Sarah Aida Gonzalez was the youth and families reporter at WNYC. She dug deep into data and documents to reveal systemic inequalities in New Jersey’s foster care system, and into how the state prosecutes minors and disciplines federal immigration detainees.
Sarah received the 2017 Daniel Schorr Prize, awarded to a public radio reporter under age 35, and was named a finalist for the 2017 Livingston Awards for young journalists. Her investigative and feature reporting has received a national Edward R. Murrow award, and national awards from PRNDI, The Society of Professional Journalists and the Education Writer’s Association. Her investigation into Florida charter schools turning away students with severe disabilities received an Online News Association award for Innovative Investigative Journalism.
Sarah graduated from Mills College in Oakland, CA in 2009. She grew up on the San Diego/Tijuana, Mexico border.
Shows:
Sarah Gonzalez appears in the following:
Friday, February 12, 2021
By
Sarah Gonzalez : Reporter, WNYC/NJPR
After someone serves their prison time, pays their debt to society, they often face another round of actual debt. Fees can pile up, and often, the fees have nothing to do with the crime.
Thursday, December 24, 2020
By
Sarah Gonzalez : Reporter, WNYC/NJPR
COVID-19 vaccines must be kept at low temperatures. And to move ampuls between freezers, specialists use dry ice. NPR explores whether the U.S. has enough of it to ensure smooth vaccine distribution.
Friday, October 02, 2020
By
Sarah Gonzalez : Reporter, WNYC/NJPR
Losing a lot of money is one way to avoid paying taxes. The tax code rewards losses, which become gifts that keep on giving for years. NPR explores the history of this practice and how it evolved.
Friday, September 18, 2020
By
Sarah Gonzalez : Reporter, WNYC/NJPR
Alcohol to go used to be sold at restaurants in party spots such as New Orleans and Las Vegas. But during the pandemic, restaurants all over the country have started offering takeout cocktails.
Friday, July 24, 2020
By
Sarah Gonzalez : Reporter, WNYC/NJPR
For decades, Democrats and Republicans competed to be toughest on crime. But that's changing. NPR's Planet Money podcast explores the changing views on prisons in Oklahoma.
Friday, June 19, 2020
By
Sarah Gonzalez : Reporter, WNYC/NJPR
The idea of vaccination is almost 2,000 years old. The story of the very first vaccine involves a nose pipe, milkmaids, death row inmates, and a beautiful woman out for revenge.
Friday, May 29, 2020
By
Sarah Gonzalez : Reporter, WNYC/NJPR
As a low-wage worker, Yesenia Ortiz wishes she would get paid more during the pandemic because of the extra level of risk to which she is exposed.
Friday, May 22, 2020
By
Sarah Gonzalez : Reporter, WNYC/NJPR
In a competitive labor market, employers would need to pay workers more money for riskier jobs. But now, essential workers are making as much money as they were before the pandemic.
Thursday, April 23, 2020
By
Bente Birkeland : Rocky Mountain News Radio /
Sarah Gonzalez : Reporter, WNYC/NJPR
Reopening the economy requires contemplating the trade-off between lives and money. Government agencies are already used to putting dollar values on human life when considering safety regulations.
Friday, March 27, 2020
By
Sarah Gonzalez : Reporter, WNYC/NJPR
The people who harvest food face two challenges right now: tighter border controls keeping many away from the fields, and cramped living quarters that make social distancing almost impossible.
Friday, February 07, 2020
By
Sarah Gonzalez : Reporter, WNYC/NJPR
In the Caribbean island of Barbuda, land is not bought or sold. Put up a fence and the land is yours forever, for free — if you're Barbudan. But now there is a plan to start selling it.
Thursday, December 19, 2019
By
Sarah Gonzalez : Reporter, WNYC/NJPR
For years, low wage workers have had to wait two weeks between paychecks, a long time. But technology and a tight labor market could be changing that.
Thursday, November 07, 2019
By
Sarah Gonzalez : Reporter, WNYC/NJPR
More than 100 hundred years ago, British economist Arthur Cecil Pigou explained how to tax things like pollution. His insight is being used to fight climate change.
Friday, October 25, 2019
By
Sarah Gonzalez : Reporter, WNYC/NJPR
French fries are facing an existential crisis. As consumers opt for food delivery services, the shelf life of fries isn't good enough. But some are trying to engineer the fry of the future.
Friday, August 23, 2019
By
Sarah Gonzalez : Reporter, WNYC/NJPR
The U.S. government may have helped create the current helium shortage, and now people are looking for new sources of the gas.
Thursday, August 01, 2019
By
Sarah Gonzalez : Reporter, WNYC/NJPR
More recycling isn't always good for the environment. Now that China is buying less recyclables, cities are shoving their water bottles and cardboard boxes into the trash pile. And it might be OK.
Thursday, August 01, 2019
By
Sarah Gonzalez : Reporter, WNYC/NJPR
We kind of owe recycling to the Mafia and a 1987 garbage barge that couldn't dock anywhere. That's when cities started sending trucks to everyone's homes to pick up glass bottles and cardboard boxes.
Thursday, June 06, 2019
By
Sarah Gonzalez : Reporter, WNYC/NJPR
New York City has a law that guarantees everyone a right to shelter, but there aren't enough homeless shelters. The city has turned to renting out hotel rooms.
Thursday, May 09, 2019
By
Sarah Gonzalez : Reporter, WNYC/NJPR
Every day, four new dollar stores will open in the U.S. Dollar stores open in places where few other businesses will go: rural and urban areas. They're threatening businesses that survived Walmart.
Friday, April 26, 2019
By
Noel King : Freelance Journalist based in Egypt /
Sarah Gonzalez : Reporter, WNYC/NJPR
Dollar General, Dollar Tree and Family Dollars are opening up stores every six hours around the country. Some towns are fighting them.