Journalism Salute Episodes Update: Pulitzer Winners, The Incarceration Experience, and Jewish Culture
Hi everyone, it’s Mark Simon again. Hope your summer is going well. As you can see in your podcast feeds, I’m keeping busy with new episodes each week.
As I always say, the best thing you can do with my podcast or this newsletter is to share it. If you know an aspiring journalist who is curious to learn more about the profession, please spread the word about my podcast.
With the popular and so-well-done Longform podcast ending, I’m hoping to pick up some new listeners, since my podcast is of a similar type. I put a lot of time into the interviews I do and I want as many people as possible to hear them..
Here’s a look at my three most recent episodes, which - as always - are highly varied in subject.
Mira Fox: Beat Writing Like It Oughta Be
“It's culture and that's taken in its broadest possible meaning and arguably everything is culture. Politics are culture. Movies are culture. Internet microtrends are culture. And so at various times I engage in any and all of the above. And it's fun because I am bored easily, so there’s always something new.”
Mira Fox, a staff writer covering Jewish culture at The Forward is one of my new favorites.
I’ve done interviews with writers covering some heavy subjects recently (you can read about a couple of them below). Mira’s beat is heavy at times, but it can have a light touch. It’s such a cool beat She’s feature writer, columnist, entertainment critic, and advice giver all in one.
It’s the kind of beat where she can write about student protests on college campuses, explore antisemitism on TikTok, give perspective on how the Talmud would judge various politicians, give Dear Abby-like advice on who gets to keep the synagogue after a breakup, and embed in Utah with the cast and production team for BYU’s presentation of Fiddler on the Roof (8,000 awesome words!).
Her approach is both thoughtful and clever. She has an eye for the little detail. She interjects herself into stories in a good way. And she has a creative writing approach that has you eager to keep going. Her journalism is appropriate for all ages and all religious backgrounds.
It was a pleasure to talk to Mira on the latest episode of The Journalism Salute. Hope you’ll give the episode a listen.
Michael Anguille: Journalism and The Incarceration Experience
“It's just ridiculous what providers of basic necessities like food will do to people who are incarcerated because they know they can.
They are opportunists, they're predators. And the system supports it, and I just think that it's, it's disgusting … Guys from the inside contacted me and I said, well, I want to get the word out.”
When I say I prioritize a diverse guest base on my podcast, that doesn’t apply to just race, gender, and sexual orientation. I’ve also prioritized having guests who are diverse in life experience. That was why I wanted to speak to someone about prison journalism.
A couple of weeks ago I was joined by Michael Anguille. Michael is a journalist and the executive director of The Stillwater Awards, which are given for journalistic excellence in the incarcerated community. It’s a combined effort from the Society of Professional Journalists and The Prison Journalism Project.
Michael is a professional journalist working for several outlets who has dealt with drug and alcohol abuse issues and served 8 1/2 years in prison in Florida for a drunk driving car accident that happened in 2014.
Michael talked candidly about his life, what led to his incarceration, and what he did in prison that kept him moving towards a path of writing and journalism. He also went through some of the highlights from the winners of the Stillwater Awards and explained the importance of elevating prison journalism and prison journalists at a time when prisoners are often forgotten and taken advantage of.
Definitely a thought-provoking episode. Check it out.
Pulitzer winners Sarah Conway and Trina Reynolds-Tyler
I’m proud that I was able to talk to multiple 2024 Pulitzer Prize winners this year. Besides my interview with artist and writer Medar De La Cruz, I also spoke with Sarah Conway and Trina Reynolds-Tyler of City Bureau and The Invisible Institute, respectively, who won for local reporting for their series, Missing in Chicago, a two-year investigation that revealed how Chicago police violated state law and police procedure, delaying and mishandling missing person cases.
The series revealed a racial bias that disproportionately impacts Black women and girls and how poor police data is making the problem harder to solve.
This is incredibly intense work and I’m glad that Sarah and Trina were willing to re-live their process with me. One thing I particularly appreciated them sharing was how they dealt with their metal health while working on such an emotionally taxing story.
“When Sarah and I would come together, sometimes we would meditate. We spent some time in my garden just feet to ground. We ate a lot of good food together. That was a really big theme. We had work sessions, it was like one of us was gonna cook and it was gonna be this mind-blowing very simple recipe, that had all of the things that you needed to be like a healthy human: the proper amount of vegetables and healthy protein.
And I talked to my therapist a lot. About not only the project, but the things that came up for me as it related to the project because there are so many underlying factors that either I myself have experienced or people that I know and love have experienced.”
- Trina Reynolds-Tyler
Upcoming: I’ve got some cool interviews coming the next few weeks, including an award-winning project on environmental pollution, one with a cover story writer for The Hollywood Reporter, a journalist covering family life, and a second look at Judaism, but from a different angle. Thanks for reading and listening!
- Mark Simon
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