Special Projects Archives

Chazaro, left, interviews musical artist Kev Choice, right.

Q&A: Alan Chazaro of KQED’s ¡Hella Hungry!

By Janelle Salanga ● Q&A ● September 22, 2023

Poet, educator and ¡Hella Hungry! creator Alan Chazaro reflects on coming to food writing as someone from outside the institution of traditional journalism, telling human stories through food and more.

Latest in Special Projects

Q&A: Emily Ramshaw of The 19th*

By Uyiosa Elegon ● Q&A ● September 15, 2023

A Democracy Day Q&A with Emily Ramshaw, the CEO and co-founder of The 19th*.

After pledging “accountability,” Reveal laid off all Black unionized staff

By Jacob Gardenswartz ● Reclaiming Democracy ● July 24, 2023

Staffers of color say the investigative journalism nonprofit undervalues non-white reporters and is resistant to changing its ways.

A crowd raises their first in solidarity for George Floyd.

After 2020, Black-led newsrooms ask: Where is the long-term support?

By Uyiosa Elegon ● Reclaiming Democracy ● July 20, 2023

Many Black-led outlets — digital and legacy media alike — are still trying to figure out how to sustain their work.

Strikeworkers at Business Insider march during their June strike.

Business Outsider? Strike publications offer a glimpse of worker-owned media

By Jacob Gardenswartz ● Media Workers ● June 28, 2023

Amid a resurgence of union activism within digital media companies, striking workers at Business Insider and the Pittsburgh-Post Gazette are starting their own publications to showcase their value.

Where the hell is Africa in food coverage?

By Omnia Saed ● The Reckoning in Food Media ● May 2, 2023

Despite the growing popularity of food media in recent years, African stories are sparingly included — leaving media coverage of food history incomplete.

The alternate reality of celebrity chefs

By John Besche ● The Reckoning in Food Media ● May 2, 2023

Rarely, aside from sexual assault, overt racism, or in the case of Martha Stewart, insider trading, do celebrity chefs get comeuppance.

Urban farms can be a crucial part of food access coverage

By Alex Espitia ● The Reckoning in Food Media ● April 25, 2023

But in order to create lasting change, we can’t be satisfied with just recognizing the symptoms of an unjust system and responding with patchwork solutions.

An illustration of a white woman featured as an expert on television cooking noodles.

“Noodles are tasty”: The economic implications behind race and cultural appropriation in food media

By Frankie Huang ● The Reckoning in Food Media ● April 25, 2023

Discussing cultural appreciation and appropriation is also about broader questions of who can get a platform to share food — and who profits.

New youth-led climate protest group will ‘blockade’ White House Correspondents’ Dinner

By Jacob Gardenswartz ● Reclaiming Democracy ● April 20, 2023

Activists with the group Climate Defiance say national media is partly to blame for failing to prioritize climate coverage.