The Lead

UGA’s Dodie Cantrell-Bickley on the bright future of broadcast journalism

Dodie Cantrell-Bickley was taught the importance of a free press from her mother, who grew up in Nazi Germany and saw how crucial journalism was. Dodie pursued that passion for more than 30 years as a broadcast reporter and president of multiple news stations. She was a leader during the pivot to digital and the advent of the internet, and she’s always looking forward to what’s next.

In this episode, we talk about leading through change, encouraging innovation and staying powerfully optimistic about the future of journalism. 

Guest: Dodie Cantrell-Bickley, senior lecturer in journalism at the University of Georgia.

Host: Jacqueline GaNun.

The Atlanta Business Chronicle’s Savannah Sicurella and Tyler Wilkins on starting out in business journalism

Savannah Sicurella and Tyler Wilkins are making careers in business journalism soon after graduating college and entering the job market. In this episode, they debrief about what drew them to reporting on commercial real estate and development, and how they managed to navigate the learning curve that comes with starting a new role — especially a business-focused one.

Check out Savannah’s reporting here and Tyler’s reporting here.

Guests: Savannah Sicurella and Tyler Wilkins, staff reporters at the Atlanta Business Chronicle.

Host: Jacqueline GaNun.

The Current’s Margaret Coker on reviving an investigative news desert

Margaret Coker has covered stories from 32 countries on four continents, working for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and other outlets. In 2020, she returned home to Savannah, Georgia, to found The Current, a nonprofit news source dedicated to filling the vacuum of high-quality investigative news on the coast.

In this episode, we chat about her international reporting, founding a news start-up and why nonprofit news is increasingly important.

Check out Margaret’s book, “The Spymaster of Baghdad,” here. You can read some of her reporting in The Current about the murder of Ahmaud Arbery and racism in the Glynn County police force.

“High quality facts, high quality information, high quality local news should be a public good and not a for-profit commodity. That is at the essence why nonprofit news matters.”

Guest: Margaret Coker, editor-in-chief of The Current.

Host: Jacqueline GaNun.

Special: What the Hackathon, featuring Adam Levin

Misinformation. Deepfakes. Scams. None of these are going away, and we need tools to figure out what’s true. This special episode of The Lead brings you into the What the Hackathon at the University of Georgia, where students learned in real-time how to navigate our disordered information ecosystem to produce and consume news responsibly.

It also features an interview with Adam Levin, a sponsor of the Hackathon and host of the What the Hack podcast, a no-shame zone for anyone who’s ever been scammed, hacked, phished or cyber-bushwhacked. Adam and I talk about how it’s more important than ever to combat misinformation as our democracy and society is impacted.

Listen to Adam on What the Hack here or any platform where you listen to podcasts.

“Never lose your curiosity and don’t be complacent. When it comes to receiving what is presented to you as news, always ask questions.”

Guest: Adam Levin, host of What the Hack.

Host: Jacqueline GaNun.

UGA’s Moni Basu on the power of storytelling

In her 40 years as a reporter, Moni Basu has learned how to tell a good story. She’s covered presidential elections, natural disasters and the human stories of the war in Iraq.

Today, she tells me how she discovered the power of a good narrative and how she earned the nickname “Evil Reporter Chick” in Iraq.

Guest: Moni Basu, director of the University of Georgia’s narrative nonfiction MFA program.

Host: Jacqueline GaNun.

NPR’s Joe Shapiro on covering disability rights and finding voices for radio

In his more than 20 years at NPR, Joe Shapiro has written stories from health to rising court fees to solitary confinement. He’s spent most of his career writing stories about disability, starting when editors wouldn’t even publish his work because they didn’t think it was relevant.

In this episode, Joe talks about covering disability rights, finding voices to anchor radio stories and saying “yes” to unexpected opportunities.

“I love radio. I love hearing somebody’s voice … you have to have the right person who can tell their story.”

Guest: Joe Shapiro, investigations correspondent at NPR.

Host: Jacqueline GaNun.

NPR’s Elissa Nadworny on reporting internationally

Elissa Nadworny likes to cover higher education because she sees it as a gateway to stories about everything, from housing to transportation to parenting to politics. But that’s not her only interest — she’s been covering the war in Ukraine from the ground and has traveled to Jordan to report on Syrian food aid programs. She’s also covered the White House for Bloomberg.

On this episode of The Lead, Elissa talks about uncovering unique higher ed stories, reporting internationally and interviewing people who have experienced trauma.

Elissa mentions one of her recent projects where she followed a class of kindergarteners in Ukraine to showcase the impact of the war on children and families. It aired on NPR’s All Things Considered and can be found here.

“I think sometimes people are waiting for the job to make the work that they want to make. And I just don’t think you have to wait.”

Guest: Elissa Nadworny, higher education correspondent at NPR.

Host: Jacqueline GaNun.

B. “Toastie” Oaster on telling Native stories

Toastie Oaster’s first ever feature made them a finalist in the 2023 National Magazine Awards. Now a staff writer on the Indigenous affairs desk at High Country News, Toastie focuses on stories that highlight social and environmental justice for Native nations and the consequences of colonialism in the West.

In this episode, we’re talking about why having Native stories told by Native journalists is important and how non-Native people should report responsibly on Indigenous communities.

Toastie’s feature that we talk about (and that was a finalist in the National Magazine Awards) is called “Underwater Legends.” It’s about the relationship between the Pacific lamprey and Native nations in the Northwest, and it can be found here.

“Reporting on Native issues, if you allow it to, will challenge your worldview. And it should.”

Guest: B. “Toastie” Oaster, staff writer on the Indigenous affairs desk at High Country News.

Host: Jacqueline GaNun.

The Houston Chronicle’s Brady Stone on reaching readers

Stories don’t always make their way from reporters to readers on their own. Sometimes they need help — that’s where audience engagement journalists come in. On this week’s episode of The Lead, Brady Stone, an audience producer at the Houston Chronicle, breaks down why reaching readers quickly and accurately matters.

“People need to see this work, and without an audience journalist to be there to really help you uplift that story … there’d be a piece missing.”

Guest: Brady Stone, audience producer at the Houston Chronicle.

Host: Jacqueline GaNun.

Ryan Prior on uncovering stories about health and disability

Ryan Prior has been interested in telling stories about health, science and disability since high school. Now, he does that as a journalist — and has added documentary filmmaker and published author to his résumé. He also found time to consult with the federal government about long COVID and create a position at a think tank.

Today, we chat about telling health and disability stories and about his many different projects.

Ryan’s documentary “Forgotten Plague” is about chronic fatigue syndrome and can be found here. His book “The Long Haul” was published in 2022 and tells the story of millions of people living with long-term effects from COVID-19.

“The voices of the marginalized can be one of the places where there’s the greatest level of insight.”

Guest: Ryan Prior, journalist-in-residence at The Century Foundation (and University of Georgia alum).

Host: Jacqueline GaNun.