The Wall Street Journal’s documentary “Shadow Men: Inside Russia’s Secret War Company” goes deep inside the lethal global expansion of the Russian private military company Wagner.
Through interviews with current and former Wagner fighters, government insiders, victims of atrocities and war crimes investigators, the film reveals how the group, run by Yevgeny Prigozhin, had been hiding the flow of riches and resources through a complex network of front companies that ultimately led back to the Kremlin.
Over several months, the Journal set up over a hundred bots, or automated TikTok accounts, that watched hundreds of thousands of videos on the app. All of those videos were downloaded and became visual evidence of the Journal’s findings.
The team then created a database of those hundreds of thousands of TikTok videos and we classified them through a mix of machine learning and human labeling. Using those classifications, we selected hundreds of TikToks and used animation to visualize the various paths users can be sent down based on the slightest hesitation on videos in their feed. We also created a data visualization from all the hashtags in the videos the bots watched, to give viewers a unique glimpse into the universe of TikTok content. We stitched that all together to tell the story of one bot’s journey down a TikTok rabbit hole.
The impact of the reporting was immediate. More than 1,000 videos were removed from the platform after the Journal first flagged them to TikTok. After publication, TikTok said it would adjust its recommendation algorithm to avoid showing users too much of the same content. The company said that it was testing ways to avoid pushing too much content from a certain topic, such as extreme dieting, sadness or breakups, to individual users to protect their mental well-being.
A Wall Street Journal investigation found that since Oct. 7, Israeli settlers have been rapidly building illegal roads and outposts across the West Bank. This work is sometimes done under armed guard with funding from the Israeli government.
I supervised the production of an investigative documentary series for The Wall Street Journal about Amazon, called “Behind Your Amazon Order.” This episode revealed that Amazon is sourcing clothing from factories in Bangladesh that its competitors in the apparel industry have blacklisted for unsafe conditions. Watch below and read more about WSJ’s investigation.
12 prominent executives went on the record in The Wall Street Journal documentary “31 Days in March,” to give a firsthand account of the decisions they made as the coronavirus tore through American commerce and ended an 11-year stretch of economic growth. My team and I set out to produce the definitive documentary account of one of the most transformational months in American economic history. “31 Days in March,” was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Business and Economic Documentary. Watch it below:
I supervised the production of an investigative documentary series for The Wall Street Journal about Amazon, called “Behind Your Amazon Order.” This episode is the first in the series—and it’s about how Amazon's growth strategies have created a problem of unsafe products on its sprawling marketplace.
Watch below and read more about WSJ’s investigation.
An episode of Vox Media’s series “Explained” I produced for Netflix.
The global water crisis is at an inflection point. How do we price our most valuable resource, while ensuring access to it as a human right?
Watch it below or at Netflix.com/explained
An episode of Vox Media’s series “Explained” I produced for Netflix.
After decades of searching, we have yet to find any evidence of extraterrestrial life. In a universe so vast, where is everybody?
Watch now at Netflix.com/explained
Dozens of new electric-vehicle models are expected to arrive at dealerships in the next few years. We followed eight Wall Street Journal reporters in four countries to see if they, and the world, are ready to make the switch.
An episode of Vox Media’s series “Explained” I produced for Netflix.
Cryptocurrency has made some people billionaires, but is digital cash the next revolution? Learn about this new kind of money and why it’s so coveted.
Watch now at Netflix.com/explained
Irradiated was a yearlong investigation I undertook for McClatchy Newspapers into the labor of the nuclear weapons industry, both past and present. I obtained the never-before-seen government data that made the project possible, served as its lead data reporter, and coauthored the four-part series. The team was recognized with a Headliner Award for investigative reporting and my data work was a finalist for the Anthony Shadid Award for Journalism Ethics.
Explore here: http://media.mcclatchydc.com/static/features/irradiated/
“The feds won’t pay these ill nuclear pioneers from the space race.”
An investigation into a battle over history and illness compensation for former workers of a key facility in the space race.
Read here: https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/article72473407.html
A supposedly fail-safe system governs mines’ legal obligation to reclaim their local environment. Companies put up money to be held in bonds. If the company cleans up after operations are complete, the money is returned. But if the company walks away, the government can use the bonds to rehabilitate the land.
But does this work in practice? To find out, I helped build first-of-their-kind databases in a project for Climate Home.
Explore the data here: https://www.climatechangenews.com/2018/03/15/us-coal-mines-clean-up-bonds-database/
“Agent Orange benefit screening process scrutinized in Congress.”
An investigation into alleged deficiencies in the Agent Orange benefit screening process for U.S. veterans.
Read here: https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/article69227307.html
Columbia Journalism Review’s write-up of my work on the Irradiated project for McClatchy newspapers.
Read here: https://www.cjr.org/analysis/how_to_write_107000_stories.php
