About William @WmBrangham
William Brangham is a correspondent and producer for PBS NewsHour in Washington, D.C. He joined the flagship PBS program in 2015, after spending two years with PBS NewsHour Weekend in New York City.
In his first three years, Brangham has done a range of award-winning reporting across the United States and internationally, covering everything from the severity of America’s opioid crisis, the integration of women into combat roles in the U.S. Marine Corps, to a profile of Ina Garten, the “Barefoot Contessa.”
Brangham’s reporting on the Syrian refugee crisis in 2015 was among the work cited when the NewsHour won a George Foster Peabody Award that year. The next year, he reported a six-part series on the global HIV/AIDS epidemic, which won a series of major awards including an Emmy and the National Academies of Sciences Communication Award. In 2018, Brangham worked on an investigative series about sexual assault and retaliation in the U.S. Forest Service. The day after that series aired, the head of the Forest Service suddenly stepped down.
When he is not out reporting in the field, Brangham is a regular interviewer on the NewsHour, and he has occasionally anchored the weekday and Weekend broadcasts.
During his career, Brangham has also worked on video projects for The New York Times, ABC News, National Geographic and Frontline. Prior to joining the NewsHour, he was a producer and correspondent for Need to Know on PBS, and before that, for Bill Moyers Journal. Brangham worked on several Moyers' documentary series in the 1990s, and was a producer on the critically acclaimed Now with Bill Moyers in the early 2000s.
In 2014, he was an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.
Brangham lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife and three children.
William’s Recent Stories
Nation Aug 05
Health care workers battle Louisiana’s COVID-19 surge, low vaccination ratesRight now, Louisiana has the nation’s highest per-capita infections, driven in large part by the extremely contagious delta variant. At the same time, Louisiana also has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country, and this week Gov. John…
Nation Jul 29
Idaho ranchers torn between hunting and deterrents for gray wolves harming their livestockThe grey wolf was once nearly hunted to extinction in the U.S. until the federal government put it on the endangered species list in 1974. 20 years later, it was successfully reintroduced to Idaho and Yellowstone. As pack numbers grew,…
Nation Jul 20
West U.S. wildfires are so extreme that they’re creating lightning, fire whirlsMore than 80 large fires are burning in 13 states across the U.S. currently, impacting nearly 1.3 million acres. One of the worst remains in Southern Oregon — the Bootleg Fire. It has been burning for two weeks and has…
Nation Jul 20
Californians scramble for fresh water as taps, wells run dryThe severe drought across the Western U.S. is already causing long term problems, exacerbated by the warming atmosphere driven by climate change. As William Brangham reports from California’s San Joaquin Valley, the demand for water has threatened the drinking supply…
World Jul 16
Climate models predicted extreme weather fluctuations. Can the damage be reversed?In western Germany this week, whole cities seem to be underwater after days of heavy rainfall filled rivers to capacity and quickly turned into flash flooding. As parts of Europe dig out of this latest weather disaster, the European Union…
Nation Jul 13
Oregon Bootleg Fire, nation’s largest, keeps doubling in sizeNational Interagency Fire Center reports more than 65 major fires in Western U.S. states that have burned close to a million acres so far. Thousands have fled their homes. The largest fire in the country is in Southern Oregon, and…
Health Jul 12
Is the Pfizer booster shot necessary to beat the delta variant? An expert weighs inPfizer's recent push to add a booster shot to its COVID-19 vaccination protocol seems to be at odds with what many people understood about the drug's effectiveness. And, as William Brangham reports, it has also prompted real concern among healthcare…
Nation Jul 09
Heatwaves are becoming more common. Here’s how the U.S. must plan for themExtreme heat and drought are baking the Western U.S. and Canada again this week, following hundreds of heat-related deaths in the Pacific Northwest last week. Record-breaking temperatures are expected to return to California over the weekend, including in the San…
Nation Jul 06
Surfside investigator on uncovering the collapse’s ‘trigger’ and what earlier reports meanThere are still many questions about what happened at the Champlain Towers in Surfside, Florida. Earlier warnings regarding needed repair work are prompting questions about the original design and construction, and whether cost concerns eclipsed risk concerns. William Brangham discusses…
Nation Jun 29
Highly contagious delta variant on path to become dominant strain in the U.S.The U.S. is in a far better place this summer than many other countries witnessing new COVID cases. But the delta variant of the virus — now expected to become the dominant strain in the U.S. — is posing serious…