NORA
SAKS
Audio Journalist
About Me
My going concern is Richest Hill,
Montana Public Radio's narrative podcast about the past, present and future
of one of America's most notorious Superfund sites.
I am humbled to have been awarded the 2020 Daniel Schorr Journalism Prize for Richest Hill. The finalist judge said “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.”
The New Yorker called Richest Hill a "must-listen" and one of the best podcasts of 2019, and said I have "brio", which I had to look up in the dictionary.
Over the last 4+ years at Montana Public Radio, I've helped produce a couple of other terrific podcasts [Threshold and SubSurface]. And I've reported on everything from the health impacts of long-term exposure to wildfire smoke, to an
Irish-style wake for thousands of martyred snow geese.
In 2017, I was a news intern at KFSK, a public radio station in Southeast Alaska.
That summer, I tagged along with humpback whale researchers,
visited a Tlingit culture camp, and hosted Morning Edition every weekday.
My work has been heard on NPR, Montana Public Radio, Yellowstone Public Radio, Alaska Public Media, the CoastAlaska network, the Alaska Fisheries Report, and has been published in the Washington Post,
the Associated Press, and the Missoulian.
My radio pieces have won awards from WBUR, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, the Society for Professional Journalists, the Alaska Press Club,
and the Broadcast Education Association.
Just for fun, I also moonlight as a volunteer music DJ [The Noracle]
on KBMF - LP, a community radio station in Butte, MT.
You too can hear everything from bummer-folk to Afrobeat on my show
Songs of Love and Horror - Sundays from 2-4 pm MST.
Once upon a time, before I fell head over heels for radio, I was a farmer and food educator, and a massage school drop-out.
Work Experience
2018 - Today
MONTANA PUBLIC RADIO
Host and Reporter, Richest Hill
2019
MONTANA MEDIA LAB
Teaching Assistant, Audio Storytelling 101 Workshop
2017
KFSK - PETERSBURG, AK
News Intern and Morning Edition Host
2016 - 2018
MONTANA PUBLIC RADIO
Student Reporter and Podcast Producer
2016 - 2018
THRESHOLD PODCAST
Outreach Intern and Contributing Editor
2016 - 2017
UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA
Graduate Journalism Teaching Assistant
Education
2018
UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA
M.A., Environmental Science and Natural Resource Journalism
2013
SALT INSTITUTE FOR DOCUMENTARY STUDIES
Certificate in Creative Non-Fiction Writing and Multimedia
2008
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
Honors B.A, Environment and Society
Minors, Environmental Science and Cultural Anthropology