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Raghuram Vadarevu

Senior Editor, Storytelling

I oversee The Marshall Project's visual journalism and new storytelling initiatives, and enjoy bringing our investigations into unexpected forms and spaces, both online and in the real world.

My Background

I've practiced journalism for years, reporting, writing and editing stories from across the world. While my roots are in using words to tell stories, I’ve branched out in recent years into all sorts of other forms. Comics. Animation. TV shows. Public art illustrations. Who knows what's next?

Beyond my passion for storytelling, investigation and innovation, my work, at its heart, has been about people, those who are wronged — and those who tell the stories.

During my career, I, along with the teams I've led, have contributed to journalism that has won numerous awards, including a Pulitzer Prize, Pulitzer finalists (1, 2), a Dart award, an Emmy, a Webby, a World Illustration award, Online Journalism Awards (1, 2) and a National Press Photographers Association team video award.

Contact Me About...

If you are a storyteller in any medium who has experience in journalism, or you want to apply your skills to nonfiction storytelling about the criminal justice system, reach out. (You can call me Raghu.) I'd love to work together on what's next.

email rvadarevu@themarshallproject.org
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Feature August 5
Unsolved, Not Forgotten: How Six Parents Remember the Children They Lost to Violence
These families have yet to see justice in the deaths of their loved ones. Amid the grief, they are fighting to keep their memories from fading.
By
An illustration of a parole board table with two women seated and looking through paperwork while a man in a tie stands as he reads papers in his hands. Images of parole board hearings hang on the walls.
Life Inside November 8, 2024
Life Inside, Remixed: A Criminal Justice Reformer Takes on ‘Conveyor Belt Justice’
Carol Shapiro joined the New York parole board to make change. Marathon days, copious paperwork and dysfunctional hearings brought her to tears.
By The Marshall Project
A White woman with brown hair and blond highlights leans against a wall, while her daughter, a White woman with glasses and long, brown-blond hair, leans into her.
Inside Story November 7, 2024
Inside Story Meets Woman Jailed for Pregnancy Loss After She’s Released
Veteran rapper Styles P talks about the criminalization of rap lyrics, and we revisit the story of a woman who was imprisoned after the stillbirth of her child.
By and
An illustration of a dark-skinned man in an orange jumpsuit carrying a painter’s palette while using a small paintbrush to create a purple comet above him.
Life Inside November 1, 2024
Life Inside, Remixed: An Incarcerated Artist Learns to Paint Through the Chaos of Prison
Rafael Rodriguez’s artistic mentor and cellmate, Memo, taught him how to pour his anger and pain into oil painting.
By The Marshall Project
A photo of a smiling young Black boy wearing a dark tie and gray vest inside a silver picture frame alongside a photo of him as a young man with the words “We Love You Mario.”
Inside Story October 31, 2024
Families Seek Answers, Solace as St. Louis Police Struggle to Solve Killings
We investigate the impact of the St. Louis police’s failure to solve murders, and rapper G. Dep talks about healing after turning himself in.
By and
A black-and-white illustration of a man alone in a prison cell with his left leg up on his bed, as light streams in from the windows.
Life Inside October 25, 2024
Life Inside, Remixed: Inside the Underground Economy of Solitary Confinement
Here’s how people in “the box” use their ingenuity, collaboration skills and a form of “fishing” to get the goods they need.
By The Marshall Project
A gray chain-link fence topped with barbed wire outside an Oklahoma jail.
Inside Story October 24, 2024
Effort to Provide Low-Cost Health Care Behind Bars Stirs Controversy
Examining a company providing low-cost health care services at jails across the U.S., and a formerly incarcerated person shares how a mentor behind bars saved his life.
By and
An illustration of a pink-colored woman sitting on a chair with her back to the viewer, holding a phone, while her young, bushy-haired son sits across from her, one hand holding a phone to his ear and his other on his face in a distraught pose.
Life Inside October 18, 2024
Life Inside, Remixed: The Emotional Toll of Visiting a Son in Jail
Ymilul Bates’ first visit to her son exposed her to cold, distant corrections officers and left her with a question: Did they know her son was loved?
By The Marshall Project
A Black woman with short hair, wearing a patterned-pink jacket, sits in a chair in a courtroom with a small smile on her face.
Inside Story October 17, 2024
Americans With Past Convictions Fight to Regain Right to Vote
A Tennessee woman tries to regain her right to vote after a conviction, and entrepreneur Topeka Sam talks about what she learned while in prison.
By and
An illustration of a Black man with a goatee and glasses seen from the waist up holding a pile of dirt in his hands from which a plant rises. He is surrounded by flowers and other plants.
Life Inside October 11, 2024
Life Inside, Remixed: How I Found Peace in the Prison Garden
Bobby Bostic was only 18 when he was sentenced to 241 years behind bars. To his surprise, weeds, water and soil put the St. Louis native on the path to healing.
By The Marshall Project
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