Episode description

As part of our farewell to The Takeaway, Melissa Harris-Perry sits down with the folks behind the scenes who make the show happen every day. Today, we're highlighting the work of Mary Steffenhagen — an award-winning investigative journalist and producer who joined The Takeaway just over a year ago — by listening back to a few of her favorite segments:

• "When Women’s Survival is Criminalized" and "Corrections in Ink"

• "A Culture of Abuse and Cover-Ups in the Southern Baptist Convention"

• "How Trains Left Indelible Tracks on American Culture"

• "Music In Their Own Words: Sylvan Esso"

• "The Realities of Race in Assisted Reproduction"

• "Human Composting is Legal in New York—Now What?"

Mary Steffenhagen's original reporting on labor organizing, social activism, and the political movement behind homeschooling has earned awards from the Sidney Hillman Foundation (Hillman Award), the Newswomen's Club of New York (Front Page Award) and multiple national student journalism associations. She has reported for outlets including Teen Vogue, City Limits and Chalkbeat. She was also a Fulbright scholar in the 2022 Berlin Capital Program and previously interned at Salon and Coda Media, where she helped produce a weekly news podcast. She earned a masters' in investigative and audio journalism from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY in 2021. 

Find her on Twitter @marynotmerry__ and at www.marysteffenhagen.com