Katie Worth

Former Reporter

Katie Worth likes to tell stories about science, politics, and their myriad intersections. She began her professional life as a beat reporter at the Pacific Daily News on Guam, and later worked as an enterprise reporter for the San Francisco Examiner. Her work has appeared in Scientific American, National Geographic, Slate, The Wall Street Journal andThe Best American Science and Nature Writing anthology.

Worth joined the Boston-based FRONTLINE team in 2015 as the inaugural FRONTLINE-Columbia Tow Journalism Fellow, and for the next six years worked on special investigative projects for the series — including a one-year stint in Milwaukee as an O’Brien Fellow in Public Service Journalism. She led reporting endeavors in print, film, interactive, audio and virtual reality. As a senior reporter at FRONTLINE, her work included providing guidance and resources to a corps of reporting fellows. She held leadership roles in both FRONTLINE and WGBH’s diversity, equity and inclusion committees, efforts she considers essential to the future of journalism.

Among the major enterprise projects Worth led are the mobile interactive “The Virus at Sea,” climate investigation “Deflect, Delay, Defer” the longform narrative “Framed for Murder by His Own DNA,” and the enterprise investigation “Zika Uncontained,” the last of which was a finalist for the NIHCM Research and Journalism Awards. She co-produced the cinematic interactive story “The Last Generation,” a collaboration with GroundTruth that has been awarded an Emmy for “Outstanding New Approaches: Documentary,” a World Press Photo award as “Interactive of the Year,” a Webby for “Best Use of Interactive Video,” an Online Journalism Award for “Excellence and Innovation in Visual Storytelling,” a Scripps Howard Award for Multimedia Journalism, and a National Academy of Science Communication Award. It was also cited in the duPont-Columbia University Gold Baton award and the Overseas Press Club “Kim Wall Award.” She also is the author of the forthcoming book “MISEDUCATION: How Climate Change is Taught in America,” to be published by Columbia Global Reports.

Twitter:

@katieworth

Email:

FrontlineEditors@wgbh.org

Languages Spoken:

Spanish

Location:

Boston, MA

Areas of Expertise:

Politics science

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“Deflect, Delay, Defer”: Decade of Pacific Gas & Electric Wildfire Safety Pushback Preceded Disasters
A FRONTLINE review of documents and hearings shows that Pacific Gas & Electric spent the better part of 10 years fiercely resisting calls for critical wildfire safety reforms.
August 18, 2020
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The Virus At Sea
A dream vacation turned deadly as COVID-19 spread through a cruise ship. Explore the story told via the cell phone videos, journals and texts of a man stuck at sea.
July 1, 2020
Idaho high school teacher introduces the concept of climate change by taking his students to the forest.
Inside Idaho’s Long Legislative Battle Over Climate Change Education
What schools should teach kids about climate change — or whether to teach it at all — has become hotly disputed in at least a dozen states. But rarely has that debate been more contentious or long-lasting than in Idaho.
December 20, 2019
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After Deadly Fire, Regulators and Consumers Question PG&E Blackouts
PG&E says power cuts are the best way to prevent devastating wildfires during California’s most fire-prone time of year. Yet many of the company’s customers, watchdogs, and regulators say they are skeptical of the company’s motives. Two plans that have been proposed for the utility’s path out of bankruptcy include a clause allowing the company's financiers to renegotiate or back out if PG&E ignites another fire that burns more than 500 homes. A new tragedy could also hurt victims of previous fires.
November 15, 2019
Climate Walk In Katowice, Poland
Aspirational Climate Goal Embraced at U.N. Talks, But Not by U.S.
The debate pits the United States and three other fossil-fuel-producing nations against much of the rest of the world.
December 11, 2018
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Camp Fire Children Face Trauma of Climate Change At Home, School
The more than 4,500 schoolchildren displaced by the deadly Camp Fire are part of a new generation that will be disproportionately traumatized by the havoc wreaked by climate change, researchers say.
December 3, 2018
AAA Predicts The Busiest Thanksgiving Travel Period In Nine Years
In Shift, Key Climate Denialist Group Heartland Institute Pivots to Policy
The pivot comes at a paradoxical moment: There has never been more evidence that humans are altering the climate; nor has Heartland’s message to the contrary ever enjoyed a more sympathetic ear in the White House.
November 2, 2018
Teacher Protests Arizona
Dueling Books Compete to Educate Kids on Climate Change
November 2, 2018
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Framed for Murder By His Own DNA
We leave traces of our genetic material everywhere, even on things we’ve never touched. That got Lukis Anderson charged with a brutal crime he didn’t commit.
April 19, 2018
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The Last Generation
Explore an island nation threatened by climate change through the eyes of three children who call call it home. FRONTLINE and The GroundTruth Project present "The Last Generation."
April 6, 2018
There's one kindergarten teacher, 38 students in this Detroit class
Mailings to Teachers Highlight a Political Fight Over Climate Change in the Classroom
A rare back-and-forth of direct mailings to teachers demonstrates how classrooms have emerged as a battleground in the American political war over climate change.
March 23, 2018
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A Dispatch from Bonn: How Germany Uses Morality to Teach Climate Change
Over the last 15 years, teaching climate change has become a central aim of the German education system. And German schools don’t simply teach the scientific concepts underpinning climate change, but urge students to think about how to fix it.
November 22, 2017