For his work on the second season of the NPR podcast White Lies, Andrew Grace, co-host, producer, and UR assistant professor of journalism, was awarded the Edward R. Murrow Award for Best Podcast. The Murrow Awards, presented each year by the Radio Television Digital News Association, honors those who exemplify outstanding achievement and impactful journalism.

“It doesn’t get much bigger than the Murrow award in broadcast journalism and we’re thrilled that Andrew’s work has been honored in this way,” said Shahan Mufti, chair of the journalism department. “We are proud that our students are taught by faculty like Andrew who continue to practice the craft at the elite levels of the journalism profession.”

The first season of White Lies, which was a 2020 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Audio Reporting, re-investigated a Civil Rights-era murder of a white minister in Selma, Alabama.

The latest season, White Lies: The Men on the Roof, uncovers the history behind a photograph of a group of Cuban detainees who took over a federal prison in Talladega, Alabama, in 1991. This photograph prompted questions of how and why the Cuban detainees were there, and what became of them after. Part of that history involves the Mariel boatlift, a mass emigration of Cubans to the United States in 1980, and how the Carter administration responded.

“My work for NPR definitely sharpens my skills as a journalist and a storyteller, but I also know it makes me a better teacher,” said Grace, who has taught at UR since 2023. “The experiences and the challenges of producing longform investigative projects like White Lies inform the lessons I’m able to share with my students. I think of this work existing not just out in the field or in the edit booth, but in the classroom as well.”

His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and PBS's Independent Lens. His film Eating Alabama was awarded Best Documentary by the James Beard Foundation and his interactive documentary After the Storm was nominated for an Emmy in New Approaches to Documentary.