2026 Awards

The 2026 Goldsmith Awards ceremony was held on Thursday, April 9th at Harvard Kennedy School. It featured a keynote conversation with Jeffrey Goldberg, Editor in Chief of The Atlantic and the winner of the 2026 Goldsmith Career Award, as well as the awarding of the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting, the Goldsmith Prize for Explanatory Reporting, and the Goldsmith Book Prizes.

The ceremony was held in front of a live audience of invited guests and Harvard community members at the JFK Jr. Forum at Harvard Kennedy School.

Watch the livestream of the ceremony below:

Ceremony Date

April 9, 2026

Note

The Goldsmith Prizes are funded by an annual gift from the Goldsmith Fund of the Greenfield Foundation.

2026 Award and Prize Winners

Winner, Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting
Exposed and Expendable
Hannah Dreier and the staff of the New York Times
As wildfires swept through Los Angeles in January 2025, New York Times reporter Hannah Dreier noticed something strange – firefighters were working bare-faced for days on end, while residents were told to wear masks or stay indoors to protect themselves from dangerous air pollutants.
Winner, Goldsmith Book Prize: Academic
The American Mirage: How Reality TV Upholds the Myth of Meritocracy
Eunji Kim
Winner, Goldsmith Book Prize: Trade
Troublemaker: The Fierce, Unruly Life of Jessica Mitford
Carla Kaplan
Winner, Goldsmith Prize for Explanatory Reporting
Power Struggle: What Stalled the Northwest’s Push for Green Energy?
Monica Samayoa and Tony Schick | Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) in collaboration with ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network
Winner, Goldsmith Career Award
Jeffrey Goldberg

Finalists for Goldsmith Investigative Reporting Prize

Finalist, Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting
Abuse of Power: Beyond the Goon Squad
Brian Howey, Nate Rosenfield, Mukta Joshi, Jerry Mitchell, Steph Quinn, Sarah Cohen | Mississippi Today, The New York Times
Finalist, Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting
Hope Florida
Alexandra Glorioso, Lawrence Mower, Justin Garcia | Tampa Bay Times, Miami Herald
Finalist, Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting
President Trump’s Self Enrichment
Eric Lipton, David Yaffe-Bellany, Ben Protess, Tripp Mickle, Bradley Hope, Paul Mozur, Andrea Fuller, Sharon LaFraniere, Seamus Hughes, Kenneth P. Vogel, Karen Yourish, Cecilia Kang, Ryan Mac, Theodore Schleifer, Charlie Smart, Elena Shao | The New York Times
Finalist, Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting
Rx Roulette
Debbie Cenziper, Megan Rose, Brandon Roberts | ProPublica
Finalist, Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting
VA Disability Benefits Investigation
Craig Whitlock, Lisa Rein, Caitlin Gilbert | The Washington Post

Investigative Prize Judges

All judges recused themselves from reviewing, voting on, or discussing any entries from their current employers, and any entries that they had a direct personal involvement in, regardless of employer or publisher.

Neela Banerjee

Chief Climate Editor, NPR; 2016 finalist for the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting

Betsy Fischer Martin

Executive Director, Women & Politics Institute, American University

Mike Greenfield

Founder and CEO of Change Research, President of the Greenfield Foundation

Corey Johnson

Reporter, ProPublica; 2022 finalist for the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting

Usha McFarling

Direcor, Knight Science Journalism Program at MIT

Jerry Mitchell

Investigative Reporter, Mississippi Today; 2024 finalist for the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting

Sacha Pfeiffer

Correspondent, NPR Investigations Team; 2003 winner of the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting

David Rousseau

Publisher and Executive Director, KFF Health News

Andrew Ba Tran

Investigative Data Reporter, The Washington Post; 2022 winner of the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting

Nancy Gibbs

Director, Shorenstein Center; former Editor in Chief of TIME (chair)