Dying Early: America’s Life Expectancy Crisis

This award-winning series examines why the erosion of life expectancy in the United States is deeper and broader than widely recognized, afflicting a far-reaching swath of the nation.

• An epidemic of chronic illness is killing us too soon
• Stress is weathering our bodies from the inside out
• PostReports podcast episode: Why are so many Americans dying early?
  

The Coronavirus Pandemic 

Johnson’s coverage examining covid-19’s toll on Black Americans at ProPublica won a George Polk award, National Magazine award and was Pulitzer finalist.

• Early Data Shows African Americans Have Contracted and Died of Coronavirus at an Alarming Rate
• The First 100: COVID-19 Took Black Lives First. It Didn’t Have To.
• How COVID-19 Hollowed Out a Generation of Young Black Men

She continued covering the tool the pandemic took on communities of color at The Washington Post.

• Death in the prime of life: Covid-19 proves especially lethal to younger Latinos
• In Alaska Native villages and across communities of color, the enduring silence of grief
• Whites now more likely to die from covid than Blacks: Why the pandemic shifted
• In communities of color, long-covid patients are tired of being sick and neglected
  

Maternal Health

A candid and award-winning series exploration of how doulas improve Black women’s birth outcomes and the limits of their ability to safeguard against mistreatment and harm.

• She knows the ache of losing a baby. Her calling is to help other Black moms.
• For some Black women, the fear of death shadows the joy of birth
• PostReports podcast episode: The fight to keep Black moms and babies alive
  

Boston. Racism. Image. Reality.

 A 2018 Pulitzer Finalist in Local Reporting. This Spotlight Team seven-part series tried to answer a question critical to the city’s identity and future: Does Boston still deserve its reputation as a place unwelcoming to blacks?

Unbowed

A generation of black youth struggle with Obama’s legacy and their future.