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Hi, Artis! How did you get involved in journalism?
I was part of my high school newspaper, and I had a great teacher. I grew up in Minneapolis, but my high school was far away from my neighborhood. By joining the newspaper, I had a good excuse to talk to people and learn about the community.
I shifted into documentary, film, and audio work and thought I was going to go that route. Then the pandemic hit. I ended up doing data journalism for the Covid Tracking Project at The Atlantic.
We kind of became the de facto CDC for a stint, collecting all this Covid data like deaths and hospitalizations. I worked with a co-worker to turn that into an audio series for Reveal called “The Covid Tracking Project.” It ended up nominated for a Peabody Award.
What was your favorite part about reporting on this episode?
Almost everyone wanted to talk to me about how much they love soccer and the Haitian national team.
I also got to spend a lot of time out in the field for this piece. I was shadowing this semi-pro Haitian soccer team based in Brooklyn, and I got really invested, going to their practices and their games and talking to them. That was really, really fun.
I grew up playing soccer. I’ve played it my whole life. It was great to take something that’s been a lifelong passion and pursue it differently, doing more than just being the one playing. We were trying to tell a story about a love for the game, but reveal that there’s a dark side to it and how you have to hold both of those at the same time.
Is there anything that didn’t make the cut that you wished had made it?
One source that we spoke to had this beautiful story about voting for the first time when he became a US citizen. His father was one of dozens killed in Haiti trying to vote, and he had this beautiful moment of reflection that I wish we could’ve included.
On a more joyful note, I spoke with so many professional soccer players who were extremely shy and nervous about being interviewed. I spoke to one guy who had just moved to Brooklyn from Georgia. He had joined this team so he could connect with the Haitian community.
He said, “I’ve never been interviewed before,” and his coaches were so encouraging, saying, “C’mon, you can do it!” You could really tell that he got over his fear during our conversation, and I really wanted him to be a main character in this episode, but it didn’t shake out.
If you had to put together a soccer team consisting of the people who make Reveal, who would you pick and why?
Okay. You’ve got Najib Aminy at forward because he’s very strong-willed and won’t back down. You kind of need someone fearless in that way up there, so I think he’d be great.
You put Ashley Cleek in the midfield because she’s an orchestrator; she can really coordinate and get everyone moving, a real captain or team leader. Jonathan Jones and Brett Myers are the two center backs because they see issues coming down the pike faster than a lot of people. Nadia Hamdan and Steven Rascón are insanely creative, so you’ve got them on the wings. Taki Telonidis would be in the midfield, since he’s another great organizer. And Kate Howard, another organizer, would be protecting everyone in the midfield.
If you were introducing Reveal to someone for the first time, which episode would you show them first?
There are actually two episodes that I’d recommend:
Nadia’s recent episode, “The Gaza Flotilla Story You Didn’t Hear” was both really beautiful and an absolutely unique way to hear this story. You really feel like you're on one of the flotillas. It demonstrates not just the absurd access Reveal gets sometimes, but it’s one of these stories told in a way that no one else can do because of the audio medium. It'd be much, much harder to try telling that through video.
The second one I would recommend is “The Landlord Gutting America’s Hospitals,” by Ashley Cleek and Hannah Levintova. It’s really strong. I think the opening part of it still sits with me, the sound of a still hospital. It drives home the absurdity of private equity taking over healthcare.
I think that one has a real accountability impact-focused one, and the flotilla piece is a really humanizing story. And those are two sides that Reveal brings to every episode.
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