previous work

some of my recent writing:

Summer in the South Is Becoming Unbearable, The Atlantic (July 2023)
The Modern-Day Company Towns of Arkansas, The American Prospect (August 2022 issue)
Night-time heat is killing crops. Scientists are rushing to find resilient plants, The Guardian (September 2022)
We're Off to see the Waltons, Dwell (June 2022)
How a credit union is building a new vision of financial justice, Sojourners Magazine (May 2022 issue)
The Black press provides a model for how mainstream news can better cover racism, The Washington Post (February 2022)

I've written a lot of different things for a lot of different publications. My favorite stories are ones that tug on the threads connecting people, place, and labor.

The politics of progress in Walmart's company town (2018)
Food, power, and place in Northwest Arkansas (2020)
The disastrous opening of one Arkansas school district (2021)
Women who farm are finally getting counted (2019)
Coronavirus could usher in a new era of local, sustainable eating (2020)
New Bern's poor residents still bear Florence's burden (2018)
How the last presidential election changed rural organizing in the South (2020)
Descendants of Elaine Massacre victims push for restorative justice (2020)
How to reverse the rural South's rising incarceration rate (2020)

Often, I bring a historical lens to these same topics.

The Coin Standard (2021)
Consider the chicken: What history can tell us about the future of alternative meats (2022)
The bitter history behind the highways occupied by protestors (2020)
Arkansas' Phillips County remembers the racial massacre America forgot (2019)
How to change policy without politicians (2019)
The long road to nuclear justice for the Marshallese people (2021)
Preserving food, practicing politics: The activism of Black women in rural Arkansas (2019)

During the pandemic, I have been focused on investigative projects covering industry and labor, with a special eye towards the South's poultry industry.

Business interests monopolize Arkansas' Economic Recovery Task Force
Workers say Arkansas' poultry giants aren't protecting them from Covid-19
Families of Tyson workers with Covid-19 condemn company's labor practices
Covid pounded Arkansas poultry workers as government & industry looked on
George's & other mid-sized poultry companies struggled to control Covid-19
George's poultry workers walk out in Arkansas to protest Covid-19 conditions
Emails show Tyson's sway over Arkansas mayor during Covid surge in plants

I've written at length about rural health care access. These stories featured data journalism and data visualization, all by me.

The rural South lost 13 hospitals in 2020 (2021)
Covid-19 exposes the precarious state of rural health care in the South (2020)
Here's what's driving the rural South's Covid-19 outbreaks (2020)
Covid-19 is already gutting the South's health care infrastructure (2020)
An Appalachian hospital merger exposes tensions over rural health care access (2019)

I'm also well-versed in politics & policy reporting, from national and regional angles.

How rural Black organizers helped Democrats win the Senate (2020)
Young people might actually turn out for the midterms (2018)
The problem with Pence's new talking point (2018)
Why there's no Democrat running against Tom Cotton (2019)
A record number of Black Southerners could be elected to the Senate (2020)
A brief history of Roger Stone (2019)

Finally, I've written a bit about religion — and I'd like to write more. Commission me for these pieces!

The Berrigan Option (2018)
The Vatican swoops in (2018)
I'll Fly Away (2016)
Social distancing as spiritual practice (2020)

There's much more where that came from, but in the interest of relative brevity: if you liked what you read here, hit the button in the corner to get updates when I publish next.

If you're an editor, chances are I want to write for you! Feel free to reach out: olivia.paschal13@gmail.com