Behind The Byline: Finding a ‘Superstar’ to Interview

KHN has never been busier ― and health coverage has never been more vital. The Behind The Byline series on YouTube and Instagram TV offers an insider’s view.

Journalists and producers from across KHN’s newsrooms take you behind the scenes in these bite-size videos to show the ways they are following the story, connecting with sources and sorting through facts.

Jenny Gold — Finding a ‘Superstar’ to Interview

Senior correspondent Jenny Gold started her yearlong project with a question: How will covid shape the next generation of doctors? In June 2020, more than 30,000 new doctors graduated from medical school and started their training on the front lines of the pandemic.

Dr. Paloma Marin-Nevarez — a woman from Los Angeles whom Gold describes as thoughtful and outgoing — stood out from the beginning. She was about to start her residency in Fresno, California, a city in the state’s agricultural Central Valley that had become a hot spot for covid infections.

In addition to regular interviews, Gold sent Marin-Nevarez an audio recorder so the rookie doctor could document her experiences herself. Those recordings captured sounds inside the hospital and included audio diaries. In the end, Gold had 50 hours of audio to sort through, which were incorporated in a one-hour podcast episode produced with Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting. Listen to the episode here: “‘Into the Covid ICU’: A New Doctor Bears Witness to the Isolation, Inequities of Pandemic.”