Hola Cultura and WAMU win a Regional Edward R. Murrow Award!
By hola | Published | No Comments
As we start to get a taste of summer heat, it’s a good time to revisit “The Climate Divide” podcast, which explores how extreme heat is not experienced the same across D.C. and how that came to be.
Or you could check out the 1-hour special Hola Cultura coproduced with WAMU 88.5 last fall. This program just won regional recognition for its reporting on the health risks associated with exposure to extreme summertime heat, as well as how and why D.C.’s low-income neighborhoods of color tend to be so much hotter than the District’s wealthier precincts.
The program won Best News Documentary in the large market radio division of the Edward R. Murrow Awards from the Radio Television Digital News Association for Region 12, which consists of Delaware, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. This award recognizes a single segment that covers an important subject.
Throughout the 1-hour special, WAMU/DCist’s environment reporter Jacob Fenston discusses key moments of “The Climate Divide” with its host, Hola Cultura’s Assistant Editor Marcelo Jauregui-Volpe. Jacob and Marcelo also did some reporting of their own, traveling from a lush and cool shaded path in Northwest D.C. to a shopping center parking lot in Northeast’s Brentwood neighborhood. Here the heat island effect makes for higher temperatures.
The special was produced by WAMU Editor Justin O’Neill and coordinated by WAMU’s Strategic Partnerships Editor Eric Falquero.
Heat Islands Reporting
Hola Cultura’s heat-island reporting began in 2021, with a 3-part investigative series co-published with the Washington City Paper and supported by the Pulitzer Center, the Fund for Investigative Journalism (FIJ), and Spotlight DC. SpotlightDC and FIJ also supported “The Climate Divide.”
“We all know climate change is making our streets hotter, but Hola Cultura’s reporting and podcast bring the listener into the places and people most affected by heat islands in the D.C. region,” says Harry Jaffe, president of SpotlightDC. “SpotlightDC’s financial awards to Hola Cultura meet our mission of supporting accountability journalism in the D.C. region.”
Thanks to the work of geographic information system (GIS) mapping intern Leul Bulcha and the guidance of former Hola Cultura senior intern Byron Marroquin and climate scientist Jeremy Hoffman, the 2021 series featured maps illustrating the differences in temperature and vegetation across the city.
That reporting inspired the production of the podcast the following year, which further explored D.C.’s history of residential segregation, the disproportionate impact of extreme heat on the city’s most vulnerable residents and the solutions that could tackle this phenomenon in the immediate future and long term.
“It was really rewarding to know that all of the hard work everyone put into the podcast was being recognized,” says Claudia Peralta Torres, an editor of “The Climate Divide.” “Overall, I think sharing these stories about D.C.’s heat disparity is important in order to inform and implement change in how we handle extreme heat.”
Regional award winners will be considered for a national award, which will be announced later this summer.
A second season of “The Climate Divide” is coming this summer. Meanwhile, on June 14, we’ll launch our third podcast series, “Artistas in the Capital,” monthly conversations with local writers, authors and other creatives. Find it wherever you get your podcasts, or click here to find out more.
– Marcelo Jauregui-Volpe
Recent Stories
