SELECTED STORIES BY DATE
For a more comprehensive listing sorted by category, click here.


2010

Audubon Mazagine | Crude Awakening (March 2010)
Right here in North America could lie the answer to our energy needs. But at what cost? Mining the tar sands of Alberta threatens to strip the world's largest intact forest of its ability to hold carbon and to wipe out the breeding grounds for millions of birds.

AARP The Magazine | Living on the Edge (March 2010)
Millions of older Americans don't have enough money to put food on the table, but the government doesn't count them as poor. How did this happen-and what's being done about it? Coming soon: a segment on Prime Time Radio profiling three family matriachs struggling to pay the bills.

Prime Time Radio | Truckin' My Blues Away (February 2010)
A music-rich radio documentary about four older Southern bluesmen—and the folklorist who is working to promote them on the world stage. Produced by Barry and Richard Ziglar.

2009

Duke Magazine | Tenure Tracker (September 2009)
In the heart of a recession, with university budgets shriveling, a newly minted Ph.D. hunts for academe's holy grail.

Audubon Magazine | Work Plan (July 2009)
Maytag's departure left a small Iowa town's economy reeling. Today, however, workers are building wind machines instead of washing machines, and validating studies about the potential of green-collar jobs.

O, The Oprah Magazine | Operation Rescue (June 2009)
Barbara Woodley hoarded more than 300 dogs in deplorable conditions. It took a three-year legal battle and an army of volunteers to save these broken creatures. Plus, click here for an series of audio slideshows about the families who rescued the Woodley dogs.

World Hum | New Orleans Rocks (March 2009)
A week in the Crescent City listening to music of every sort—except jazz. Plus, click here for an accompanying audio slideshow of the city's music (and street) scene after Katrina.

AARP The Magazine | Laid Off! (March 2009)
For factory workers in America, especially those over 45, job security has become a dying dream as the economy shrinks and jobs move offshore. Plus a profile of Hometown, Penn., after its textile mill closed.

Duke Magazine | Expletive Deleter (Jan. 2009)
As President Obama steers the nation's telecommunications policy in a new direction, a look back at Kevin Martin's stormy term as Federal Communications Commission chair.

2008

OnEarth | Delta Blues (Fall 2008)
Drinking water for 23 million Californians. Lifeblood for our farm economy. Why it's so vital to save the Sacramento Delta.

The Independent | A Mean Machine (Sept. 2008)
For all its combativeness, the Republican National Convention failed the address the country's most fundamental issues. Scenes from a week in St. Paul. Plus, click here for more on the elections.

The Independent | Youth and Promise at the DNC (Sept. 2008)
An N.C. delegate to the Democratic National Convention, Raleigh's John Verdejo sees similarities between his personal history and Obama's.

Duke Magazine | Lobsta Got to Sniff, Dinosaurs Got to Fly (Sept. 2008)
In the field of comparative biomechanics, Mimi Koehl is an audacious pioneer whose success stems from a willingness to challenge assumptions. The Mr. Potato Head models don't hurt either.

AARP The Magazine | When Wounded Veterans Come Home (July 2008)
As more troops are surviving fearsome war injuries, parents are being increasing thrust into the role of long-term caregivers. A multimedia special featuring a radio documentary narrated by Barry.

O, The Oprah Magazine | The Case of the Battered Pet (June 2008)
Who would suspect that a family's animals could be pawns in domestic violence? The terrifying truth about cats and dogs.

Columbia Journalism Review | The Redemption of Chris Rose (Jan. 2008)
A New Orleans newspaper columnist, like the daily he works for, finds a stronger voice in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

AARP The Magazine | R.I.P. Off (Jan. 2008)
Thousands of Americans have been fleeced by funeral homes that sell prepaid contracts—then fail to honor them at the time of death.

2007

JTA | Messianics Rising (Nov. 2007)
Evangelical Christian efforts to win Jewish converts have become better funded and more sophisticated. A three-part series.

O, The Oprah Magazine | What Makes Elizabeth Run (Sept. 2007)
Not one to walk away from a fight, Elizabeth Edwards might be the most refreshing political spouse since Eleanor Roosevelt.

AARP The Magazine | Katrina: The Untold Story (Sept. 2007)
Two years after the hurricane, the Gulf Coast's older residents still fight despair and search for hope. A multimedia report including a radio documentary narrated by Barry. Plus, click here for Barry's photos.

Audubon | The Wal-Mart Effect (May 2007)
By stocking its shelves with affordable organic foods, the world's largest retailer is about to prove that what's good for the company is good for the planet and consumers. Or is it?

The Nation | Putting Science in the Dock (March 2007)
In an effort to exclude dubious experts, judges have assumed unprecedented power—and tilted the legal system against injured consumers.

Duke Magazine | Leap of Faith (March 2007)
Can academic rigor, firm discipline, and a daily dose of religion turn boys from poor families into scholars? An intimate look at one such attempt.

2006

Mother Jones | When Is a Corporation Like a Freed Slave? (Nov. 2006)
In rural Pennsylvania, township supervisors battling sewage sludge and hog manure stumble up against one of the biggest mysteries in constitutional law.

O, The Oprah Magazine | The Good Shopper (Sept. 2006)
Organic flowers, fair-trade coffee, local produce, recycled gold: If every one of us made a few adjustments to our shopping lists, we could help change the world.

AARP The Magazine | Sudden Debt (Sept. 2006)
Overdrawn by $5? Need a loan until payday? Hidden bank fees and usurious storefront lenders plunge millions of Americans into downward financial spirals.

Discover | Schweitzer's Dangerous Discovery (April 2006)
When this shy paleontologist found soft, fresh-looking tissue inside a T. rex femur, she erased a line between past and present. Then all hell broke loose.

O, The Oprah Magazine | Weight Loss: The New Myths (March 2006)
Behind the latest diet claims stand real doctors and reputable studies. Does that mean you should swallow everything they tell you? Not so fast.

Duke Magazine | Portrait of an 'American Patriot' (March 2006)
Democrat Francis Brooke joined GOP efforts to depose Saddam Hussein, serving as right-hand man to Iraqi dissident Ahmad Chalabi.

Discover | When a Woman Goes Bald (Feb. 2006)
A scientist's painful battle with hair loss drives her to find its genetic basis.

The Independent | Creation Nation (Feb. 2006)
Ken Ham says creationism and Biblical inerrancy are the solutions to the world's ills. Welcome to the world of Answers in Genesis.

2005

Mother Jones | Fall of a True Believer (Sept. 2005)
How Jack Abramoff gained the whole world and lost just about everything.

AARP The Magazine | Prisoners of Pain (Sept. 2005)
Why are millions of suffering Americans being denied the prescription drug relief they need?

The Independent | Whitewash (Sept. 2005)
In his new autobiography, Jesse Helms sees himself as a humanitarian—not as a racist supporter of brutal right-wing regimes.

AARP The Magazine | Whose House Is It Anyway? (May 2005)
A city's quest for renewal sometimes means the death of an old neighborhood.

AARP The Magazine | Going Home (Jan. 2005)
The hospital couldn't save Jack Smith's life. But hospice gave him something to live for. Why can't all Americans have such satisfying end-of-life care?

2004

Discover | Lights Out (Dec. 2004)
Depression, dementia, and plummeting IQs: Contact sports extract a terrible price for the excitement they create.

Mother Jones | Dirty Warriors (Nov. 2004)
How South African hit men, Serbian paramilitaries, and other human rights violators became guns for hire in Iraq.

The Independent | If I Were A Rich Man (Sept. 2004)
A Tar Heel tour of the Republican National Convention: protesters, fundraisers, seared tuna and Sodom and Gomorrah. (For more 2004 election coverage, click here.)

Discover | Forbidden Science (Aug. 2004)
What can studies of pornography, prostitutes and seedy truck stops contribute to society? A look at the current NIH funding controversy.

Creative Loafing | Deadly Dependence (Aug. 2004)
The South's economic reliance on military bases has left a toxic legacy throughout the region.

New York Times | Need An Army? Just Pick Up The Phone (April 2004)
The deaths of four civilians in Falluja, Iraq, raises serious questions about the use of private military companies in war zones.

AARP The Magazine | Stolen Lives (Jan. 2004)
Thousands of older Americans are being robbed of their freedom and life savings by a legal system created for their protection.

2003

Discover | Can We Trust Research Done With Lab Mice? (July 2003)
New studies by a soft-spoken Swiss scientist show that animals used in critical experiments may be out of their minds.

Mother Jones | Soldiers of Good Fortune (May 2003)
Profit-making private military companies are replacing U.S. soldiers in the war on terrorism.

AARP The Magazine | Colleen's Choice (March 2003)
When her cancer became unbearable, Colleen Rice chose death. Now the law that helped end her agony is under siege.

Mother Jones | Secondhand Diplomacy (March 2003)
After meeting with cigarette manufacturers, the Bush administration is seeking to derail a global tobacco treaty.

Discover | The Scientist Who Hated Abortion (Feb. 2003)
A pro-life biochemist has launched a national crusade to link abortion and breast cancer in the public's mind.

Mother Jones | Unhappy Meals (Jan. 2003)
School lunches are loaded with fat-and the beef and dairy industries are making sure it stays that way.

2002

Discover | Can Turtles Live Forever? (June 2002)
A quiet study in the Michigan woods—conducted by a fascinating scientist—opens a new window on aging.M

Mother Jones | The Stealth Crusade (May 2002)
Inside one Southern university, Christian missionaries are being trained to go undercover in the Muslim world.

Mother Jones | Airline Insecurity (Jan. 2002)
When it came to airport security, the federal government repeatedly placed politics and profits above the public's safety.

2001

Journal of Michigan Fellows | Journalist, Interrupted (Winter 2001)
Why my stutter makes me a better journalist. A window into the personal side of my work.

Mother Jones | The Quiet War on Abortion (Sept. 2001)
After decades of noisy protests and violence, anti-abortion activists are relying on a new "stealth" strategy to shut down clinics.

Mother Jones | Subsidies at Sea (May 2001)
Taxpayers spent $400 million on incentives for a multinational shipbuilding company. Did Philadelphia workers benefit?

Ladies' Home Journal | Drugs Online (May 2001)
Rogue Internet pharmacies allow anyone to buy prescription medicines without first seeing a doctor.

Discover | Wild Cats in Carolina (March 2001)
Is the Carnivore Preservation Trust saving threatened felines like ocelots and caracals? Or is it simply creating genetic junk?

Mother Jones | Silence in the Fields (Jan. 2001)
The federal government permits agribusiness to bring Third World labor to U.S. farms, with working conditions to match.

2000

Glamour | A Hideous Hate Crime (Aug. 2000)
In 1963, four African-American girls were murdered in Birmingham's Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. Now the granddaughter of one of the bombers—and the sisters of a victim—confront Alabama's racist legacy.

The Independent | Generation Bush (Aug. 2000)
Republicans are counting on America's youth for a November victory—and they found a few in North Carolina.

Redbook | Dangerous Food (Aug. 2000)
When Nancy Donley's son died of E. coli poisoning, she learned how poorly we are all protected from food contamination.

Mother Jones | Steel-Town Lockdown (May 2000)
How one corporation is turning the Rust Belt city of Youngstown, Ohio, into the private-prison capital of the world.

Salon | Into the Closet (May 2000)
An up-close and personal look at the Christian movement to turn gay people straight. Meet "ex-gay" man John Westcott.

The Independent | Walking Home (Jan. 2000)
This two-part series intimately chronicles a year in the life of an immigrant Baptist church in Siler City, North Carolina.

1990s

The Independent | Burnt Twice (Nov. 1998)
Toxic fumes from Carolina Solite's hazardous waste-burning plant are compounded by toxic neglect from state regulators.

The Nation | The Carolina Democratic Dream (Oct. 1998)
John Edwards runs a populist campaign to unseat Republican U.S. Senator Lauch Faircloth.

Salon | Embraced in Spain (June 1998)
The author, stuttering in Spanish with a group of 20-year-old street kids. An all-time favorite.
(For more travel stories, click here.)

The Nation | Spiritual Union: A Case Study (Dec. 1997)
Guatemalan immigrants build a remarkable labor organization at a North Carolina poultry slaughterhouse.

New Woman | The New Men's Movement (Oct. 1997)
What happens when 50,000 evangelical men gather for a Promise Keepers convention? Check your preconceptions at the stadium gate.

Out Magazine | Murder on the Mountain (Nov. 1996)
A love story of two women murdered in Virginia's Shenandoah National Park.

Out Magazine | No, Jesse, No (May 1996)
Is Senator Helms Gay Public Enemy No. 1?

The Boston Globe | The Marines Face a New Fight (Feb. 1993)
Meet a few good men-some of whom are gay.

The Independent | Highway Robbery (May 1992)
An award-winning five-part investigative series examining how campaign contributions influence North Carolina's $1.6 billion transportation budget, harming communities and the environment in the process.

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