Niemans @ Work

Nieman curator Howard Simons used to tease our class of ’77 about the number of members who abandoned journalism. Mel Goo became a lawyer; Dolly Katz, an epidemiologist. Al Larkin…

A longtime journalist who wrote his first investigation on a sturdy Olivetti typewriter, I, a streetwise dinosaur, 10 years ago teamed up with millenials to launch the very small online,…

In my proposal for the new Abrams Nieman Fellowship for Local Investigative Journalism, I made one core commitment — to spend a lot of time on the road listening to…

On March 5th, I woke up to a new short story by Roxane Gay in my inbox that felt post-apocalyptic: life in the U.S. 15 months into a coronavirus quarantine.…

The pain of a journalist whose work is thrown into a deep dark hole by government gatekeepers deployed in a newsroom is like no other pain on earth. You hit…

During a roundup at the Diamond M Ranch the other day, I dodged a 1,000-pound Hereford and nearly landed on a cow pie.Hazards on assignment at the eastern Washington spread…

The 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission to the moon was coming up. During a brainstorming session at Lippmann House, journalists and artists were throwing around ideas for potential…

The first member of the House to endorse Donald Trump for president pleaded guilty to felony insider trading charges on October 1—and when it happened, friends started congratulating me.It’s all…

I am standing, nervously, in the women’s bathroom. In just 20 minutes, the general manager of WCVB-TV will announce that I will be the next executive producer of “Chronicle,” the…

It was the summer of 2017. New Yorkers never knew when we’d get anywhere. We texted “On the subway.” There was no need for “I’m going to be late.” That…