Niemans @ Work

Finbarr O'Reilly, NF '13, collaborates with a Marine to drive conversation about war's aftermath

Finbarr O’Reilly, NF ’13, collaborates with a Marine to drive conversation about war’s aftermath

When I met Sgt. Thomas James Brennan at a remote combat outpost in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province in 2010, I was an embedded Reuters photographer and he was the leader of…
February 5, 2016
Finbarr O'Reilly
Face to face with a wounded man, Beauregard Tromp, NF ’13, casts off his role as observer and finds a deeper connection

Face to face with a wounded man, Beauregard Tromp, NF ’13, casts off his role as observer and finds a deeper connection

He’s dead. We can’t take him,” the hospital porter said.“Brother! Brother! Wake up brother! Wake up!” I willed the man in the scarlet shirt, sitting lifeless in the bloodied backseat.…
January 29, 2016
Beauregard Tromp
Culture critic Chris Vognar, NF ’09, discovers new talents in a multimedia cross-disciplinary approach to his beat

Culture critic Chris Vognar, NF ’09, discovers new talents in a multimedia cross-disciplinary approach to his beat

since my return to the Dallas Morning News in 2009 following my fellowship year, I have been a culture critic. Trading in my old title of movie critic formalized my…
January 12, 2016
Chris Vognar

Raquel Rutledge, NF ’12, and her colleagues at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel investigated unfair property tax assessments—and worked to engage readers

Coefficients of dispersion. Chasing the sale. Maintenance years.Three things I knew almost nothing about when I got a tip from a software engineer that something was gravely wrong with the…
January 12, 2016
Raquel Rutledge
Johanna van Eeden, NF ’15, directs a South African news platform built to keep up with the speed of news

Johanna van Eeden, NF ’15, directs a South African news platform built to keep up with the speed of news

December 3, 2015. We all knew it was going to be a busy day in the newsroom. The Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein, South Africa, was to rule on…
January 12, 2016
Johanna van Eeden
Damakant Jayshi, NF ’07, brings political and media factchecking to Nepal

Damakant Jayshi, NF ’07, brings political and media factchecking to Nepal

I have been fascinated with fact-checking ever since I first read about it during the 2004 U.S. presidential election. Now I’m proud to have brought this tradition to Nepal and…
November 4, 2015
Damakant Jayshi

Shankar Vedantam, NF ’10, explores the frontiers of psychology in his new podcast

My NPR podcast “Hidden Brain” launched this fall, but it’s been more than a decade in the making, one that started mere blocks from Lippmann House.While reporting for The Washington Post…
October 28, 2015
Shankar Vedantam
Jon Palfreman, NF '06, investigates Parkinson's disease as both author and subject

Jon Palfreman, NF ’06, investigates Parkinson’s disease as both author and subject

My life changed on a cold, dark, rainy January morning in 2011. Worried about a modest tremor in my left hand, my doctor had referred me to a neurologist. At…
September 16, 2015
Jon Palfreman
NPR correspondent Frank Langfitt, NF ’03, finds his best stories behind the wheel of a free cab he drives in Shanghai

NPR correspondent Frank Langfitt, NF ’03, finds his best stories behind the wheel of a free cab he drives in Shanghai

In the summers during college, I drove taxis in Philadelphia. All sorts of people opened up in the anonymity of a cab. Three decades later, while covering China for NPR,…
August 19, 2015
Frank Langfitt
With his new virtual-reality project, Karim Ben Khelifa, NF ’13, fosters empathy

With his new virtual-reality project, Karim Ben Khelifa, NF ’13, fosters empathy

after 15 years of assignments in war zones around the globe, I’ve found that the hopes, dreams, and nightmares of enemies are often more similar than they are different. This…
August 17, 2015
Karim Ben Khelifa