Elissa Mardiney and Angie Pulmano

Elissa Mardiney is a journalist and podcast producer from Rosendale, New York. She holds a Master’s in Specialized Journalism from USC, a graduate certificate in audio documentary from the Salt Institute, and a BA from Johns Hopkins University. Her audio work includes season three of Crooked City, a narrative true crime series, and immersive museum tours created for institutions like the Smithsonian. Her work covers the environment, arts, and outdoors, and how broad systems shape people’s lives in intimate ways. She has lived in Baltimore, Maine, Colorado, and San Francisco. In a previous iteration of her life, she worked as an outdoor guide.

Angie Pulmano is a freelance journalist from Los Alamitos, California. She holds a Master of Science in Journalism from USC and a Bachelor of Science in Biology from UC Irvine. She has covered everything from the effects of the encampment sweeps on L.A’s unhoused population, to the to the lack of trees and greenspace in South L.A.’s public zones to the discourse surrounding queer acceptance during bisexual visibility week. Her work in print and radio for Annenberg Media includes local and international reporting on environmental justice, climate change and queer culture.