WKU Journalism Professor and award-winning journalist Becca Andrews brought in two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist John Archibald to discuss the creation of their investigative podcast “American Shrapnel.”
The discussion between Andrews, Archibald, and the audience took place Thursday in Jody Richards Hall Auditorium. WKU History Professor Katherine Lennard facilitated the conversation.
Archibald and Andrews, alongside their executive producer at Alabama Media Group, John Hammontree, have been working on “American Shrapnel” for over three years, a podcast Andrews described as “a true crime cinnamon roll with political protein.” The podcast’s final episode was released on Sept. 3.
“American Shrapnel” follows the story of Eric Rudolph, also known as the Olympic Park Bomber, a serial bomber active between 1996 and 1998. Motivated by white supremacist ideology, as well as the Christian Identity movement, he is known for bombing the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics, two abortion clinics and a lesbian bar. He is responsible for the deaths of two people, as well as the injuries of over 100 others. At the time, the manhunt for Rudolph was the largest in the United States, culminating in his arrest and imprisonment in 2003.
Throughout the hour-long event, Archibald and Andrews detailed various parts of the investigative process, from combing through unreleased FBI files to speaking to Jermaine Hughes, the college student who witnessed Rudolph leaving the scene of the abortion clinic bombing.
Archibald and Andrews were chosen together by Hammontree to tell this story. Andrews has a background as a journalist focusing on “…gender, reproductive health care, American evangelicalism, and right-wing extremism,” according to becca-andrews.com, and Archibald covered Rudolph’s manhunt in 1998.
“It just felt like a good opportunity to kind of throw us together and see what we came up with. And you know, like the story, just kind of did what stories do, and (took) on a life of its own,” Andrews said.
“American Shrapnel” is also about the dangers of political extremism in a time when it is loud and rampant in our society, said both Archibald and Andrews.
“Rudolph never answered our questions or requests for interviews,” Andrews said. “This podcast is not about him.”
“American Shrapnel” details a rise in particularly white male anger, drawing parallels to language used in the courtroom today, Archibald said in an interview with the Herald.
“(We) wanted to hide the story of the rise of Christian nationalism and white nationalism in a true crime podcast,” Archibald said. “So we hope we’re saying more than the story of this guy, but the story of America.”
The event concluded in enthusiastic chatter, the distribution of bookmarks and words of wisdom for aspiring young journalists.
“My message to any journalist would be get out there and look in unexpected places,” Archibald said. “If it gives you chills, write it down.”
