Julia Barton

Julia Barton is a long-time public media editor and a freelance reporter for PRI's The World.

Julia is a long-time public media editor and reporter. She started freelancing for PRI’s The World in 1999, and has reported from Russia, Ukraine and the US/Mexico border. Her work has appeared on Radiolab, NPR News, Marketplace, PRI's Studio 360, and the podcast 99% Invisible, among other shows.

Julia is the former senior editor for Across Women’s Lives, PRI's special coverage of gender equity and the role of women in society.

Julia has been an editor for APM’s Weekend America and the podcast Life of the Law, as well as editorial coordinator for PRX's Radiotopia podcast network. She earned an MFA in nonfiction writing from the University of Iowa and got her start in radio as a board-op at WSUI in Iowa City, where she cut reel-to-reel tape with razor blades in the world before digital audio took over.

Julia Barton's father

Returning to the secret government lab where my grandfather worked

Oak Ridge, Tennessee, was once a secret city. Every American nuclear bomb contains uranium from the lab there.

Returning to the secret government lab where my grandfather worked
The the main club house inside Mezhgorye, the residence of Ukraine's ousted president Victor Yanukovych.

Ukrainians vowed to turn their ex-president’s estate into a ‘Museum of Corruption.’ But it’s something else now.

Ukrainians vowed to turn their ex-president’s estate into a ‘Museum of Corruption.’ But it’s something else now.
Georgiy Gaidamaka left his native Simferopol, in Crimea, after the Russian government said it would cut end the methadone­ substitution therapy he’d relied on to treat his heroin addiction. Now he lives in Kiev, where he builds amplifiers from old Soviet

For Ukrainians displaced by conflict, there’s no going back

For Ukrainians displaced by conflict, there’s no going back
Reunion Tower in Dallas at night.

The failed socialist utopian dream that helped Dallas become a major city

The failed socialist utopian dream that helped Dallas become a major city

You Should Finally Read "Infinite Jest"

You Should Finally Read "Infinite Jest"
Children reading "Gbagba"

This children's book is starting a national conversation about corruption in Liberia

Liberian academic and author Robtel Neajai Pailey says children, with their curiosity and strong sense of right and wrong, are the natural audience for a book about corruption. So she wrote one.

This children's book is starting a national conversation about corruption in Liberia
Julie Doucet

After a fracas over French 'male-only' prize for graphic novelists, world takes note of women artists

For 43 years, graphic novelists and comics artists have gathered in the French town of Angoulême to celebrate their burgeoning art and award prizes. But in all that time, only one woman has won the Grand Prix, a "lifetime achievement" award. After this year's list of 30 nominees contained no women at all, an uproar ensued.

After a fracas over French 'male-only' prize for graphic novelists, world takes note of women artists
Carroll Gardens vigil

In Brooklyn, a big Muslim voice sounds out against terror

New York has immigrants from around the world, including huge numbers who practice Islam. Many Muslim communities here faced heavy-handed law enforcement tactics after 9/11, but they've since worked hard to defuse tensions and improve relations with federal and local authorities. The rise of ISIS as some community advocates furious.

In Brooklyn, a big Muslim voice sounds out against terror
Difret

The story of one girl who fought abduction, and the lawyers who saved her life

"Difret" means "to dare" or "courage" in the Amharic language of Ethiopia. A new film by that name tells the story of an Ethiopian girl who was kidnapped by men on horseback to enforce a "traditional" marriage. She fought back, and then had to defend her life in court. Now, thanks to Angelina Jolie, the world will see her story.

The story of one girl who fought abduction, and the lawyers who saved her life
Elizabeth Williams and Ashley Judd

Ashley Judd to girls worldwide: We go from hurting to healing to helping

Actress Ashley Judd has been speaking in New York around the United Nations General Assembly meeting, arguing that the health and rights of girls need to be part of the world's agenda. We caught up with her at the the UN's Population Fund, where she moderated a discussion of girl activists helping to set that agenda.

Ashley Judd to girls worldwide: We go from hurting to healing to helping
Plans for Hughes Glomar Explorer

Confirmed: The CIA's most famous ship headed for the scrapyard

In the early 1970s, CIA built the Hughes Glomar Explorer to do the impossible: retrieve a sunken Soviet nuclear submarine. It almost worked. The ship's had a less exciting life since then, and its final chapter will soon come to a close.

Confirmed: The CIA's most famous ship headed for the scrapyard
lead image soccer

The US Women's National Soccer team made history for girls everywhere. Again.

It's been more than 50 years since a ticker-tape parade in New York City honored exclusively women. But the US Women's National Soccer Team is just changed that.

The US Women's National Soccer team made history for girls everywhere. Again.
Circassian protest on Times Square in 2011.

The day to remember the 'forgotten genocide'

Between 5 million and 7 million Circassians live around the world, descendants of the native tribes expelled from the Caucasus in the 1860s by Russian Imperial forces. The recent Winter Olympics in their ancestral capital of Sochi angered Circassians, but it also brought them together. They aim to get Russia to recognize a right of return for Circassians. It's a long shot, but these are not people known for giving up easily.

The day to remember the 'forgotten genocide'
police scene purvi

Who is the doctor who paved the way to prison for Purvi Patel?

The doctor who initially called police to report his child abuse suspicions of Purvi Patel is listed as a member of a pro-life medical association. Patel was charged with child neglect and later with killing her fetus, and she was sentenced to 20 consecutive years in prison. This makes her the first woman in the US to be convicted and sentenced fon "feticide" charges for ending her own pregnancy.

Who is the doctor who paved the way to prison for Purvi Patel?
Purvi Patel is taken into custody after being sentenced to 20 years in prison for feticide and neglect of a dependent on Monday, March 30, 2015, at the St. Joseph County Courthouse in South Bend, Ind.

Six disturbing medical issues in the case of Purvi Patel, and one hopeful one

Purvi Patel was convicted of feticide in Indiana. Her case has raised concerns that it could become a precedent to support more convictions of women who lose their pregnancies or self-abort. But the case also shows how complex pregnancy and gestation really are — and how little we in the US want to talk about unexpected outcomes.

Six disturbing medical issues in the case of Purvi Patel, and one hopeful one