Inside Story

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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.


February 21, 2024

  • When Inside Story co-editor Rocky Kistner reviewed video statements from first-place winners of the Society of Environmental Journalists 2023 reporting awards, he found a series of striking insights into the work of environmental journalism. From environment as a true crime story and going beyond the headlines, to covering communities at risk and through powerful interests, a look at nine highly effective approaches to telling environmental stories.

December 6, 2023

  • Nature-based climate solutions have become a much-talked-of topic, one that journalist Gabriel Popkin turned into a loose beat through which to explore the complicated realities beyond some easy narratives. The resulting stories were published widely to high praise, and in the latest Inside Story Q&A, Popkin spoke about his efforts and offered up five critical factors for producing original, impactful journalism.

November 1, 2023

  • The devastation caused by the Amazonian palm oil industry was at the heart of an investigation by Mongabay reporter Karla Mendes. But first she had to face hostile sources, intransigent regulators and a robbery attempt. Ultimately, the project not only won a reporting prize from the Society of Environmental Journalists but brought global awareness and government action. Her experience, in Inside Story Q&A.

October 4, 2023

  • In the Coachella Valley east of Los Angeles, the massive Salton Sea is rapidly drying up, threatening vulnerable immigrant communities in a growing toxic environment. The Living Downstream podcast reported extensively on these hazards, winning third place in the Society of Environmental Journalists’ Awards for Reporting on the Environment’s explanatory reporting, small, category, in 2022. Inside Story spoke with one of the prizewinners.

August 9, 2023

  • Months spent gathering thousands of documents and talking to local residents led reporter Dheeraj Mishra to uncover the negative environmental impacts of a major hydro project in a water-scarce region of India. And his resulting investigative reporting got him noticed in the 2022 Society of Environmental Journalists’ 2022 awards contest. Mishra shares his insights in the new Inside Story Q&A.

May 31, 2023

  • Forest fires have grown increasingly dangerous in a warming climate, a subject freelance journalist Jane Braxton Little has covered extensively in recent years. But her reporting turned personal when the rampaging Dixie Fire destroyed her small California town. As she explains in the new Inside Story Q&A, the wildfire disaster gave her a perspective no reporter would wish for.

May 3, 2023

  • A prize-winning feature from the frontlines of the Amazon rainforest drew accolades in the Society of Environmental Journalists’ most recent awards contest. Judges said the “deeply reported account explains history and present-day politics through the lens of people whose voices are rarely heard in U.S. media.” Bloomberg investigative reporter Jessica Brice shares insights from the joint project, in the latest Inside Story Q&A.

April 5, 2023

  • If the government is already struggling to protect iconic creatures like the endangered red wolf from extinction in the wild, how will it manage with other threatened species? That concern is at the core of an Inside Story Q&A with journalist Jimmy Tobias, whose award-winning feature turned stacks of dry documents into the story of one wolf’s death and helped turn things around. Watch a brief video summary from Tobias of what drove the collapse of the reintroduction program.

March 8, 2023

  • Two journalists covering water policy used a wide range of reporting techniques, from FOIA appeals to on-the-ground reporting, to get at the heart of how problems with wetlands and waterways in the United States are tied to climate change concerns. Inside Story spoke with Hannah Northey and Kevin Bogardus of E&E News about their award-winning beat reporting.

February 8, 2023

  • Many were skeptical that the complex problem of industry influence on regulatory decisions could be understood, let alone explained. But in her deeply reported story on the pesticide industry, journalist Sharon Lerner broke through those barriers with another award-winning story, showing how small, technical decisions can have big consequences. In the latest Inside Story, she shares her approach and lessons learned.

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