Welcome to
The Journey
of a Story 2025
An exhibit hosted by The Uproot Project
The Uproot Project presents its fourth annual Journey of a Story event series. This year’s theme, Climate, Politics, and Trust in the Media, celebrates the crucial role of diverse voices in environmental and climate reporting, especially in communities that are too often overlooked or misrepresented.
The exhibit features work from five climate and environmental journalists whose reporting explores the intersections of climate and politics or shows how trust is built within communities around climate reporting. The experience is interactive—audio clips let you hear directly from the journalists about their reporting process and the stories behind their work. Grab your phone and scan the QR codes on the posters to dive deeper into each story.
Thank you to the MacArthur Foundation for their support of this event.
Digital Brochure | Table of Contents
(Click the links below to navigate)
Thank you to the MacArthur Foundation for their support of this event
About the Journalists
Audrey Henderson
Audrey Henderson is an independent journalist, writer and researcher based in the greater Chicago area with advanced degrees in sociology and law from Northwestern University. She specializes in sustainability in the built environment, culture and arts, policy, and related topics. As a former contributing reporter for Energy News Network and Canary Media, Audrey focused her coverage on environmental justice and equity. Her work has also been featured in Wallpaper, the Chicago Reader, Chicago Architect, Next City, Transitions Abroad, Belt Magazine, and other consumer and trade publications.
Kanika Gupta
Kanika Gupta is a freelance journalist and documentary filmmaker based in Delhi, India, covering conflict, climate, human rights, migration, and policy issues across South Asia and the Middle East. She is a Pulitzer Center grantee and a Dart Center fellow, recognized for reporting under challenging circumstances. Kanika won the 2025 One World Media Award Best Documentary and was shortlisted for the 2025 True Story Award for her long-form features. She was also named the 2nd Most Resilient Journalist in 2024 by the Free Press Journal. Her work highlights underreported crises and marginalized communities, combining in-depth investigation with compelling storytelling.
Safina Nabi
Safina Nabi is an Independent multimedia journalist. She covers South Asia and Indian administered Kashmir and covers conflict, human rights, gender, health, culture, social justice, and the environment. Her stories have appeared in a range of Indian and international publications like The Guardian, Al Jazeera, Slate, Vice, OpenDemocracy, and Christian Science Monitor, among others. Safina has received grants and fellowships from the Pulitzer Center, Reporters Without Borders, Dart Center, Tactical Tech, and IWMF. Safina holds a master’s degree in communication and Journalism from the University of Kashmir. She completed a year-long investigation in 2022 that was funded by the Pulitzer Center about the property rights of “Half widows.” This story won her the 2022 Fetisov Journalism Award in the category of contribution to peace. This story received an honourable mention at the 2022 Society of Publishers Award and won the Laadli Media Award. One of her investigations was nominated for the True Story Award in 2020 under the Human Rights category. Safina received a Laadli Media Jury appreciation award, 2020 and 2021, for her gender-sensitive reporting and was shortlisted for Red Ink Awards, 2021, in the women empowerment category. She loves to read, click random pictures, and trek
Aina Marzia
Aina Marzia is an independent journalist from El Paso, Texas, covering intersectional politics and a student at Princeton University studying Anthropology on the Law track with minors in Latin American Studies, Spanish, and Journalism. Her work has been seen in Al Jazeera English, The Nation, Teen Vogue, Business Insider, The New Republic, The New Arab, The Daily Beast, The American Prospect, Grist, and on NPR and elsewhere. She was previously a fact-checking intern at In These Times and a 2024 Puffin Fellow at The Nation. Aina is a recipient of the Mary Quon Ing Moy Memorial Scholarship from the Asian American Journalists Association and the 2024 Scholastic Gold Medal for her journalism portfolio, “Classrooms: The New Political Playground,” awarded by the New York Times.
Aarón Miguel Cantú
Aarón Miguel Cantú reports on energy issues, including the fossil fuel industry’s influence in California government and the effects of pollution and climate change on marginalized communities. His work for Capital & Main has been nominated for a dozen awards and earned top honors from the California News Publishers Association, the Sacramento Press Club, the Los Angeles Press Club, and the Society for Environmental Journalists. He was previously a reporting fellow with Type Investigations, filing stories for outlets including the Guardian, The Nation, The Intercept and Reveal. He is a former staff reporter for the Santa Fe Reporter, editor for the Bail Project and investigative researcher for the Public Accountability Initiative, and has reported across the U.S., in the Middle East and in Chile.
Jireh Deng
Jireh Deng is an award-winning multimedia journalist born and raised in the San Gabriel Valley of Los Angeles. They previously were a breaking news fellow at the Los Angeles Times and recently finished a fellowship at Business Insider’s economics team. Currently, they are a fellow at LA Public Press through the California Local News Fellowship. Their bylines appear in The Washington Post, The Guardian, NPR, Teen Vogue, and HuffPo. Their writing received first place in gender and society reporting at the 2025 LA Press Club Awards and excellence in transgender coverage from the Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists. They co-founded the Asian American Journalists Association’s LGBTQIA+ affinity group.
About Uproot
The Uproot Project is a network for journalists of color who cover environmental issues, as well as students and others aspiring to cover this beat.
We want to bring diverse voices to the forefront of environmental reporting. As a network, we’re dedicated to advancing the careers of journalists of color who’ve been historically underrepresented in this field, imbuing journalistic coverage with critical and fresh perspectives. The Uproot Project will connect its member journalists with publications, offer training, and build community as we navigate the work ahead reporting on the environmental crises of our time.
The Uproot Project is open to journalists of all races, ethnicities and backgrounds, but its goal is to uplift and support journalists of color who have been underrepresented in the journalism industry for far too long. Our group is currently funded by and assisted operationally by Grist, a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. While we plan to one day operate independently, our first priority is to establish the network, welcome new members, and build a network that transforms who tells the stories of one of the most important issues of the century.
Initiatives
Environmental Journalists of Color Database
The Uproot Project Database is a critical resource for journalists who are seeking to connect with editors, mentors, experts, sources, and other journalists of color within the environmental space. As a network by and for environmental and climate journalists of color, The Uproot Project is committed to diversity in the media, which means spotlighting diverse voices. The people you will find in our database identify as Black, Indigenous, or other people of color, who have exercised expertise in climate, science, social justice, and environmental spaces.
Environmental Justice Fellowships
At The Uproot Project, we believe there are important environmental justice stories that need to be told. We believe that journalists of color bring critical and fresh perspectives to covering these stories. With The Uproot Project’s Environmental Justice Fellowship, we want to bring the two together — to help underrepresented journalists shed light on undercovered topics. Meet our 2022 class of fellows here.
The Seedling (newsletter)
We produce a biweekly newsletter aimed at getting our members up to speed on all things Uproot. It’s dedicated to sharing updates for future Uproot trainings, panels, and meetups as well as sharing job opportunities and reporting resources. It’s also a spot to amplify the work of our members and highlight our growing network of journalists of color. You can subscribe here.
Donate to the Uproot Project here
Explore the Exhibit
This exhibit features work from environmental journalist of color, all of whom are Uproot members. The exhibit is intended to be interactive: through audio and video, you will learn about each journalist’s experience reporting on their story. As you explore the exhibit, we encourage you to take out your phones and scan the QR codes on the posters to listen to the audio. For accessibility and convenience, links to the audio, transcripts, and articles can all be found below.
Illinois program’s ‘wraparound’ approach helps formerly incarcerated people land solar industry jobs
by Audrey Henderson, Canary Media
Listen to Audrey’s journey of this story (transcript)
Read the full article
Climate refugees from Bangladesh face a political storm in India
by Kanika Gupta and Safina Nabi, Himal Southasian
Listen to Kanika’s journey of this story (transcript)
Listen to Safina’s journey of this story (transcipt)
Read the full article
A Proposed Regulation Could Protect Millions of Workers From Extreme Heat
by Aina Marzia, The Nation
Listen to Aina’s journey of this story (transcript)
Read the full article
Black Altadenans seek hope and resilience in the wake of the LA wildfires
by Jireh Deng, NPR
Listen to Jireh’s journey of this story (transcript)
Read the full article
California Cut $200 Million for Extreme Heat and Other Climate Disasters. Voters Can Reverse That.
by Aarón Miguel Cantú, Capital & Main
Listen to Aarón’s journey of this story (transcript)
Read the full article
Thank You to Our Sponsor
Thank you to everyone who made this event possible including the generous sponsorship by the MacArthur Foundation.
