Inside Story

Inside Story is a regular question-and-answer feature of SEJournal Online in which we hear from award-winning journalists about the behind-the-scenes practices, ideas and breakthroughs that led to their best work, and their advice to other journalists about how to excel.

For questions and comments, or to suggest future Inside Story features, email Inside Story Co-Editors Rocky Kistner and Chioma Lewis at sejournaleditor@sej.org.

Also be sure to check out past winners of the Society of Environmental Journalists’ Annual Awards for Reporting on the Environment. Here's the list of winners from 2022, 2021, 2020 and 2019.

Public

April 15, 2011

Move from Daily Newspaper Job Rewards Science Writer and Book Author

Bill Dawson gets the "Inside Story" from Alanna Mitchell (pictured at left) about her Grantham Prize-winning book Seasick: Ocean Change and the Extinction of Life on Earth, her career and her next project.

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January 15, 2011

After Rough Start, Radio Story on Green Architecture Turns into Award Winner

Reporter Jason Margolis skillfully illustrates the relationship between built spaces and climate change issues by spotlighting two proactive architects and their environmentally friendly buildings in Toronto, Canada and Mexico City for Public Radio International's program "The World." SEJournal’s Bill Dawson has the "Inside Story."

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October 15, 2010

ProPublica Team Dug Deeply and Quickly into BP and Its Gulf Oil Mess

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July 15, 2010

On-line Journalism Begins To Fill the Void After Newspaper World’s Decay

SEJournal's Bill Dawson interviews Environmental Health News editor-in-chief Marla Cone, who left the Los Angeles Times in 2008, after almost two decades. Since then, Cone has overseen a number of major changes at the not-for-profit online publication.

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April 15, 2010

Small Texas Daily Tackles Complex Issue By Focusing on a Basic Human Need: Safety

Denton Record-Chronicle city hall reporters Lowell Brown and Peggy Heinkel-Wolfe tackle environmental issues as part of their everyday coverage. SEJournal has the inside story on their award-winning shale-gas-drilling series, which revealed through one neighborhood's ordeal how land deals really work in Texas and the impacts of the controversial technology.

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January 15, 2010

An Expansive Investigation's Key Lesson: Think BIG

SEJournal has the "Inside Story" on "The Smokestack Effect: Toxic Air and America's Schools," a USA Today series by Blake Morrison and Brad Heath that won SEJ's 2009 Kevin Carmody Award for Outstanding Investigative Reporting.

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'Letting the Cards Talk'

Seasoned journalist Susan Feathers plays the hand of a grand jury report — 10 years later.

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October 15, 2009

July 15, 2009

Texas Journalist Adapts and Digs Deeper on the E-Beat

Read the "Inside Story" on the experiences of Greg Harman, a staff writer for the San Antonio Current, who wanted to be a journalist covering the environment and has stayed with that decision.

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Inside Story

April 15, 2011

Move from Daily Newspaper Job Rewards Science Writer and Book Author

January 15, 2011

After Rough Start, Radio Story on Green Architecture Turns into Award Winner

October 15, 2010

ProPublica Team Dug Deeply and Quickly into BP and Its Gulf Oil Mess

July 15, 2010

On-line Journalism Begins To Fill the Void After Newspaper World’s Decay

April 15, 2010

Small Texas Daily Tackles Complex Issue By Focusing on a Basic Human Need: Safety

January 15, 2010

An Expansive Investigation's Key Lesson: Think BIG

'Letting the Cards Talk'

October 15, 2009

A Mix for Success: Music, A Scientific Family and Some Radiation

Disorder at the Borders: Photographers Aim To Document and Protect Borderland Environments

July 15, 2009

Texas Journalist Adapts and Digs Deeper on the E-Beat

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