Dan Schwartz is a reporter who specializes in narrative journalism. Sometimes his work is investigative, such as the 18-month-long probe into the American railroad industry that he collaborated on with ProPublica. That project won an Edward R. Murrow award, and Dan gave an interview about the work to NPR's Morning Edition. Other times it's expository, such as a cover story he did for Popular Mechanics into the supply-chain failures of American organ donation. Dan seeks stories he can ground in documents, data, or evidentiary interviews. Right now, with support from the Pulitzer Center, he's working on a story about organized crime in Japan.
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Dan reports mostly for magazines these days but started his career at daily papers in Alaska, New Mexico, and Vermont, winning awards along the way for unearthing government corruption and dogging environmental
regulators. He honed his craft in a master's program at the Missouri School of Journalism, where he worked as a fellow with the Pulitzer Center and as a researcher for Investigative Reporters and Editors.
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Dan has an undergraduate degree in outdoor education. Back in the day, he worked as a mountain guide. He doesn’t guide anymore but has kept his skills sharp, and when he's not writing he may be found outside, depending on the season and topography, backcountry skiing or ice climbing or rock climbing or mountain biking or trail running or, to his mother’s chagrin, dirt biking. She’s right to worry. Motorcycles are dangerous.
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Dan lives with his wife in a 677-square-foot cabin in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California.
