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2017 Excellence in Audio Digital Storytelling, Small Newsroom finalist

Signal Podcast

Finalist(s)
Meg Tirrell, Luke Timmerman, Jocelyn Gonzales and Jeffery DelViscio

Organization
STAT

Award
Excellence in Audio Digital Storytelling, Small Newsroom

Program
2017

Entry Links
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About the Project

The Signal podcast was created to show listeners, through audio, how medicines are made. Harnessing the experience and instincts of two seasoned business reporters, we tapped into a rich vein of guided storytelling.

Signal untangled the complex web of medicine, science, history, profit, and politics.
We descended into caves with researchers trying to supply drug companies with novel antibiotics. We chronicled the secret science lives of Chinese hamsters. We peeked inside medicine’s Pandora’s box: CRISPR. We captured the resolve one bereaved mother took to Washington to change how childhood cancer medications were made. We took a hard look at an antiquated test that still rules scientific careers and costs (or makes) companies millions of dollars.

Our hope with Signal was to make clear the connections between any one person’s health and the drug research and development ecosystem. Our hosts provided insight, clarity and news value, and made vital, but complex, topics in business and medicine accessible. And they did so with rigor, humor, and style.