“Taking Cover” radio series wins 2024 MRE Journalism Contest

Tom Bowman is a NPR National Desk reporter covering the Pentagon. He is also a co-host of NPR’s Taking Cover podcast. In his current role, Bowman has traveled to Syria as well as Iraq and Afghanistan often for month-long visits and embeds with U.S. Marines and soldiers. Bowman is a co-winner of a 2006 National Headliners’ Award for stories on the lack of advanced tourniquets for U.S. troops in Iraq. In 2010, he received an Edward R. Murrow Award for his coverage of a Taliban roadside bomb attack on an Army unit. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in history from St. Michael’s College in Winooski, Vermont, and a master’s degree in American Studies from Boston College.

Graham Smith co-hosts Taking Cover. He is a Senior Producer on NPR’s Investigations team and winner of the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Audio Reporting. Smith joined NPR in 2003 as Supervising Senior Producer of All Things Considered. Over the years, he’s field produced and reported from many countries, including Iraq, Afghanistan, Sierra Leone and Lebanon. He’s recorded athletes skiing at Olympic venues, sought shrimp in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, helped solve a civil-rights era cold case and lost his lunch flying with U.S. Marines on their controversial Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft. He also teaches part time at George Washington University.