ProPublica announced Wednesday that award-winning investigative journalist Jessica Lussenhop will become the host of its forthcoming weekly podcast. In the role, she will guide listeners through ProPublica’s most compelling stories, uncovering corruption and abuses of power in this crucial moment in our history. ProPublica has previously co-produced several successful podcasts — including “We Don’t Talk About Leonard” and “Trump, Inc.,”both with WNYC — and this new podcast will harness ProPublica’s wealth of reporting and storytelling to investigate what’s going wrong in the world and who’s responsible.
“For our journalism to have maximum impact, we’ve got to reach audiences where they are,” ProPublica Managing Editor Ginger Thompson said. “This podcast will allow us to share our essential, ground-breaking reporting with the growing number of people who get their news and information from audio. And I’m thrilled that the voice leading this effort will be one of our own.”
“Jessica is a unique talent,” said Katherine Wells, executive producer for audio. “She’s a rigorous investigative reporter and a creative narrative thinker who cares both about getting the story right and telling the story well. She’s incredibly serious about her work, but she also has a great sense of humor. I’m so excited to hear her bring ProPublica stories to life in audio.”
Lussenhop has been a reporter for ProPublica’s Midwest team for four years, where she published stories on problems with the “The First 48” police reality show, railroad companies’ pattern of hiding worker injuries and controversial diagnoses from child abuse pediatricians. Her stories on a dubious real estate program in Minnesota called contracts for deeds led to changes in state law. Before coming to ProPublica, she was a senior staff writer for BBC North America and a fellow at “This American Life.” She hosted the BBC podcast “Bad Cops,” based on her reporting about a rogue plainclothes police unit in Baltimore. She has also worked at alternative newsweeklies including City Pages in Minneapolis and the Riverfront Times in St. Louis, where one of her stories ultimately freed a Missouri man from prison. Her work has been awarded an Asian American Journalists Association Excellence Award and a National Native Media Award.
“Jessica’s ability to do deep and complex reporting and weave that reporting into compelling narratives made her stories must-reads from the Midwest team,” Deputy Midwest Editor Steve Mills said. “From her home base in the Twin Cities, she ranged all across Minnesota and into the Dakotas, showing that she had an expansive view of her coverage area. She’ll be missed here, but I know she’ll excel hosting ProPublica’s podcast.”
“I care deeply about two things: public service-oriented investigative journalism and compelling narrative audio. I can’t believe I get to do both at the same time,” Lussenhop said. “I am so excited to showcase the vital work of my colleagues and to do what we’ve always done in a new format: hold powerful people to account.”
Lussenhop starts in the role in October.
