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 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…
Nation Jun 25
What Chauvin’s 22.5 year sentence could mean for changing police behaviorMore than a year after George Floyd's murder set off national protests and a racial reckoning, former police officer Derek Chauvin was sentenced to 22.5 years in prison by a Minnesota judge Friday. Special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro begins…
Health Jun 24
U.S. life expectancy sees ‘massive’ decline, especially in Black and brown communitiesA new study found that between 2018 and 2020, U.S. life expectancy decreased by the biggest margin since World War II. The pandemic took an outsized toll in America compared to other countries, with life expectancy as a whole dropping…
Nation Jun 23
A leaked UN report warns ‘worst is yet to come’ on climate change. Here’s how you can helpA leaked draft report from the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change paints the starkest picture yet of the accelerating danger caused by human use of coal, oil, and gas. It warns of coming unlivable heat waves, widespread hunger…
Nation Jun 18
Despite improving conditions, COVID will ‘scar’ a generation of health care workersOn Thursday night, we looked at problems in Louisiana, where COVID-19 vaccination rates are lagging behind the rest of the country. William Brangham now turns focus to how vaccines have improved life dramatically in New York, but the toll on…
Health Jun 17
In Louisiana, government skepticism is hurting vaccination rates. Will incentives help?While COVID-19 vaccination rates in some parts of the country are approaching nearly 70%, other areas are seeing rates flatten or even decline. As William Brangham reports, vaccinations in the southern U.S. have been especially slow, with no southern state…
World Jun 14
Are the G-7 pledges to combat climate change enough? An expert weighs inAs carbon emissions build up in the atmosphere more than ever before in human history, western leaders at the Group of Seven summit pledged to reduce their use of coal, lower their overall emissions, and help nations most impacted by…
World Jun 11
An endangered elephant herd is taking a mysterious trek in China. Are humans to blame?It’s not a sight you see every day -- a herd of elephants, leaving their home turf, making their way through southwestern China, most recently stopping in a city with millions of residents. But that’s what’s happening right now. William…