We knew of Rachana Pradhan's investigative work even before we really knew of her. Late last year, former Health and Human Secretary Tom Price had to resign after news of his egregious use of taxpayer money to fund his personal, private flights. I remember reading the coverage thinking what an undertaking it would be to track these secret flights and try to prove that they existed, prove when they happened, and prove why they happened. In the era of "fake news" and the alarming trend of alienating journalists and news publications, it felt like a big win to see that good journalism, reporters working undauntingly to uncover the truth, still existed. And guess who wrote that exposé? Yep—Rachana Pradhan (and her colleague Dan Diamond.)

Pradhan is inquisitive, persistent, and thorough—qualities which tie in excellently to her successful career as a journalist. Like many others whose passions tie into their careers, Pradhan knew early on that she wanted to be a reporter. A D.C. native, she attended James Madison University, where she worked at the student newspaper as news editor. Following college, she landed a gig as a City Reporter at The Charlottesville Daily Progress, where she covered city government—including local topics like urban chicken keeping.

Pradhan wanted to return to D.C., and took an opportunity in 2011 to cover health care for Inside Health Policy—digging into the Affordable Care Act, it's implementation, and it's implications. Three years later, she transitioned to POLITICO, where she covers health care. She's here to talk about her love of journalism, working in a male-dominated industry, and what it was like to have her pursuit of the truth result in a government official resigning.

I got into journalism because I think people deserve to know what their government is doing, since that is ultimately who the government works for. Without holding powerful individuals accountable, I truly believe our democracy can’t function.

On Urban Chicken Keeping

Charlottesville has a strong appreciation of local farmers, food, and restaurants, and while I was covering the city I noticed that more and more people started building chicken coops in their backyards, even though they didn’t have a lot of space. Mostly it was for better eggs, but some city residents I spoke with also valued teaching their kids about having a stronger connection to their food. We paired the story with great photos from one of my former colleagues who has also since left the Daily Progress, but I still remember how much fun we had doing the feature and how many emails I received from readers saying our paper should do more stories like that (I guess my city government coverage wasn’t as popular).

On Transitioning to Health Care Reporting

After working in Charlottesville, I wanted to get back to D.C. for personal and career reasons. I did know that I wanted to be a news reporter with a focus on government, but health care was a beat I stumbled into essentially on accident. Not long after the Affordable Care Act became law, there happened to be a health care reporter opening at a trade publication where I stayed for nearly four years. I’m grateful they took a chance on a young reporter who had no health care experience; now I can’t imagine covering another domestic policy area.

On Writing an Exposè 

It was definitely the most challenging project I’ve ever worked on and required using skills that I developed over the course of my reporting career. The process began last May when I was chatting with a source about something unrelated, when they brought up how Price was apparently taking private planes for official government business. I trusted the information given where it was coming from, but it still took several months to take that one tip and turn it into the series of stories that my colleague Dan Diamond and I published in late September.

We had to do everything from cultivating sources inside of HHS to using social media to help track Price’s travels, and our reporting process involved culling through airport records, building a database of Price’s trips, sorting through federal contracts and other public records, and even staking out airports to confirm what was happening. We also talked to people all over the country to help reconstruct Price’s travels. It was immensely challenging given how little transparency there is with the federal government, and even scary at times. I couldn’t be prouder of our work because it demonstrated the tremendous impact that powerful journalism can have.

On Working in a Male-Dominated Industry

I think it’s especially important now for women to be vigilant when it comes to behavior that’s inappropriate, and to force conversations in our workplaces even if they are uncomfortable.  I also think it’s crucial for newsrooms (and institutions in general) to foster an environment where women can feel safe in broaching these topics, and to establish clear accountability when unfortunate incidents related to sexism and harassment occur. If we don’t feel supported, these issues won’t come to light, let alone get resolved.

On Taking Risks

I really haven’t come to regret much in my still relatively-short career. I think part of that is because I’m not really risk-averse but I also haven’t tried to plan everything out; most of my career progression has come from gut instincts and, luckily, so far they haven’t failed. In the coming years, I think it will be important to remember that it’s important to keep taking risks. It can be easier to stick with what you know but I think it’s crucial for a reporter’s development to tackle new challenges.

On What's Next

It’s hard to say what I will or won’t ever do because I try to not over-plan my future. But D.C. is an amazing place with incredible, smart, driven people, and I couldn’t be happier.