Nieman Storyboard – Details, episodes & analysis

Storyboard editor Mark Armstrong sits down with Makena Kelly, senior writer for Wired covering the intersection of politics, power, and technology, about the magazine’s coverage of Trump's second term and how it has aggressively covered Elon Musk and DOGE's takeovers of federal agencies. 

Amid its breaking news coverage, Wired published “Inside Elon Musk’s Digital Coup” on March 13, a longform narrative that aimed to step back and tell the larger story of what was happening inside these agencies. 

Kelly's was one of nine bylines on the 5,400-word piece, and on the Storyboard podcast she talks about how Wired's editorial team — led by global editorial director Katie Drummond and including senior editor Leah Feiger — helped organize the reporting and make sense of a rapidly developing story. 

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Reading List:

• “Inside Elon Musk’s Digital Coup” (Wired, March 13, 2025)
• Makena Kelly at Wired 
• Politics Lab Newsletter
• Makena Kelly at The Verge
• "How to leak to a journalist." (Laura Hazard Owen, Nieman Lab) 

Show Credits

Hosted and produced by Mark Armstrong
Associate producer: Marina Leigh
Episode editor: Kelly Araja
Audience editor: Adriana Lacy
Promotional support: Ellen Tuttle
Operational support: Paul Plutnicki, Peter Canova

Nieman Foundation curator: Ann Marie Lipinski
Deputy curator: Henry Chu

Music: “Golden Grass,” by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue)
Cover design by Adriana Lacy

Nieman Storyboard is presented by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard.

On the debut episode of the Nieman Storyboard podcast, host and Storyboard editor Mark Armstrong sits down with acclaimed journalist and author Erika Hayasaki, for an in-depth conversation about trauma-informed reporting, questions of "telling a story versus taking a story," and when it makes sense for journalists to include their own stories in their work.

Full show notes: https://niemanstoryboard.org/2025/03/28/podcast-erika-hayasaki-trauma-informed-reporting-reported-essay/

Books by Erika Hayasaki

• Somewhere Sisters: A Story of Adoption, Identity, and the Meaning of Family 
• The Death Class: A True Story About Life

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Show Credits

Hosted and produced by Mark Armstrong
Associate producer: Marina Leigh
Episode editor: Kelly Araja
Audience editor: Adriana Lacy
Promotional support: Ellen Tuttle
Operational support: Paul Plutnicki, Peter Canova

Nieman Foundation curator: Ann Marie Lipinski
Deputy curator: Henry Chu

Music: “Golden Grass,” by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue)
Cover design by Adriana Lacy

Nieman Storyboard is presented by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard. Follow our other publications:

• Nieman Reports
• Nieman Lab

Nieman Storyboard is all about the craft of journalism and storytelling. Join host and Storyboard editor Mark Armstrong (Longreads, Ursa Story Company) for conversations with journalists, writers, and producers, in their own words, talking about how they do the work. 

We'll talk about stories that span every genre and platform — from longform narratives and books, to podcasting, documentaries, and social media.  

This show is presented by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard. 

Sign up for the Nieman Storyboard newsletter:

https://niemanstoryboard.org/about/subscribe-to-nieman-storyboard/

Email us: editor@niemanstoryboard.org 

Music: “Golden Grass - Sour Mash,” by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue)

Cover design by Adriana Lacy 

Follow us: 

Nieman Foundation: https://nieman.harvard.edu/

Nieman Storyboard: https://niemanstoryboard.org

Nieman Reports: https://niemanreports.org/

Nieman Lab: https://www.niemanlab.org/

Storyboard Editor Mark Armstrong welcomes Mary Schmich, the Pulitzer Prize-winning former columnist for the Chicago Tribune and host of the podcast "Division Street Revisited," which follows the stories of seven people featured in Studs Terkel's 1967 oral history book, "Division Street: America." 

Schmich teamed up with former colleague Melissa Harris, who came up with the idea for the show, and a group of acclaimed journalists to research and produce the podcast. In Terkel's original book, the people profiled used pseudonyms — so Schmich, Harris, and the team tracked down their real identities and surviving family members, and pulled audio recordings from a recently digitized archive of Terkel's work. 

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Schmich has won the Pulitzer Prize and the Studs Terkel Award for her work as a columnist at the Chicago Tribune. She grew up in Georgia and Arizona as the oldest of eight children, and she graduated from Pomona College and attended journalism school at Stanford. From 1985 until 2021, she worked at the Chicago Tribune, where she was a features writer, a national correspondent and, for 29 years, a columnist. "Over the years, I cultivated three essential mantras, which [were]: Panic is my muse. Deadlines crowd out doubt. It always gets done," Schmich said.  

Get the full show notes and reading list: https://niemanstoryboard.org/2025/04/24/mary-schmich-podcasts-division-street-revisited/

Show credits

Hosted and produced by Mark Armstrong
Associate producer: Marina Leigh
Episode editor: Kelly Araja
Audience editor: Adriana Lacy
Promotional support: Ellen Tuttle
Operational support: Paul Plutnicki, Peter Canova

Nieman Foundation curator: Ann Marie Lipinski
Deputy curator: Henry Chu
Music: “Golden Grass,” by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue)
Cover design by Adriana Lacy

Nieman Storyboard is presented by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard.

New York Times bestselling author, journalist, and athlete Kim Cross joins Storyboard Editor Mark Armstrong for a conversation about reporting for narrative nonfiction — focusing on reconstructed narratives and her feature story for Bicycling magazine, "The Alchemists," about the Afghan women who broke gender barriers in cycling before the Taliban took over their country. 

"They, as teenage girls, had convinced their culture to change its mind about the fact that women were not allowed to ride bicycles," Cross said.

Read the full show notes: https://niemanstoryboard.org/2025/05/08/kim-cross-narratives-women-cycling-afghanistan/

Cross is a Storyboard contributor and the author of books including the bestselling "What Stands in a Storm," "The Stahl House," and "In Light of All Darkness." Her stories have appeared in The New York Times, Outside, Bicycling, Garden & Gun, and ESPN, among other publications. Her work has been recognized in “Best of” lists by The New York Times, the Columbia Journalism Review, The Sunday Long Read, Longform, Apple News Audio, and Best American Sports Writing. Cross also teaches feature writing through Harvard Extension School, and she's teaching a workshop on reconstructed narratives May 28-June 1 in Archer City, Texas.

Sign up for the Nieman Storyboard newsletter: https://niemanstoryboard.org/about/subscribe-to-nieman-storyboard/

Show credits

Hosted and produced by Mark Armstrong
Associate producer: Marina Leigh
Episode editor: Kelly Araja
Audience editor: Adriana Lacy
Promotional support: Ellen Tuttle
Operational support: Paul Plutnicki, Peter Canova

Nieman Foundation curator: Ann Marie Lipinski
Deputy curator: Henry Chu
Music: “Golden Grass,” by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue)
Cover design by Adriana Lacy

Nieman Storyboard is presented by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard.

Nieman Storyboard contributor Christina M. Tapper sits down with Akiba Solomon, an award-winning senior editor at The Marshall Project, the nonprofit news organization dedicated to covering the U.S. criminal justice system. 

Solomon edited The Language Project, about the terms journalists use to write about incarceration. Tapper and Solomon discuss the importance of people-first language, alternatives for dehumanizing words that are a part of our lexicon, and how to work with writers and subjects who are incarcerated. 

Get the full show notes: https://niemanstoryboard.org/2025/05/22/marshall-project-akiba-solomon-how-journalists-write-about-incarceration/

Sign up for the Nieman Storyboard newsletter: https://niemanstoryboard.org/about/subscribe-to-nieman-storyboard/

Reading List: Authors, Books, and Stories Mentioned 

• The Language Project (Edited by Akiba Solomon, The Marshall Project, April 2021)
• Life Inside (Edited by Akiba Solomon)
• FWD.us: People First Language Guide 
• Prison Journalism Project: Language Around Incarceration
• Angela Davis on the term “lockdown,” in conversation with GirlTrek (May 2021, 48:48 mark)
• "The Warmth of Other Suns" (Isabel Wilkerson)
• "When Crack Was King" (Donovan X. Ramsey)

More by Akiba Solomon

• "How We Fight White Supremacy: A Field Guide to Black Resistance" (by Akiba Solomon and Kenrya Rankin)
• "Naked: Black Women Bare All About Their Skin, Hair, Hips, Lips, and Other Parts" (edited by Ayana Byrd and Akiba Solomon)

Show Credits

Hosted and produced by Mark Armstrong
Episode producer and interview by Christina M. Tapper 
Episode editor: Kelly Araja
Audience editor: Adriana Lacy
Promotional support: Ellen Tuttle
Operational support: Paul Plutnicki, Peter Canova

Nieman Foundation curator: Ann Marie Lipinski
Deputy curator: Henry Chu
Music: “Golden Grass,” by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue)
Cover design by Adriana Lacy

Nieman Storyboard is presented by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard: https://nieman.harvard.edu/

Washington Post technology reporter Drew Harwell joins Storyboard Editor Mark Armstrong for a conversation about his feature story on “Emilycc,” a Texas-based Twitch streamer who has livestreamed her entire life, 24 hours a day, for the last three years. 

For his story, “Inside the life of a 24/7 streamer: ‘What more do you want?’,” Harwell traveled to Texas to meet Emily, and he wrote it with the understanding that he was bridging two very different worlds — the streaming community on Twitch and the readers of The Washington Post. 

Get the full show notes: https://niemanstoryboard.org/2025/06/05/washington-post-drew-harwell-twitch-streamer/

Sign up for the Nieman Storyboard newsletter: https://niemanstoryboard.org/about/subscribe-to-nieman-storyboard/

Show credits

Hosted and produced by Mark Armstrong
Associate producer: Marina Leigh
Episode editor: Kelly Araja
Audience editor: Adriana Lacy
Promotional support: Ellen Tuttle
Operational support: Paul Plutnicki, Peter Canova

Nieman Foundation curator: Ann Marie Lipinski
Deputy curator: Henry Chu
Music: “Golden Grass,” by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue)
Cover design by Adriana Lacy

Nieman Storyboard is presented by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard.

“This American Life” reporter and editor Nadia Reiman joins Storyboard Editor Mark Armstrong for a conversation about immigration, mass deportation under Trump’s presidency, and finding the human stories amid ongoing raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Reiman has worked for “This American Life” since 2018, and in 2019, she was part of the producing and reporting team for “The Out Crowd,” an episode examining the first Trump administration’s policy on asylum seekers, which was honored with the first-ever Pulitzer Prize in Audio Reporting. Before working at “This American Life,” she was a senior editor at “Latino USA” and producer for StoryCorps. She’s worked in radio production since 2005.  

Get the full show notes: https://niemanstoryboard.org/2025/07/03/nadia-reiman-stories-immigration-this-american-life/

Get updates from Nieman Storyboard: https://niemanstoryboard.org/about/subscribe-to-nieman-storyboard/

Show Credits

Hosted and produced by Mark Armstrong
Associate producer: Marina Leigh
Episode editor: Kelly Araja
Audience editor: Adriana Lacy
Promotional support: Ellen Tuttle
Operational support: Paul Plutnicki, Peter Canova

Nieman Foundation interim curator: Henry Chu
Music: “Golden Grass,” by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue)
Cover design by Adriana Lacy

Nieman Storyboard is presented by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard.

The Black List founder and CEO Franklin Leonard joins Storyboard Editor Mark Armstrong for a conversation about the state of storytelling in Hollywood, and how true stories intersect with entertainment. 

Leonard was working as a development executive for Leonardo DiCaprio's production company when he started The Black List 20 years ago, first as a survey of the best unproduced screenplays. The list became an immediate sensation, getting passed around Hollywood, and it has since grown into a company and online community for people to upload and review unproduced screenplays and unpublished novels. 

Hundreds of scripts from the annual Black List survey have been produced as feature films and earned Academy Award nominations —including more than 50 wins and four Best Pictures: "Spotlight," "Slumdog Millionaire," "The King's Speech," and "Argo." 

Read the full show notes: https://niemanstoryboard.org/2025/06/19/the-black-list-franklin-leonard-based-on-true-story-hollywood/

Get updates from Nieman Storyboard: https://niemanstoryboard.org/about/subscribe-to-nieman-storyboard/

Show Credits

Hosted and produced by Mark Armstrong
Associate producer: Marina Leigh
Episode editor: Kelly Araja
Audience editor: Adriana Lacy
Promotional support: Ellen Tuttle
Operational support: Paul Plutnicki, Peter Canova

Nieman Foundation curator: Ann Marie Lipinski
Deputy curator: Henry Chu
Music: “Golden Grass,” by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue)
Cover design by Adriana Lacy

Nieman Storyboard is presented by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard.

Mark Armstrong sits down with Lane DeGregory, the Pulitzer Prize-winning enterprise reporter for the Tampa Bay Times covering "hope and humanity." 

DeGregory, whose work has been featured frequently on Storyboard over the years, is now celebrating 25 years at the Tampa Bay Times. She takes us through her process — from connecting with the community, to developing story ideas, and earning the trust of your subjects. She also reveals who inspires her work — from fellow journalists to musicians and songwriters.

DeGregory also hosts the journalism podcast WriteLane, and is the author of the 2023 anthology, "The Girl in the Window and Other True Tales: An Anthology with Tips for Finding, Reporting, and Writing Nonfiction Narratives." 

The title story from that book, "The Girl in the Window," won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing in 2009. DeGregory told the story of a girl named Dani who had suffered from severe neglect and was adopted by a new family. She returned to Dani's story ten years later, in 2017. 

Get the full show notes and reading list: https://niemanstoryboard.org/2025/07/31/pulitzer-lane-degregory-power-of-local-storytelling/

Subscribe to the Nieman Storyboard newsletter: https://niemanstoryboard.org/about/subscribe-to-nieman-storyboard/

Show Credits

Hosted and produced by Mark Armstrong
Episode editor: Kelly Araja
Audience editor: Adriana Lacy
Promotional support: Ellen Tuttle
Operational support: Paul Plutnicki, Peter Canova

Nieman Foundation interim curator: Henry Chu
Music: “Golden Grass,” by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue)
Cover design by Adriana Lacy

Nieman Storyboard is presented by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard.