CBS’s Norah O’Donnell On Her Toughest Story Yet: Sexual Assault in the U.S. Military

Jun 3rd, 2022 23m 49s

“These women who join the military are just the finest…and the fact that they are being harassed and abused and driven from military service is really a national security issue.” --- CBS Managing Editor and Anchor Norah O’Donnell

#77: Tracing Trauma with WNYC's KalaLea

May 6th, 2022 21m 54s

In episode two of Season 15, WNYC’s KalaLea discusses how her 2022 duPont-Columbia award-winning audio series, "Blindspot: Tulsa Burning," immerses listeners in the past, embedding them in the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, while threading the im

#76: NPR's Laura Sullivan Talks Trash

Mar 31st, 2022 23m 33s

NPR’s Laura Sullivan reveals the surprising twists and turns behind her 2022 duPont-award winning Planet Money piece, “Waste Land.” Stowed in boxes of old lobbying documents in private family homes, away from public view, Laura finds out that t

#75: Ed Ou, director of A Different Kind of Force — Policing Mental Illness

Dec 3rd, 2021 33m 3s

Ed Ou is co-director of the duPont-Columbia award-winning documentary A Different Kind of Force — Policing Mental Illness. Ou joins host Lisa Cohen to talk about the process of creating a nuanced and intimate documentary that tackles two of the

#74: Ear Hustle's Earlonne Woods and Nigel Poor

Nov 5th, 2021 34m 37s

Earlonne Woods and Nigel Poor are the co-creators and co-hosts of the 2021 duPont Columbia Award-winning podcast Ear Hustle, a unique podcast produced in San Quentin State Prison. In this interview, they recount the origin story of this unlikel

#73: Isobel Yeung

Oct 1st, 2021 27m 6s

Isobel Yeung talks about India Burning, her 2021 duPont Columbia Award-winning work for Vice on Showtime and the importance of international journalism. Visit our website: www.onassignmentpodcast.comVisit the duPont awards website: www.duPon

#72: Nicole Newnham and Jim LeBrecht on their duPont Award-winning documentary Crip Camp

Sep 3rd, 2021 29m 13s

Nicole Newnham and Jim LeBrecht discuss their 2021 duPont Columbia Award-winning documentary Crip Camp. The directors of the film, which was also nominated for an Oscar, speak candidly about topics like disability representation in the media,

#71: Radiolab’s Jad Abumrad and OSM's Shima Oliaee on Reporting “The Flag and the Fury”

Jun 4th, 2021 38m 32s

Radiolab's Jad Abumrad and Shima Oliaee join duPont-Columbia Awards Director Lisa R. Cohen to discuss how they reported "The Flag and the Fury" which won a 2021 duPont award. They explain how what started as an historical audio documentary turn

#70: KSTP News Director Kirk Varner on Covering George Floyd’s Murder and a Summer of Protest

May 14th, 2021 34m 25s

KSTP News Director, Kirk Varner discusses the difficulty of reporting on the murder of George Floyd and the protests that rocked Minneapolis throughout the summer of 2020. In this conversation with duPont Awards Director Lisa R. Cohen, Varner t

#69: WNBC Anchor David Ushery on Covering Coronavirus from the Epicenter

Apr 2nd, 2021 31m 55s

David Ushery, discusses reporting on coronavirus last spring, as New York City became the epicenter of a pandemic. The WNBC team brought viewers vital life and death information about COVID, day after day, in real time. Their reporting won a 20

#68: The Washington Post's Nadine Ajaka on the Value of Visual Forensics

Mar 5th, 2021 18m 19s

Nadine Ajaka, The Washington Post’s senior producer for visual forensics, talks about her team’s reconstruction of the crackdown on peaceful protesters in Lafayette Square in Washington D.C which won a 2021 duPont-Columbia award. By analyzing v