EDITORIAL STAFF

Bonnie Bertram

Bonnie Bertram is a senior producer at Retro Report and the lead producer and Pulitzer Center grantee for Retro Report’s five-part series “Hitting Home,” about housing and evictions during the coronavirus pandemic.

Her short film on vaccine hesitancy, distributed in partnership with The New York Times, was nominated for a News and Documentary Emmy Award. She was the Co-Executive Producer of the primetime series “Retro Report on PBS.” Her 2017 story on sexual harassment was featured as a “Webby for Good,” her short film about the McDonald’s coffee lawsuit was nominated for a Syracuse University Mirror Award, and she wrote and produced a short film in partnership with PBS Frontline on the history of Guanánamo Bay’s extrajudicial legal status.

Bonnie spent much of her career as a producer at CNN and has also worked at Time.com and Bloomberg TV. Her articles have appeared in Vanity Fair, the International Herald Tribune, The Daily Beast, and elsewhere. She is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley.

@BonnieBertram
Image from Burden of Richmond Evictions Weighs Heaviest in Black Neighborhoods
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Burden of Richmond Evictions Weighs Heaviest in Black Neighborhoods

An eviction moratorium has slowed filings in cities like Richmond, but it hasn’t stopped them, and Black tenants are at highest risk.
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How Decades of Housing Discrimination Hurts Fresno in the Pandemic

Decades of discrimination in Fresno laid the groundwork for a housing crisis today.
Image from New York Tenants Are Organizing Against Evictions, as They Did in the Great Depression
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New York Tenants Are Organizing Against Evictions, as They Did in the Great Depression

Activists concerned about pandemic-related homelessness are seeking rent relief. In the 1930s, tenants banded together against evictions.
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Tenants Facing Eviction Over Covid-19 Look to a 1970s Solution

An idea from a tenant rebellion in the 70s could help renters facing eviction.
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Combating the Myth of the Superpredator

In the 1990s, a handful of researchers inspired panic with a dire but flawed prediction: the imminent arrival of a new breed of “superpredators.”
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The Misunderstood McDonald's Hot Coffee Lawsuit

Stella Liebeck was vilified when she was awarded millions after spilling McDonald’s coffee in her lap. Her complaint sounded frivolous. But the facts told another story.
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How Fear of the Measles Vaccine Took Hold

Skepticism and fear surrounding vaccines were fed by a flawed study done in 1998 linking the MMR vaccine to autism. The study was quickly discredited, we’re still dealing with the repercussions.
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Tabletop to Tablet: Using Dungeons & Dragons to Combat Screen Addiction

The role-playing game ​D​ungeons ​&​ ​D​ragons​, once at the center of a moral panic, is now seen as a counterbalance to the problem of screen addiction.
Image from Tabletop to Tablet: Using Dungeons & Dragons to Combat Screen Addiction
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Tabletop to Tablet: Using Dungeons & Dragons to Combat Screen Addiction

​The role-playing game ​D​ungeons ​&​ ​D​ragons​, once at the center of a moral panic, is now seen as a counterbalance to the problem of screen addiction.
Image from Trump, Measles, and a Study That Fueled Fear
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Trump, Measles, and a Study That Fueled Fear

President Donald Trump has long been a critic of childhood vaccines – but then he suddenly changed course, urging parents to vaccinate their children.
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Perp Walks: When Police Roll Out the Blue Carpet

Perp walk: Unfair maneuver or a strong warning to would-be criminals?
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Anita Hill Testified in 1991. But How Much Has Changed?

Accusations by Professor Christine Blasey Ford against Judge Brett Kavanaugh in his Supreme Court confirmation hearing, have us looking back at Anita Hill’s 1991 testimony in the hearing of U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas.
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The Rise of SWAT: How Cops Became Soldiers

As police have become more militarized, the role of SWAT teams has morphed – from use in emergency situations to fighting the drug war.
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'Why Hasn't Sexual Harassment Disappeared?'

From naming the problem in the 1970s, to bringing it out of the shadows in the 90s, to a growing accountability today – the evolution of sexual harassment in the workplace.
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Reproductive Rights and the Women Who Sparked a Movement

As the U.S. tightens restrictions on women’s reproductive health, the new season of The Handmaid’s Tale seems more relevant than ever. We look back on a group of women who broke sexual taboos in the 1970s, and how the fight over women’s bodies continues today.
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Suing the President: The Students Who Challenged the Travel Ban

With the release of Donald Trump’s new travel ban, a brief look at a Yale group that fought the original ban.
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Forever Prison

Guantanamo Bay has become a symbol of the war on terror, but its story actually begins a decade before, when it was first used to detain thousands of Haitians outside the reach of U.S. law. This story was created in collaboration with NPR and PBS, FRONTLINE.
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Activating a Generation: From Live Aid to the Ice Bucket Challenge

Thirty years after “Live Aid” changed the face of charity fundraising, clicktivism has taken center stage. If you share, re-tweet and like, are you making the world a better place?
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The Outrage Machine

In the digital age, where everyday people can suddenly become public enemy number one, how do we strike the balance between keeping free speech alive online and preventing a cyber mob from taking over?
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Growing up Gygax - The Son of D&D's Creator

Dungeons and Dragons co-creator Gary Gygax’s son explains what life was like in a household where D&D took center stage.
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Junot Díaz and the D&D Revolution

Why Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Junot Díaz says playing Dungeons and Dragons was a revolution.
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Hillary Clinton and the Superpredator

Wondering what the Hillary Clinton/superpredator brouhaha is all about? Here’s the cliff notes…
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How a Standoff with the Black Panthers Fueled the Rise of SWAT

SWAT teams were created in the 1960s to combat violent events. Since then, the specialized teams have morphed into a force increasingly used in routine policing, most often to serve drug warrants,sometimes with disastrous results. Which raises the question – are we too militarized?
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Transgender Rights: A Decades-long Struggle for Equality

More than 50 years after Stonewall, many transgender people are still struggling for inclusion, even amongst the LGBT community.
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Searching for Better Answers

On the heels of a national measles scare, Google announced that it is refining its search results for hundreds of medical conditions to show only vetted resources and web sites.
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Stealing J. Edgar Hoover's Secrets

Long before Edward Snowden, there was the greatest heist you’ve never heard of. On March 8, 1971, a group of eight Vietnam War protestors broke into a Federal Bureau of Investigation field office in Media, Pennsylvania and stole hundreds of government documents that shocked a nation.
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