Amy Silverman on Three Decades Covering Phoenix, the Arpaio Wedding Rumor & a Ronan Farrow DM

Sheriff Joe Arpaio spent years telling people he was at her wedding. He was not. Amy Silverman covered him too long and too well for that rumor to survive, and it is not even the strangest story in this episode. Amy Silverman is a journalist, writer and teacher who has covered her hometown of Phoenix for more than three decades. She spent 25 years at Phoenix New Times and is now executive producer of The Show on KJZZ, the Phoenix NPR station. A three-time Arizona Press Club Journalist of the Year, she has reported on Arizonans with disabilities for ProPublica, with work appearing in The New York Times and on This American Life. Off the clock she co-teaches Mothers Who Write and co-curates the Bar Flies reading series at Valley Bar. On this episode of Off Deadline, Melissa DiGianfilippo, founder of Proof Publicity, sits down with Amy to get into: The juvenile corrections investigation two colleagues handed off, which led to a DOJ investigation and real reforms Filing that project on July 1 and giving birth to her first daughter on July 10 The New Year's Day story that broke while she stood in line at Disneyland A year with ProPublica on disability services in Arizona, and why that coverage is personal Arizona: a great place to be a journalist and a lousy place to be a human being Vintage paper, flea markets and a kitchen table lost under piles The Receipt: a gold heart necklace engraved with a Talking Heads lyric The Cost Plus ritual she cannot explain The Ronan Farrow DM that surfaced a story she forgot she wrote, headlined Die Hard The vintage stationery store she would run into the ground Advice to her first-year self: trust yourself Follow Amy: @amysilverman on Instagram | amysilverman.com Follow KJZZ: @kjzzphoenix Follow the host, Melissa DiGianfilippo: @melissadflip Learn more about Proof Publicity: https://proofpublicity.com Produced by Turnkey Media: https://www.turnkeymediaaz.com CHAPTERS 0:00 Cold open 0:39 Welcome to Off Deadline 1:03 Meet Amy Silverman 1:42 Landing at KJZZ, the only other job she wanted 2:22 Editing with Ira Glass at This American Life 2:44 Arcadia High, Capitol Hill, then journalism school 4:00 The story two colleagues gave away 5:40 A whistleblower at juvenile corrections 6:17 A DOJ investigation and real reforms 7:49 The New Year's Day story at Disneyland 9:29 A year on disability services with ProPublica 10:18 A professional nag gets the interview 11:41 A great place to be a journalist, a lousy place to be a human being 12:38 Bins, flea markets and vintage paper 14:59 The Receipt: this must be the place 16:11 Phoenix and its inferiority complex 18:19 Rapid fire 18:35 The Cost Plus ritual 19:29 The Arpaio wedding rumor 20:24 The Ronan Farrow DM and the Die Hard headline 24:51 The stationery store dream 26:15 Advice: trust yourself 26:36 Where to find Amy #OffDeadline #AmySilverman #KJZZ #ArizonaJournalism #ProofPublicity