This is an archived page from 2021. Find out more
WNYC Studios’ Radiolab has won two Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards for its first-ever serialized series “The Other Latif” and the episode “The Flag and the Fury.” Radiolab is the first podcast to receive two in the same year.
Winners were announced today by Columbia Journalism School during a virtual ceremony.
Hosted by Radiolab’s Latif Nasser, “The Other Latif” is a six-part series exploring the plight of Abdul Latif Nasser, also known as Detainee 244 at Guantanamo Bay. Though never convicted of — or even charged with — a crime, “the other Latif” has been a prisoner inside the world’s most notorious prison for nearly 19 years. Cleared for release by six U.S. government agencies in the waning days of the Obama administration — but never freed — Detainee 244 remains in a Kafkaesque state of legal limbo. The series was the result of a three-year investigation spanning five countries, three U.S. presidents, and covering nearly 19 years. Part investigative reporting and part narrative storytelling, “The Other Latif” is a gripping look at the case against Detainee Nasser, the events that led to his incarceration, and the bureaucratic and geopolitical limbo in which he still remains. The series was produced by executive producer Suzie Lechtenberg and producer Sarah Qari with Annie McEwen, Simon Adler, Bethel Habte, Soren Wheeler, and Jad Abumrad.
“The Flag and the Fury” charts the winding 126-year history of Mississippi’s state flag, from its origins as a Confederate battle flag to the present-day clash over its racist symbolism and the fight to replace it. Through interviews and archival audio, the episode offers an absorbing look at a state’s conflict with its identity and history. “The Flag and the Fury” was a collaboration between Radiolab and OSM Audio, and was hosted and created by Jad Abumrad and OSM Audio’s Shima Oliaee.
“I am incredibly proud of Radiolab for the unprecedented honor of being the first podcast ever to win two duPont-Columbia Awards in the same year,” said Goli Sheikholeslami, President and CEO, New York Public Radio, which includes WNYC Studios. “This recognition speaks to the deep ambition and boundless curiosity of the team, and their appetite to take on some of the thorniest and most complex stories of our time — fearlessly and in surprising new ways.”
“I’m so proud of Latif, Suzie, Sarah, and the entire Radiolab team, as well as my OSM Audio partner Shima, for being recognized with these two duPont-Columbia Awards,” said Jad Abumrad, Host and Creator, Radiolab. “I hope what we’ve done here, in both cases, is to collapse abstract political issues into moments that are personal and human. Thank you to the duPont committee for honoring our work!”
“What an honor! A career high for me and for the rest of the team,” said Latif Nasser, Host, Radiolab and “The Other Latif.” “We hope that this one detainee’s story can help us all and our government remember — and finally reckon with — the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay.”
Previously, WNYC won two duPont-Columbia Awards in 2018 for its podcasts Trump, Inc. and Caught: The Lives of Juvenile Justice, as well as for its local enterprise reporting in 2002, 2012, and 2016.