Work + Awards
The perils of hospital drug tests
Hospitals routinely drug test pregnant patients at childbirth using drug screens that are highly prone to misinterpretation and have false positive results as high as 50 percent. That’s prompted thousands of reports to child welfare authorities, investigations and even families losing custody of their babies — after parents ate nothing more than poppy seed muffins, took common over-the-counter medications, or received fentanyl in their epidurals.
She Ate a Poppy Seed Salad Just Before Giving Birth. Then They Took Her Baby Away
Hospitals Gave Patients Meds During Childbirth, Then Reported Them For Positive Drug Tests
Why Some Doctors Are Pushing to End Routine Drug Testing During Childbirth
Punished for following doctor’s orders
This collaboration with Reveal and the New York Times Magazine showed how a little known federal law has led hospitals across the country to report women to child welfare authorities for doing nothing more than taking legitimately prescribed medications – including Suboxone and methadone, the “gold standard” treatments for opioid use disorder recommended by every public health authority in the nation.
American Rehab
This popular podcast, named one of the best of 2020 by The New Yorker, The Atlantic and Spotify, exposed how drug and alcohol recovery programs claiming to help the poor and the desperate are instead conscripting them into forms of indentured servitude, requiring them to work without pay or for pennies on the dollar in exchange for their stay – including at chicken processing plants, oil refineries, construction sites, nursing homes and car washes.
At hundreds of rehabs, recovery means work without pay.
They thought they were going to rehab. They ended up in chicken plants.
Recovering from Rehab: Documentary by Al Jazeera's Fault Lines.
In secretive marijuana industry, whispers of abuse and trafficking
Published in Cosmopolitan Magazine, this story explored the hidden epidemic of sex abuse and trafficking in California’s marijuana fields.
Hired Guns
This collaboration with CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 exposed how armed security guard licenses have been handed out to people with histories of violence, former police officers with disciplinary records, and even people barred under federal law from owning guns. Some guards were given a gun and a badge without a single firearms training course, while others were able to shoot, injure and kill with impunity.
America’s gun-toting guards armed with poor training, little oversight.
Shootings by security guards rarely reported, let alone investigated.
Guard industry welcomes ex-law enforcement officers, despite shady pasts.
CNN: Armed guards lack training and oversight – with deadly consequences.
Firearms trainer keeps license, after trading gun permits for cash.
Select coverage of Shoshana’s reporting:
Slate — Should hospitals be drug testing newborns and their parents
KJZZ — Why some doctors are pushing to end automatic drug testing for pregnant patients newborns
NPR — American rehab and the dark history of rehabilitative treatment
NPR — Reveal report finds drug rehab program forcing addicts to work as indentured employees
Journalistic Resource — Marshall Project drug tests pregnant patients Goldsmith Prize
Poynter — Interviewing vulnerable voices reporting
Dart Center — Investigating guns
WQXR — Armed security guards little training few background checks myriad problems
Shoshana has received dozens of national journalism honors, among them:
Goldsmith Awards, Finalist, 2025.
American Society of Magazine Editors, Finalist, 2025 and 2021.
Association of Healthcare Journalists, Winner, 2025.
Gerald Loeb Award, Winner, 2021.
Watchdog Writers Group Fellowship, 2021 and 2022.
Edward R. Murrow Award, Winner, 2021 and 2018.
IRE medal, Investigative Reporters and Editors Awards, 2020.
Emmy Awards, Finalist, 2020.
Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting, Finalist, 2018.
Knight Award for Public Service, Winner, Online News Association, 2018.
Sigma Delta Chi Award, investigative and non-deadline reporting, Winner, 2018 and 2009.
Selden Ring Award for Investigative Reporting, Finalist, 2018.
Livingston Award for Young Journalists for National Reporting, Winner, 2015; and Finalist, 2018, 2019.
Gold Medal for Public Service, Florida Society of News Editors, 2009.