From Layoff To Pulitzer: A Q&A With Investigative Reporter Yael Grauer

In May 2026, independent investigative reporter and longtime Study Hall member Yael Grauer, alongside a team of full-time reporters at the Associated Press, won a Pulitzer Prize for international reporting.

“It was pretty surreal,” she said on the latest episode of the Study Hall podcast. 

Last year, the group produced a package of investigations exploring how tech companies — spanning from IBM to Nvidia — assisted the Chinese government in developing surveillance tools to monitor political dissidents and Uyghurs. The package also included reporting on how this technology has been used in the United States by U.S. Border Patrol and by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip. 

Grauer has covered cybersecurity, surveillance, and privacy as a freelance journalist since 2014. In 2021, she obtained a trove of emails and documents detailing how American tech companies assisted the Chinese government with developing its surveillance state. After initially pitching another outlet, Grauer then brought the files to Associated Press, where they became the basis of the seven-part series. 

Five journalists contributed to the series. They included Dake Kang, who is based in Beijing and provided on-the-ground reporting on the impact of China’s surveillance, and with whom Grauer worked closely 

News of the award came just a few months after she was laid off from her full-time job as a project manager at Consumer Reports, the steady gig that allowed her to pursue freelance projects. 

“I’ve had a rollercoaster of a year,” Grauer told me over the phone. 

After Grauer learned she and her colleagues had won a Pulitzer, she received congratulatory champagne, flowers, and cheese from friends and family. And while receiving the award is “amazing and validating,” she also has “mixed feelings” about the accolade. “We won an award for amplifying something really awful that’s still happening, so it feels a little weird to celebrate sometimes,” she said.

I spoke to Grauer about how she pitched the story and what freelancers should know before taking on an ambitious, rigorous project of this scope. 

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.