Season 17
duPont-Columbia Awards
CNN's Jake Tapper with Dean Jelani Cobb

“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 reminisce about their longstanding friendship and talk about the extraordinary state of American politics. including how journalists should report on figures like Trump. 


Season 16
duPont-Columbia Awards
“Navalny”: Daniel Roher’s Real Life Political ...

“People are often surprised when they watch the film and they realize that it's sort of a dark comedy. It's a funny movie. He's a funny guy.”

“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.

Season 5
duPont-Columbia Awards
Michael Barbaro and Zoe Chace in Conversation ...

Zoe Chace of This American Life and Michael Barbaro of The Daily speak about the rewards and challenges of making stories for audio, the "tyranny of the good talker," and the sense of intimacy that comes from the voice alone.

Season 5
duPont-Columbia Awards
"I Felt Like a Filmmaker, Not Like a Refugee:" ...

“When we were in the back of a van crossing Hungary to Vienna, the driver was drunk and all the smugglers had AK-47s... and I remember my cousin looking at me like, I hope you're not filming. But I was secretly holding the camera.”

Exodus’ subject Hassan Akkad on filming himself, and Director James Bluemel on collecting these important stories.

Season 4
duPont-Columbia Awards
Death, Life and Writing: Director Vanessa Gould

"It struck me how quickly the facts of a life just start to immediately disappear when someone dies." OBIT director Vanessa Gould on why she was compelled to make her film.

podcast

"Stolen's" Connie Walker on Her Personal Story with a Nationwide Reach.

“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.

Erika Alexander on Finding Tamika

“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. 

Director Malachy Browne on the January 6th “Day of Rage”

“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 a 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.”


Revisiting Ira Glass Behind the Scenes at This American Life

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.

CBS News Anchor Norah O’Donnell On Her Toughest Story Yet: Sexual Assault in the U.S. Military

“For those of us that are in civilian life, if you were a victim of abuse or harassment, you would go to the police, right? In the military, it's handled internally…it's like a family. It's very difficult for the commander who is a parent to then want to kick a child out of the military for something they've done.”

--- CBS News Managing Editor and Anchor Norah O’Donnell

CBS News Anchor, reporter, and editor Norah O’Donnell exposes gross mishandling of sexual assault cases inside the U.S. military, in her 2022 duPont-Columbia award-winning broadcast, “Military Sexual Assault.”

Speaking to families of victims, government officials, and dozens of victims, she sheds a damning light on the abuse the military tried to keep quiet.

Tracing Trauma With WNYC’s KalaLea

“There were literally holes in the newspaper...that related to what happened during the Tulsa Race Massacre. That just stuck with me. I remember thinking, I have to go look into this and see if that is reality.”

--- WNYC host and reporter KalaLea, “Blindspot: Tulsa Burning”

WNYC’s KalaLea talks about how her 2022 duPont Award-winning podcast series immerses listeners in the past, while threading the impact of generational trauma through to the present.

"Ear Hustle's" Earlonne Woods and Nigel Poor

“When a person goes to prison, the last image usually people have of them is in the courtroom... By the time we talk to a person it’s 15, 20 years later. And this is a totally different person.”

-- Ear Hustle co-creator, co-producer and co-host Earlonne Woods

Nigel Poor and Earlonne Woods reflect on their 2021 duPont-award winning project, “Ear Hustle,” a podcast series produced inside San Quentin State Prison in California. They discuss the project’s origins, the challenges of building trust and producing stories within a prison system, and their journalistic approach to telling difficult stories about complex and sometimes controversial subjects.