Vann R. Newkirk II is a senior editor at The Atlantic, and the host and co-creator of narrative podcasts “Floodlines” and “Holy Week.” For years, Newkirk has covered voting rights, democracy, and environmental justice, with a focus on how race and class shape the country’s and the world’s fundamental structures, in print and audio. Newkirk was a 2022 Andrew Carnegie Fellow, a 2020 James Beard Award finalist, a 2020 11th Hour Fellow at New America, and a 2018 recipient of the American Society of Magazine Editors' ASME Next Award. In 2021, Newkirk received the Peabody Award for “Floodlines.” In 2024, Newkirk was named journalist of the year by the Washington Association of Black Journalists.