Monica Z. Lam
Monica Z. Lam portfolio
documentary filmmaking, investigative storytelling, watchdog reporting
Featured Stories
Every day, California sends 12,000 tons of plastic to landfills — enough to fill 219 Olympic-sized swimming pools daily. New research is finding tiny particles of microplastics in places in our water, in the air we breathe, and in the placentas of pregnant women.
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Prison is a challenging environment by any measure, but for the roughly two dozen transgender women living in this California men's prison alongside nearly 2500 cisgender men, there are unique challenges — not just for the women, but also for the prison staff responsible for keeping everyone safe.
Every California governor since 1960 — from Pat Brown to Ronald Reagan to Jerry Brown — has faced a recall attempt. But only two attempted ousters have successfully made it onto the ballot for voters to weigh in on. This animated explainer tackles the nuts and bolts of recall elections — including the 2021 recall of Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Many of California's severely developmentally disabled are cared for at state-run facilities with around-the-clock supervision. But while the state spends about $300,000 a year on each patient, The Center for Investigative Reporting has uncovered a pattern of abuse and neglect and a failure to hold staff and administrators accountable.
The U.S. spends over $80 billion each year to keep some two million prisoners behind bars. Over the past three decades, tough sentencing laws have contributed to a doubling of the country’s prison population, with laws commonly known as "three strikes and you’re out" mandating life sentences for many crimes.
Novelist Amy Tan and composer Stewart Wallace craft a powerful and disturbing opera based on Tan's family history.
More criminal justice reporting
When California Gov. Jerry Brown announced a sweeping new plan to reduce overcrowding in state prisons, county jails and local law enforcement braced themselves to pick up the slack.
Surveillance video reveals differences between what Stockton police officers and a 16-year-old teenager say happened at a convenience store on Feb. 17, 2011.
They'll make you cry, they'll make you laugh.
Once known as a violent and dangerous place, San Quentin State Prison now has some of the most innovative rehabilitation programs in the California prison system, including one where inmates write and perform their own first-person narratives.
Collaborations for PBS NewsHour
California is sinking at a historic rate. That sinking, which scientists call subsidence, has damaged flood levees intended to protect hundreds of miles of Central Valley farmland. Some levees near the San Joaquin River have sank more than six feet.
More than a million veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have used the GI bill to pursue college, but combat injuries and stress can add challenges to student life. At City College of San Francisco, an innovative VA program offers an on-campus clinic to support student vets.
Americans spend more than $500 billion every year on Medicare, and as the cost of health care rises, many are scrutinizing how that money is spent. The Center for Investigative Reporting conducted a year-long probe into one prominent hospital chain's billing practices.
After 9/11, a number of new initiatives were launched to try to spot potential terrorists. NPR and The Center for Investigative Reporting report how such efforts aimed at security affect our civil liberties.
As part of a growing national movement to revitalize the symphony experience for patrons, the San Francisco Symphony recently launched SoundBox, a show series meant to create new musical experiences and entice new audiences.
In Oakland, not far from Silicon Valley, a group of teenagers are glued to their computer screens, learning a new language. The Hidden Genius Project is a small non-profit that teaches coding to young African-American men to help bring them into the high tech sector, where the economy is booming, but aching for diversity.