2020 Pulitzer Prize Entry
BZ/MP | Audio Reporting | Bryant/Zamberlan
For ease of navigation and judging, all segments of the audio story (including episode descriptions and any “Podcast Listener Extra” story enhancements/ reference material exactly as originally posted with the episode) are aggregated here.
(Per submission guidelines for entries in this format, screenshots of the original posts, with visible run dates, were uploaded as supplemental material.)
Episode 1 — “The Fall I Was Supposed to Take Easy”
Air Date: 08/12/2019 (previewed 01/12/2019)
INTERSECTIONS is a multi-part investigative presentation from the “The Brink with Benjamin Bryant” team. Presented in a serialized storytelling format, INTERSECTIONS tells the compelling story of American soldier Ana Clarke, and the night a tragic accident took away her ability to tell her own story–giving others an opening to tell a very different one for her in the aftermath. In this first episode, learn Ana’s story and meet those racing the clock to discover the truth behind that fateful night.
Podcast Listener Extras from Episode 1
Episode 2 — “An Orgy of Evidence”
Air Date: 08/13/2019
In Episode 2, INTERSECTIONS dives deep into the accident investigation report and its devastating conclusions for Ana Clarke. As they seek to understand the disconnect between the exemplary soldier described by colleagues and in military records from her ten-year career, and the portrait of a willful and destructive biker, callously putting herself and others at risk for a high-stakes police encounter, described by the investigator, disturbing questions arise.
Podcast Listener Extras from Episode 2
Episode 3 — “He Didn’t Start the Fire"
Air Date: 08/14/2019
In Episode 3, the INTERSECTIONS team, using the same references, records, and public resources available to the Army’s investigator, set out to recreate the Clarke inquiry. When their review of the facts, circumstances, and predicating events related to accident (following the same instructions and guidelines governing the original investigation) produces starkly different results, uncovers new evidence, and suggests the selective exclusion of mitigating information, the questions surrounding the Clarke probe loom larger than ever.
Podcast Listener Extras from Episode 3
Episode 4 — “Original Sin”
Air Date: 08/15/2019
In Episode 4, the team sets out to validate, contextualize, and understand the increasing number of unsettling discoveries emerging from their review of the Ana Clarke case, while Clarke’s family faces her final appeal after failing to convince previous Army reviewers of the serious problems found in the original investigation. When a shocking development reveals even more troubling information, the INTERSECTIONS team reviews everything they’ve found, so far, and seeks to pinpoint exactly where and when things first went wrong in the process.
Podcast Listener Extras from Episode 4
Episode 5 — “Win or Lose, the Game’s Still Over”
Air Date: 08/16/2019
In Episode 5, the INTERSECTIONS team takes a look at larger issues within the military’s Line of Duty investigation process, and considers the need for potential reform. When a final, unappealable decision in Clarke’s case is handed down, the team explores the appeal board’s reasoning, and discusses the impact the decision is likely to have on Clarke and her family. With the Clarke case resolved, for better or worse, the team looks to the future, wondering if there is still more of story to be told.