Hannah Dreier is the winner of the 21st annual Michael Kelly Award for her series “Alone and Exploited,” published by The New York Times in 2023. Dreier’s sweeping and groundbreaking investigation into migrant child labor in the United States brought a “new economy of exploitation” to national attention.

In their commendation, the judges describe Dreier’s reporting as tenacious and impactful, and note her “sheer doggedness in uncovering this scandal.” Dreier is a Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative reporter for the Times, as well as a two-time Michael Kelly Award finalist. She will be awarded a prize of $25,000.

Given annually by The Atlantic, the Michael Kelly Award honors journalists whose work exemplifies “the fearless pursuit and expression of truth,” qualities that defined Michael Kelly’s own life and career. Kelly was the first journalist killed while covering the Iraq War, in 2003. He served as editor of The Atlantic and National Journal when both magazines were publications of Atlantic Media, chaired by David G. Bradley. Bradley created the award in Kelly’s honor.

Journalists from three other news organizations were recognized as finalists, and each will receive a $3,000 award: Georgea Kovanis and Mandi Wright, at the Detroit Free Press, for their intimate portrait of a heroin and fentanyl addict amid the opioid crisis; Philip Obaji Jr., at the Daily Beast, for his reporting on the Wagner Group’s shady operations in the Central African Republic; and a team of more than 75 journalists at The Washington Post, for their deep dive into the rise of the AR-15.

Five judges selected the winner and the finalists: Jenisha Watts, a senior editor at The Atlantic; Toby Lester, a senior editor at Harvard Business Review; James Warren, the executive editor of NewsGuard; Ena Alvarado, a writer and former assistant editor at The Atlantic; and Cullen Murphy, the editor at large of The Atlantic.

A list of the past winners and finalists, as well as remembrances of Kelly from friends and colleagues, can be found at www.michaelkellyaward.com.

Press Contact:
Anna Bross | The Atlantic
press@theatlantic.com

Today The Atlantic is launching Atlantic Labs, a research and development site from the product and technology team. The product team will use this space to incubate ideas, many using AI, to understand how The Atlantic can benefit from emerging technologies. This is a destination for works in progress and prototypes, and to test––and learn from––new technologies.

There are three projects on the site at launch: Atlantic Companion, a chatbot with access to The Atlantic’s 167-year archive, that delivers a list of relevant articles when given a prompt; Atlantic Take, a Chrome extension designed to surface related Atlantic stories wherever you’re browsing on the internet; and Atlantic Explorer, a guided journey through thematic articles. With time and testing, these projects may help the product team improve existing features or develop new tools to benefit our staff and readers. (Atlantic Labs is independent from our journalism, and does not involve our editorial team; additionally, while these projects use gen-AI, AI is not being used to create The Atlantic’s journalism.)

Projects from Atlantic Labs

In working with emerging technologies, things will occasionally glitch or break––and, in the process, teach us something new. Labs was developed as a stand-alone site so that it can be an experimental sandbox––a place to incubate ideas without directly affecting the places where people normally read and listen to The Atlantic.

Atlantic Labs is open to anyone, with registration required. Press with questions may reach out to Anna Bross, SVP of communications for The Atlantic, at press@theatlantic.com.

This election is the moment of truth. In The Atlantic’s final cover story ahead of the election, staff writer Tom Nichols lays out why “the votes cast in November will be more consequential than those in any other American election in more than a century”—because every essential norm and duty that George Washington established for the U.S. presidency could come to an end if Donald Trump is reelected. Trump is “Washington’s Nightmare”—the tyrant the first president feared, and one more capable now of finishing the authoritarian project he began in his first term.

Among Washington’s countless accomplishments and heroic actions, Nichols also focuses on what Washington would not do: “As a military officer, Washington refused to take part in a plot to overthrow Congress. As a victorious general, he refused to remain in command after the war had ended. As president, he refused to hold on to an office that he did not believe belonged to him. His insistence on the rule of law and his willingness to return power to its rightful owners—the people of the United States—are among his most enduring gifts to the nation and to democratic civilization.” The 44 men who succeeded him in office adhered to Washington’s example and those norms—all except Trump.

Nichols writes: “Trump and his authoritarian political movement represent an existential threat to every ideal that Washington cherished and encouraged in his new nation. They are the incarnation of Washington’s misgivings about populism, partisanship, and the ‘spirit of revenge’ that Washington lamented as the animating force of party politics. Washington feared that, amid constant political warfare, some citizens would come to ‘seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual,’ and that eventually a demagogue would exploit that sentiment.”

Nichols writes that America stands at such a moment with this election: “Trump has left no doubt about his intentions; he practically shouts them every chance he gets.” He continues, “As we judge the candidates, we should give thought to Washington’s example, and to three of Washington’s most important qualities and the traditions they represent: his refusal to use great power for his own ends, his extraordinary self-command, and, most of all, his understanding that national leaders in a democracy are only temporary stewards of a cause far greater than themselves.”

Nichols concludes: “Washington’s character and record ensured that almost any of his successors would seem smaller by comparison. But the difference between Washington and Trump is so immense as to be unmeasurable. No president in history, not even the worst moral weaklings among them, is further from Washington than Trump. Washington prized patience and had, as Adams put it, ‘the gift of silence’; Trump is ruled by his impulses and afflicted with verbal incontinence. Washington was uncomplaining; Trump whines incessantly. Washington was financially and morally incorruptible; Trump is a grifter and a crude libertine who still owes money to a woman he was found liable for sexually assaulting. Washington was a general of preternatural bravery who grieved the sacrifices of his men; Trump thinks that fallen soldiers are ‘losers’ and ‘suckers.’ Washington personally took up arms to stop a rebellion against the United States; Trump encouraged one.”

Tom Nichols’s “Washington’s Nightmare” was published today at TheAtlantic.com. Please reach out with any questions or requests to interview Nichols on his reporting.

Press Contacts:
Anna Bross and Paul Jackson | The Atlantic
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