Journalist Shoshana Walter on telling stories of addiction and recovery

On the latest episode of the Nieman Storyboard podcast, Storyboard editor Mark Armstrong sits down with journalist and Pulitzer finalist Shoshana Walter to discuss how she writes about addiction, recovery, and the criminal justice system — and how journalists can cover these stories with care. 

Walter is an investigative reporter for The Marshall Project and author of  “Rehab: An American Scandal,” published last year and released this month in paperback. The book weaves together four different stories of people whose lives or work have been impacted by addiction treatment in the U.S., and it shines a light on a system where private treatment centers have little oversight, leading to potential mistreatment, exploitation, and corruption.   

“I think for everyone who participated in this book, the driving force was wanting their stories to mean something, to serve a higher purpose,” Walter says. “My hope with any piece of investigative journalism that I do is to raise awareness of an injustice that's going on in the hopes that it can help lead eventually to change.”

Get the full show notes and reading list: https://niemanstoryboard.org/2026/08/14/journalist-shoshana-walter-telling-stories-of-addiction-recovery/

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Show Credits

Hosted and produced by Mark Armstrong
Associate producer: Marina Leigh
Episode editor: Kelly Araja
Audience editor: Adriana Lacy
Promotional support: Ellen Tuttle
Operational support: Paul Plutnicki, Peter Canova

Nieman Foundation curator: Henry Chu
Music: “Golden Grass,” by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue)
Cover design by Adriana Lacy

Nieman Storyboard is presented by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard.