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
Health May 01
Economic strain drives more states to lift pandemic restrictionsAs May dawns, more of the country is lifting restrictions intended to slow the spread of COVID-19. With more than 30 million people filing for unemployment in the past six weeks, some states are desperate to open businesses and have…
Health Apr 22
Why New York’s health care system is still ‘in a state of shock’New York state is seeing signs of improvement in its COVID-19 outbreak, including a reduced hospitalization rate. But in New York City alone, an estimated 35,000 people are hospitalized with the virus -- meaning front-line health care staff still face…
World Apr 20
Crowds gather to protest restrictions, but health experts issue grim warningHealth Apr 07
What these New York EMTs are seeing as they respond to COVID-19 casesNew York remains the epicenter of the U.S. coronavirus outbreak. Medical teams there are facing a surge of seriously ill patients, and doing so while concerned about their own level of protection from the disease. William Brangham talks to Adam…
Health Apr 01
Should everyone be wearing a mask to protect against coronavirus?Face masks are critical protection for medical workers caring for COVID-19 patients, but should everyone else also be wearing them? So far, federal health officials have warned against the general public wearing face masks when outside the home, but that…
Nation Mar 24
2 views on balancing medical risk and economic painThe tragedies we see playing out in Italy and around the world are why most public health officials say it’s far too soon to plan when people can return to work. But President Trump says he wants to see much…
Health Mar 04
As virus deaths rise, Congress agrees on $8.3 billion to fund public responseThe novel coronavirus has claimed more lives in the U.S., with a total of 10 deaths in Washington state and one in California. As the number of infections also continues to rise, the House and Senate have agreed on a…
Health Mar 03
With novel coronavirus deaths rising, health officials face grilling on Capitol HillAs states discover increasing numbers of new novel coronavirus cases, public health officials are scrambling to respond -- while also facing questions from a Senate panel on Tuesday about why the U.S. has been so slow to roll out effective…
Health Jan 24
With growing coronavirus outbreak, is China’s massive quarantine the right response?China is still struggling to contain its growing coronavirus outbreak, which has now killed at least 41 and infected 900 more. The virus has spread to seven countries, with a second case confirmed in the U.S. Hospitals in the Chinese…
Health Jan 24
Drug company executives face prison time for role in opioid epidemicThursday, several executives at Insys Therapeutics were sentenced to prison for a bribery scheme that paid doctors to prescribe the company’s lucrative and addictive painkiller. These sentences are a landmark moment in the push to hold drug makers accountable for…