Story Annotations

An early portrait of gender transition with no style guides to steer by

An early portrait of gender transition with no style guides to steer by

EDITOR’S NOTE: This week, in honor of Pride Month, we feature three posts about transgender issues. Today, see how Lane DeGregory of the Tampa Bay Times handled a profile in…
June 22, 2021
Madeline Bodin
A profile of a film-score composer that soars like his music

A profile of a film-score composer that soars like his music

Nicholas Britell’s music has infused a lot of film and TV shows recently, from the rich aural landscape of HBO’s “The Underground Railroad” to the unexpected banger that is the…
June 15, 2021
Trevor Pyle
How a story originally reported for print was transformed for audio

How a story originally reported for print was transformed for audio

EDITOR’S NOTE: Read our conversation with Robyn Semien of This American Life and Ken Armstrong, formerly of The Marshall Project, on how those two organizations and ProPublica partnered to tell…
June 3, 2021
Carly Stern
Embedding with EMTs to write about the first line of COVID first responders

Embedding with EMTs to write about the first line of COVID first responders

Harried doctors and nurses, gowned in eerie layers, race to the call of codes. Hospital hallways overflow with the near-dead. Undertakers scramble to make space as body after body arrives,…
May 21, 2021
Chip Scanlan
A narrative on the political divide reported from the inside-out

A narrative on the political divide reported from the inside-out

A turbulent 2020 drew to a close. Baseless claims about U.S. presidential election roiled through the ranks of Trump supporters, gaining momentum as the inauguration of a new president neared.…
April 20, 2021
Chip Scanlan
Profiling homeless house-sitters to humanize the housing crisis in America

Profiling homeless house-sitters to humanize the housing crisis in America

Growing up in California, Francesca Mari found herself in proximity to spaces that felt somewhat foreign. Decades later, her sense of story traces to her desire to understand how the…
March 12, 2021
Carly Stern
How and why Katie Engelhart followed a woman's journey to her "final exit"

How and why Katie Engelhart followed a woman’s journey to her “final exit”

Dementia — the inexorable erosion of memory that erases the mind and eventually robs the body of its most basic abilities — is growing to epidemic levels as America ages.…
March 3, 2021
Chip Scanlan
How a national correspondent gained trust to cover COVID in a tiny Kansas town

How a national correspondent gained trust to cover COVID in a tiny Kansas town

Trevor Hughes likes to tell people he grew up on a dirt road next to an apple orchard in Vermont, where his parents received The Burlington Free Press every day.…
February 25, 2021
Carly Stern
How the magic of mushrooms inspired magical science writing about ecology

How the magic of mushrooms inspired magical science writing about ecology

Ferris Jabr follows a forest ecologist into the woods to listen to the conversations that happen above and below ground
February 3, 2021
Alla Katsnelson
Reconstructing the tragedy of COVID from the epicenter of New York City's outbreak

Reconstructing the tragedy of COVID from the epicenter of New York City’s outbreak

One of the most heartbreaking realities of the coronavirus pandemic is particularly harsh: Patients usually die alone, separated from their loved ones with only a cellphone or iPad to say…
January 7, 2021
Chip Scanlan