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Every month, we feature the work and insights from current and past National Fellows. You’ll learn what books and longform articles our Fellows can’t put down and they will offer advice on common challenges for writers and filmmakers.

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• : Saket Soni on what disaster recovery gets wrong.

If you have any feedback, send us a note: FifthDraft@newamerica.org.

2025

• Marcella Bombardieri on the cost of underfunding community colleges.
• Mark Chiusano on the world of app-based work.
• Gabriella García-Pardo on creating a visual language.
• Will Hunt on the power of the ancestral dead.
• Meet the Class of 2026!
• Xinyan Yu on Chinese investment in Africa.
• Vann R. Newkirk II on Katrina's America.
• Seth Harp on military secrecy and reform.
• Cecilia Ballí on high school mariachi bands.
• Sam Butin on his documentary video game.
• Paige Bethmann on storytelling from the heart.
• Mayukh Sen on the history of South Asian performers in Hollywood.
• Keri Blakinger on the Dungeons & Dragons players on death row.

2024

• Jason Fitzroy Jeffers on the history of slavery in Barbados.
• Matthew Campbell on Cambodia’s looted artifacts.
• Victor J. Blue on documenting the war in Afghanistan.
• Meet the Class of 2025!
• Atossa A. Abrahamian on extraterritorial spaces.
• Casey Gerald on great refusals.
• Jessica Pishko on constitutional sheriffs.
• JoeBill Muñoz on his film The Strike.
• Emily Kassie on her film Sugarcane.
• Sian-Pierre Regis on multi-generational living.
• : Jonathan Blitzer on the long history of the border crisis
• : Olivia Goldhill on the future of psychedelics.

2023

• : Ross Perlin on endangered languages.
• Lisa M. Hamilton on rice farming and resilience.
• Azam Ahmed on seeking justice in Mexico.
• Meet the Class of 2024!
• Cara Fitzpatrick on school choice.
• : Eve L. Ewing on education history and writing Black Panther.
• Jason Zengerle on Tucker Carlson.
• Khameer Kidia on global mental health.
• Zeke Faux on cryptocurrency's boom and bust.
• : Kevin Sack on exploring two centuries of Black history.
• : Tanisha C. Ford on money and the Civil Rights Movement.
• : Albert Samaha on service workers and the American dream.

2022

• : Monica Potts on inequality in rural America.
• : Jennifer Medina on Latino voters and the midterms.
• : Abrahm Lustgarten on staying engaged with climate coverage.
• : Meet the Class of 2023!
• : Ellen D. Wu on Asian Americans and racial justice.
• : Keisha N. Blain on finding joy as a scholar.
• : Josh Chin on surveillance in China.
• : Melissa Segura on pursuing justice through journalism.
• Daniel Bergner on treating mental illness.
• Karen Levy on surveillance at work.
• Emma Findlen Leblanc and Taylor Lee Nagel on America's Forever Wars.
• : Matthieu Aikins on covering the collapse of Afghanistan.

2021

• : Julian Brave NoiseCat on the art of advocacy.
• Rose Eveleth on the future of podcasting.
• Peter Bergen on decades of reporting on Afghanistan.
• Meet the Class of 2022!
• : CJ Hunt on telling the truth on screen.
• : Cecilia Aldarondo on the global importance of Puerto Rico.
• : Brian Goldstone on the working homeless.
• : Yi-Ling Liu on writing human-centered narratives.
• : Bart Elmore on investigating large multinational firms.
• : Jude Joffe-Block on reporting on communities in crisis.
• Marcia Chatelain on history as a tool for activism.
• : Trymaine Lee on his approach to storytelling.

2020

• : Matthew Shaer on the pandemic and inequality.
• Reuben Jonathan Miller on mass incarceration.
• Katie Engelhart on empathy in reporting.
• Meet the Class of 2021!
• Josie Duffy Rice on justice and America.
• Raúl O. Paz-Pastrana on filmmaking and the myth of the "perfect migrant."
• Daniela Lamas on COVID-19, writing about medicine, and the value of taking notes.
• Vann R. Newkirk II on natural disasters, podcasting, and reporting on trauma.
• Sarah J. Jackson on Twitter movements, collaboration, and the power of media.
• Greg Barker on his new feature film, storytelling, and deeper truths.
• Ted Johnson on national solidarity, the military, and using twitter as a mini opinion column.
• Jessica Bruder on subcultures, journalistic collaboration and Edward Snowden.

2019

• Trevor Aaronson on podcasts, Twitter and protecting sources.
• Molly Crabapple on the Jewish Labor Bund, an imagined future, and her collaborative process.
• Jill Filipovic on her work about abortion access in conflict and crisis zones.
• Clint Smith on reckoning with history and twitter.
• Reginald Dwayne Betts on his upcoming book of poetry and the state of the criminal justice system today.
• Chase Purdy on the future of meat.
• Eliza Griswold (2019 Pulitzer Prize Winner) on reporting on America.
• Rachel Aviv on writing about sensitive topics and character-driven reporting.
• Anne-Marie Slaughter on 20 years of storytelling at ¹ú²úÊÓƵ.
• Jeff Goodell on sea level rise, Antarctica, and climate change.
• Sara Hendren on how design is a bridge between the body and the world.
• Nikole Hannah-Jones on school segregation, Detroit and dealing with pressure.