ICYMI: Long Lead turned journalism on its ear in 2024

This past year has been a transformative and award-winning one for Long Lead. Our features ranged from podcasts to photo essays, and demonstrated the impact of journalism without compromise. From our in-depth, multimedia report on veterans fighting the VA for housing to our narrative podcast chronicling how decades of gun violence has impacted America, our reporting was pivotal in affecting change. We’re proud to share this year’s highlights with you.

Long Lead’s first feature of 2024 was LIFTING UKRAINE, Maranie Staab’s moving photo essay about Anna Kurkurina, a record-settling powerlifter who has rescued and rehomed countless injured and unhoused pets orphaned by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This riveting account of survival in wartime is not just about Kurkurina’s volunteer efforts. Chronicling how she became a world champion athlete at 40 years old, LIFTING UKRAINE showcases her determination and selflessness as she teaches Ukrainian women to be strong and helps disabled children learn to walk — all while running her animal rescue network.

In the spring, we released the third season of our podcast LONG SHADOW. Produced in collaboration with The Trace, Campside Media, and PRX, LONG SHADOW: IN GUNS WE TRUST chronicles how firearms moved from being an ordinary part of the background of rural life to a menacing element of modern American life. Weeks after the last episode came out, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued an advisory declaring gun violence “a public health crisis.”

At the Signal Awards, the season won Best History Podcast, Documentary Podcast, and Activism, Public Service, & Social Impact Podcast. It was also nominated for Best Audio Documentary at the International Documentary Association Awards and was named one of the year’s top podcasts by Audible, Mashable, and The Week. We also launched a LONG SHADOW website, complete with all of the episodes, transcripts, and any news surrounding the show.

Long Lead was also honored with an Edward R. Murrow Award for the podcast’s second season, LONG SHADOW: RISE OF THE AMERICAN FAR RIGHT, in New York City in October. The Society of Professional Journalists also named the season the Best Narrative Podcast at its Sigma Delta Chi Awards in July.

Long Lead audience development manager Jensen Rubinstein, Long Lead creative director Sarah Rogers, Long Lead founding editor John Patrick Pullen, LONG SHADOW host Garrett Graff, Long Lead managing director Cassandra Krcmar, and Long Lead managing editor Emily Barone at the Edward R. Murrow Awards in midtown Manhattan on October 14, 2024. Courtesy of Chorus Photography.

 

HOME OF THE BRAVE, Long Lead’s seven-part, multimedia series about the chronic mismanagement of the West Los Angeles VA campus, published in June, just a few months before a group of disabled vets took their fight for housing to court.

While the story continues to develop (stay current through by subscribing to our HOME OF THE BRAVE newsletter), the series has won an array of honors, including selections in film festivals nationwide and Anthem Awards for Best Humanitarian Action & Services Awareness and Best Human & Civil Rights Awareness. And today, it was given a Wounded Warrior Project Award for excellence in coverage of veterans by the National Press Foundation.

The first line of Judge David Carter’s decision in the lawsuit echoed the first line of Long Lead’s feature, a sign showing the incredible impact of our reporting. The veterans won their lawsuit, but the government has since appealed the ruling. Long Lead will continue to report on this story in 2025.

Augustin Mona stands on land near the Village Grace de Dieu in Canaan with some of the 126 families who had been together since meeting in the Mozayik tent camp after the 2010 earthquake, Jan. 10, 2015. Photograph by Allison Shelley

In September, Long Lead published an epic report nearly a decade in the making. AN UNNATURAL DISASTER, by Jacob Kushner with photographs by Allison Shelley, tracks how the Haitian city of Canaan rose from the rubble of the Caribbean country’s 2010 7.0-magnitude earthquake. But despite the Haitian community banding together to create a city forgotten by their nation’s leaders, its residents’ lives now hang in the balance as merciless gangs have overtaken the country.

Published at the close of last year, THE CATCH — Emily Sohn’s gripping profile of forgotten Sports Illustrated writer Virginia Kraft — reeled in awards and critical praise all year, earning inclusion in Triumph Books’ The Year’s Best Sports Writing 2024 and besting features from several major news outlets at both the Webby Awards and Newhouse Mirror Awards.

Some of the journalists featured in Long Lead’s DEPTH PERCEPTION newsletter.

In a world where we need journalism more than ever, Long Lead’s DEPTH PERCEPTION newsletter championed standout work from fearless reporters in the media. The free, weekly newsletter’s most popular issues this year included interviews with Jacob Soboroff on Trump immigration documentary Separated, Sari Botton on acting her age (or not), Ben Collins on becoming the CEO of The Onion, and Mehdi Hasan on how his “big mouth” launched his career. Mark Yarm and Parker Molloy are lining up more hard-hitting interviews for next year. Read them by subscribing to DEPTH PERCEPTION.

As Long Lead looks forward to 2025 and our new features push the boundaries of journalism even further, we want to thank you, our audience, for supporting our work. Next year, great journalism, crafted with care and consideration, will be as important as ever, and we look forward to sharing more with you soon.