On Assignment

Phil Williams, titan of local journalism, five-time duPont-Columbia Award winner and dubbed “Nashville’s Nosiest Bitch” - by satirist John Oliver - talks about his most recent duPont Award-winning investigation, Hate Comes to Main Street. In the series, Williams squares off with local right-wing politicians and white supremacists to expose how conspiracy theories are shaping political life in Tennessee.

“I don't want to have my chain yanked. I do not want to report on things in the news because a bad faith actor is driving me to do that. I do not play requests.’” – Rachel Maddow 2020 duPont-Columbia Award winner and MSNBC host Rachel Maddow talks to Dean Jelani Cobb about the urgency of reporting on the 2024 Presidential election. She also shares advice to young journalists and her take on the state of journalism in this unprecedented political season.

“If we're not looking at these issues and understanding them for what they actually are - not just what we hope they are - I don't see much of a bright future, for my kids or anybody else's.” —Evan Simon, ABC News Producer Ever wonder if your plastic really gets recycled when you throw it in that bin? Lisa Cohen and Abi Wright speak to ABC News’ Chief National Correspondent Matt Gutman, and his producing team to hear how they tracked their own plastic bags, with surprising results.

“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’ Correspondent David Scott Multiple duPont Award-winning journalist David Scott invited Prizes’ Executive Director Abi Wright and duPont Director Lisa R. Cohen to his HBO Real Sports office back in 2018, following their win for a special investigative hour on the Olympics. We’re revisiting this interview to commemorate the end of an era. For 29 seasons Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel has looked at sports from the complex lens of power, culture, and human rights. This month marks its last episode. In the 2018 episode Scott goes behind the scenes of some of his celebrated reporting - in “The Lords of the Rings,” and his duPont winning coverage of controversies around China’s Olympic games, and in a harrowing trip to Chechnya to interview its repressive leader Ramzan Kadyrov.

“These were just ordinary women turned outlaws.” - Director Tia Lessin Directors 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 conversation about their film that deep dives into an historic underground service for women seeking safe, affordable, illegal abortions, in the 60s and 70s.

“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 Tapper Jake Tapper is the CNN Chief Washington Correspondent, anchor of The Lead with Jake Tapper, and co-host of the Sunday morning public affairs program State of the Union. In 2023, he was part of the team that won a duPont-Columbia award for their coverage of the conflict in Ukraine. He also hosted the awards at Columbia University in 2018. In this episode, Tapper sits down with Columbia Journalism School’s Dean Jelani Cobb to discuss the extraordinary state of American politics how journalists should report on figures like Trump.

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

“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 Taylor “Leave No Trace” is a 2023 duPont-Columbia Award winning documentary that exposes the stunning history of sexual abuse faced by over 80,000 young men and its subsequent cover up by The Boy Scouts of America. The film highlights the voices of six men and boys, who bravely share their stories, and hold power to account. Director, Irene Taylor, talks about the relentless way her team took on an “All-American” institution and the sensitive way they approached its survivors.

“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 indigenous children–including the reporter’s own family–faced at a Canadian residential school. Host and investigative journalist Connie Walker talks about the ethics of making public long buried stories of sexual abuse, highlighting indigenous voices and her own personal stake in this impactful podcast.

“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 attention, and she became a rallying cry for missing Black women and girls. But who was she outside of this tragedy? Podcast producer Erika Alexander tells us why finding the real Tamika behind the crime statistic is so important, and how journalists need to do a better job of telling these stories.

“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. Director Daniel Roher explains how he built a relationship with Russia’s most prominent opposition leader.

“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 Reporter Dave Biscobing’s investigations of the Phoenix police department exposed both dishonest officers lying on the witness stand and outrageous accusations fabricated against Black Lives Matters protestors. Tune in to learn what he found, and how he found it.

“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 Area The 2022 duPont-winning documentary “The Moms of Magnolia Street” follows three mothers who protest Oakland’s affordable housing crisis by illegally occupying a vacant home. Tune in as NBC Bay Area documentarians talk about following along from defiant start to explosive finish.

“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 6 Capitol riots. “Day of Rage” is the duPont-Columbia award-winning, New York Times visual investigation of the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol. Co-director Malachy Browne explains what it was like to organize and dissect thousands of hours of footage from “one of the most documented acts of political violence ever.” For more, visit https://bit.ly/OADayofRage

“A story is an engine for feelings.” - This American Life founder, host and producer Ira Glass In 2019, This American Life founder, host, and producer Ira Glass gave his special brand of insight into how he crafts “This American Life,” from story inception, to reporting, writing, and production. We revisit his preeminent editorial style that paved the way for generations of narrative docu-style podcasters.

“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 Limbal In her 2022 duPont Award-winning documentary “Through the Night,” filmmaker Loira Limbal intimately captured the burdens on working mothers and puts a mirror to America’s daycare system, reflecting back the darker sides of capitalism.

“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. ” --- director and producer Nanfu Wang

“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

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 impact of generational trauma through to the present.

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 the oil and gas industry knew all along that plastic recycling would never work – a revelation that led her down a winding road of reporting that she details in this first episode of On Assignment’s Season 15.