On Assignment

Director Rachel Lears on her film following first time politicians like AOC, who went from barkeep to U.S. Congress.

Award-winning director Nanfu Wang talks to Professor Betsy West about Wang’s Sundance-winning, Oscar-shortlisted documentary One Child Nation.

Revisiting an early #MeToo moment - Kate Snow talks about her 2017 duPont Award winning interview with 27 of Bill Cosby’s accusers.

Revisit directors Betsy West and Julie Cohen, with executive producer Amy Entelis, as they talk about their blockbuster documentary RBG. Hear them tout the power of optimism and other helpful tips they learned while making their 2019 duPont award winning film. Moderated by professor June Cross.

Revisit Nikole Hannah-Jones, NYT Magazine writer and creator of the 1619 Project, in conversation with NBC News anchor Lester Holt about reporting on race and takeaways from her 2018 John Chancellor Award-winning reporting.

This American Life Host and Producer Ira Glass has taken home seven duPont silver batons for the radio documentary series since he created it in 1995. In our special 50th episode, find out what goes into the making of one of the most listened to radio shows - one that spawned a generation of podcasts. Bonus: Hear Ira’s sage advice from his speech to the Columbia Journalism School graduating class of 2018.

WNYC’s Kai Wright and Kaari Pitkin talk morality and ethics, especially with minors as subjects, for their rare view inside the tangled world of the U.S. juvenile justice system.

CNN’s Nima Elbagir on risking her life for the stories that must be told, and the real world challenges of being a journalist of color.

2019 duPont-Columbia winner Alexandra Shiva talks navigating language and cultural barriers to make a humorous and important film about refugees that transcends party lines.

We catch up with 2019 duPont award winning director Alexandria Bombach about her latest film, “On Her Shoulders.” It’s an achingly beautiful 3-month snapshot of the life of activist and Yazidi genocide survivor, Nadia Murad. But it’s also a call to action for journalists and filmmakers, to think about the stories we tell, how we tell them and most importantly, why.

2019 duPont-winning Directors Trish Adlesic and Geeta Gandbhir interviewed 14 eloquent, emotional rape survivors for “I Am Evidence,” but only four women’s stories made it into the film. Tune in to this episode to hear about the painstaking choices they had to make as they navigated finding, selecting and telling these stories with honesty, integrity and care.

Director Bing Liu started making “Minding the Gap,” when he was 23-years-old. Now, six years later, he’s premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and snagged himself an Oscar nomination. As the countdown to the Academy Awards begins, get a behind the scenes look at how Liu made the film, plus hear about some of his ethical dilemmas while filming. But before you listen, be warned. There will be spoilers.

NYT Magazine’s Nikole Hannah-Jones talks to NBC News anchor Lester Holt about reporting on race, the perils of making things personal, and takeaways from her 2018 John Chancellor Award-winning excellent reporting.

Roger Ailes founded Fox News, kicked off #MeToo, and helped elect Donald Trump. “It was about using Roger's story to try to make sense of where we were as a country...it gave us a point of entry to a difficult complicated national moment,” says Producer Will Cohen. In this episode of On Assignment, Cohen discusses navigating Fox News for access, the challenge of profiling a dead man, and how Ailes influenced the current media and political climate.

“RBG” Directors Julie Cohen and Betsy West plus Executive Producer Amy Entelis talk the power of optimism, the challenging rules for filming in the Supreme Court, and how RBG herself reacted to seeing the film for the first time in front of a sold out audience at Sundance.

When you spend 15 years on a story, you tend to get so close to your sources, they sometimes get jealous: “They felt as if I was in some ways cheating on them by talking with other people.” Lukas Prize winning author Isabel Wilkerson talks about how to navigate source relationships in her immersive book “The Warmth of Other Suns”. Isabel Wilkerson’s award winning epic tells the stories of three people who’ve never met, but whose experiences with the Great Migration from the South to the North

“So a kid did scribble on a sidewalk. Is that technically vandalism? Sure. But is the best way to handle it really for the officer to arrest that kid?“ As the new school year begins, a new On Assignment episode explores how schools across the country are disciplining students...by arresting them.

ABC15’s Dave Biscobing on his 2018 duPont-winning, relentless series that stopped a self-described “advocacy” group from exploiting the Americans with Disabilities Act for millions of dollars.

“Our stories in the end are (less) about sports - they're about power or culture or you know triumph over adversity or human rights. It is almost like a Trojan horse to get inside and then ask the human rights questions.”

“Going into Syria itself at the point where we started shooting was basically a suicide mission. Not so much the risks of combat, but the risk of being kidnapped, sold to ISIS and having your head cut off. So we were making a film about the Syrian civil war and we couldn't shoot in the Syrian civil war.”