From Loyola University’s College of Media and Music
The world’s largest organization dedicated to broadcast and digital journalism honored Loyola University’s student newspaper, The Maroon, on Monday (Oct. 9) with a prestigious Edward R. Murrow Award for its environmental podcast, “Engulfed.”
The Radio Television Digital News Association singled out the first episode of the podcast, “St. John’s Fight: From Battling Cancer to Covid,” when it announced the winners of the Student National Murrow awards last month. The Maroon won the award ]for Excellence in Podcasts.
The episode examines one community’s fight against petrochemical companies polluting Black neighborhoods that line the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, a corridor commonly known as Cancer Alley.
Loyola students Rae Walberg, Domonique Tolliver and Brendan Heffernan researched, reported and produced the four-episode podcast, which premiered in September 2022. The idea for the podcast came to Walberg after reporting on a local organization’s efforts to combat industrial pollutants in St.