Friends in Pulitzer places

A long time ago in a city far, far away I became friends with a talented journalist called Natalie Obiko Pearson …

And I just found out she won the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Illustrated Reporting and Commentary!

A Pulitzer Prize! Blimey!

She won it along with two fellow contributors for “trAPPed”, which explored the growing global challenges of surveillance and digital scams.

Natalie is Bloomberg’s senior investigative reporter for Asia. Over the last two decades, she has reported in three languages from 20 countries.

In 2024, she was a co-finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in investigative reporting for “America, Global Gun Pusher,” a series that revealed how the US government promoted exports of American firearms and aided the spread of gun violence. 

When I met her back in 2008 she had just been been awarded a Knight-Bagehot fellowship at Columbia University. And my ex-husband had been awarded one too.

The pic above shows everyone in the 2008-9 Knight-Bagehot cohort. Natalie is the woman wearing a gold jacket at the front.

The Knight-Bagehot Fellowship is a mid-career program for journalists devoted to the study of business and economics. Fellows receive full tuition and a living stipend to attend Columbia University, on New York’s Upper West Side, for one academic year.

(As for why I wasn’t awarded a Knight-Bagehot fellowship, I will point you in the direction of a blog post I once wrote called OMG there was a GFC.)

During my ex-husband’s Fellowship year we lived in a two-bedroom apartment in this building near the university, called Butler Hall. 

It was a pretty amazing experience, despite coming at a pretty challenging period in my life. I was a bit PTSD from being forced out of my job, I’d just been diagnosed with multiple dissaccharide intolerances and I had a two-year-old and a four-year-old in tow … not to mention there being that pesky global financial crisis that sent the Australia dollar to historic lows and doubled the price of everything.

But that’s the stuff that makes or breaks you, and it didn’t break me so it must have made me.

The Knight-Bagehot Fellowship crew were a great bunch, we had such a good time with them. I could tell Natalie was going places, she was so smart, switched on and driven.

I haven’t spoken to her for ages, but I’ve watched her life and career unfold in my Facebook feed and I’m incredibly proud of what she has achieved.

Go you good thing!

Song of the day: Bruce Springsteen “Glory Days”