Nora Saks, the reporter and host for Montana Public Radio’s Richest Hill podcast has been awarded the 2019 Daniel Schorr Journalism Prize.

Richest Hill dives deep into the history of Butte, MT to tell the colorful and complicated story of how the city became one of America’s most notorious Superfund sites. Nora and producer Nick Mott have released 8 episodes in the 10 part series.

“It’s great to see Nora’s hard work and talent recognized,” MTPR News Director Corin Cates-Carney said. “Her work on the Richest Hill podcast is an outstanding journalistic service to MTPR listeners and audiences around the country.”

The Schorr Prize is named for the late NPR senior news analyst and veteran Washington journalist Daniel Schorr. Schorr was a believer in supporting talented young journalists as they rose through the ranks of public radio. The annual prize — sponsored by WBUR and Boston University, and funded by Jim and Nancy Bildner — salutes a new generation of public radio journalists under the age of 35, seeking to inspire them to stretch the boundaries of the medium.

“Richest Hill is consistently excellent, and Nora set a high bar for young reporters and storytellers to aspire to. She hooked me with a story that I didn’t even know I cared about,” said Lynette Clemetson, director of the Wallace House, University of Michigan, who served as the prize’s finalist judge.

Nora will be presented with the prize at a virtual event for The Edward R. Murrow Society, on Tuesday, September 15.

Past Schorr Prize winners include  WBEZ producer Becky Vevea; KUNC reporter Grace Hood; NPR host David Greene; NPR reporter Ailsa Chang; reporter Chana Joffe-Walt, who covers global economics for NPR’s multimedia project Planet Money; former NPR defense correspondent Guy Raz, host of How I Built This and the TED Radio Hour; and NPR investigative correspondent Laura Sullivan.

We want to say a huge thank you to everyone who came out to the Covellite Theatre to help us launch and celebrate Richest Hill!

Butte is poised for a lot of action this year. It’s a town going through a major transition while wrestling with big questions about its future. Our goal is to follow these developments closely and to look at Butte with a fresh perspective. We want to get to the heart of what’s going on, and you can help us get it right.