Advertise on podcast: On Assignment - From the duPont-Columbia Awards

“Surviving Ohio State” is a 2026 duPont-Columbia Award-winning documentary that follows the heartbreaking testimonies of former Ohio State University student athletes who suffered sexual abuse at the hands of their team doctor Richard Strauss. More than 30 years later, they are bravely sharing their stories as they continue to fight for accountability from Ohio State.  In this episode, Director Eva Orner takes duPont Awards Director Lisa R Cohen and J-School students behind-the-scenes after screening the film, to reveal what doubts she overcame to make the film; how she built trust with the fragile survivors; and practical advice she has for emerging documentary filmmakers. You can stream “Surviving Ohio State” on HBO Max.  Do you have deeply reported, original audio, or video journalism you’d like to submit? We are now accepting entries for the 2027 awards season. Apply before our deadline of July 1, 2026. For more information and links to submit, go to our website dupont.org.

Author and journalist Alice Driver remembers her first time meeting people from other countries as a child in rural Arkansas – they were all workers at meatpacking facilities. Her book, “Life and Death of The American Worker: The Immigrants Taking on America’s Largest Meatpacking Company,” which won the $25,000 J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Prize, focuses on the struggles those immigrant workers face today – specifically those employed by Tyson, America’s largest meatpacking company.  In this episode, Alice Driver joins the J School Prizes Department’s Abi Wright and Lisa Cohen to talk about her award-winning book, the impact it’s had on migrant workers and the meat industry, and how young journalists can keep their momentum going if they decide to tackle longform projects of their own.  She urges Read more about “Life and Death of The American Worker,” and Driver’s other books, here.  Do you, or someone you know, have a non-fiction work-in-progress that is currently under a book contract? If so, enter to win the J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Prize - or other Lukas Book Prizes - before the Dec. 4, 2025 deadline. Go to https://journalism.columbia.edu/lukas for more information and to enter.

Phil Williams, titan of local journalism, five-time duPont-Columbia Award winner and dubbed “Nashville’s Nosiest Bitch” - by satirist John Oliver - talks about his most recent duPont Award-winning investigation, Hate Comes to Main Street. In the series, Williams squares off with local right-wing politicians and white supremacists to expose how conspiracy theories are shaping political life in Tennessee.

“I don't want to have my chain yanked. I do not want to report on things in the news because a bad faith actor is driving me to do that. I do not play requests.’” – Rachel Maddow 2020 duPont-Columbia Award winner and MSNBC host Rachel Maddow talks to Dean Jelani Cobb about the urgency of reporting on the 2024 Presidential election. She also shares advice to young journalists and her take on the state of journalism in this unprecedented political season.

“If we're not looking at these issues and understanding them for what they actually are - not just what we hope they are - I don't see much of a bright future, for my kids or anybody else's.” —Evan Simon, ABC News Producer Ever wonder if your plastic really gets recycled when you throw it in that bin? Lisa Cohen and Abi Wright speak to ABC News’ Chief National Correspondent Matt Gutman, and his producing team to hear how they tracked their own plastic bags, with surprising results.

“We have all these new media forms. But we haven't really found one that does what the old school news magazine still do well, which is sit across from someone and look them in the eye and turn TV into a lie detector.“ --HBO Real Sports’ Correspondent David Scott Multiple duPont Award-winning journalist David Scott invited Prizes’ Executive Director Abi Wright and duPont Director Lisa R. Cohen to his HBO Real Sports office back in 2018, following their win for a special investigative hour on the Olympics. We’re revisiting this interview to commemorate the end of an era. For 29 seasons Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel has looked at sports from the complex lens of power, culture, and human rights. This month marks its last episode. In the 2018 episode Scott goes behind the scenes of some of his celebrated reporting - in “The Lords of the Rings,” and his duPont winning coverage of controversies around China’s Olympic games, and in a harrowing trip to Chechnya to interview its repressive leader Ramzan Kadyrov. Scott offers practical tips on how to take on powerful subjects, how to safeguard your footage in dangerous locations and how to evade government “minders” seeking to keep reporters away from the real story. Watch “The Strongman” David Scott’s report on Chechnyan MMA fighters and leader Ramzan Kadyrov. Watch the last episode of HBO Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel on December 19.

“These were just ordinary women turned outlaws.” - Director Tia Lessin Directors of the 2023 DuPont award-winning film ‘The Janes’, Emma Pildes and Tia Lessin join journalist and J School Adjunct Professor Jessica Bruder for a lively conversation about their film that deep dives into an historic underground service for women seeking safe, affordable, illegal abortions, in the 60s and 70s.

“The incentive structures in the worlds of politics and news media… are geared towards division and not just division, but demonizing people. And it's very dangerous. It has already resulted in loss of life." -CNN’s Jake Tapper Jake Tapper is the CNN Chief Washington Correspondent, anchor of The Lead with Jake Tapper, and co-host of the Sunday morning public affairs program State of the Union. In 2023, he was part of the team that won a duPont-Columbia award for their coverage of the conflict in Ukraine. He also hosted the awards at Columbia University in 2018. In this episode, Tapper sits down with Columbia Journalism School’s Dean Jelani Cobb to discuss the extraordinary state of American politics how journalists should report on figures like Trump.

#89: The New Yorker's Masha Gessen with Dean Jelani Cobb by On Assignment - From the duPont-Columbia Awards

“I respect the Boy Scouts. I respect what they were founded on. But there was a really dark side and no one was talking about it.” –"Leave No Trace" Director Irene Taylor “Leave No Trace” is a 2023 duPont-Columbia Award winning documentary that exposes the stunning history of sexual abuse faced by over 80,000 young men and its subsequent cover up by The Boy Scouts of America. The film highlights the voices of six men and boys, who bravely share their stories, and hold power to account. Director, Irene Taylor, talks about the relentless way her team took on an “All-American” institution and the sensitive way they approached its survivors.

“We all understand just how easily history is forgotten. And this history is being actively destroyed.” –Podcast Host Connie Walker “Stolen: Surviving St. Michael’s” is a 2023 duPont-winning series that uncovers the horrific abuse many young indigenous children–including the reporter’s own family–faced at a Canadian residential school. Host and investigative journalist Connie Walker talks about the ethics of making public long buried stories of sexual abuse, highlighting indigenous voices and her own personal stake in this impactful podcast.

“They had told the story of how Tamika died, but not how she lived.” —Podcast Producer Erika Alexander “Finding Tamika” is the 2023 duPont-winning Audible series about Tamika Huston, a Black woman who went missing in 2004. The media paid scant attention, and she became a rallying cry for missing Black women and girls. But who was she outside of this tragedy? Podcast producer Erika Alexander tells us why finding the real Tamika behind the crime statistic is so important, and how journalists need to do a better job of telling these stories.

“People are often surprised when they watch the film and they realize that it's sort of a dark comedy.” “Navalny” follows Alexei Navalny, his team and his family as he investigates his own poisoning, and heads back to Russia to meet his fate. Director Daniel Roher explains how he built a relationship with Russia’s most prominent opposition leader.

“I've seen officers lie in reports or stretching the truth -- that's not new - - but to entirely make something up completely and unequivocally, that just was really disturbing." - Dave Biscobing, ABC15 Chief Investigative Reporter Dave Biscobing’s investigations of the Phoenix police department exposed both dishonest officers lying on the witness stand and outrageous accusations fabricated against Black Lives Matters protestors. Tune in to learn what he found, and how he found it.

“We knew it was important to let the cameras continue to roll live. But I'll be honest, we were nervous about where this was going to go when we saw those armored vehicles show up.” - VP of News Stephanie Adrouny, NBC Bay Area The 2022 duPont-winning documentary “The Moms of Magnolia Street” follows three mothers who protest Oakland’s affordable housing crisis by illegally occupying a vacant home. Tune in as NBC Bay Area documentarians talk about following along from defiant start to explosive finish.