Steve Fainaru

Senior Writer, ESPN Investigative Unit; Co-Author, League of Denial

Steve Fainaru is an investigative reporter for ESPN. While covering the Iraq war for the Washington Post, he received the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting for his investigation into the U.S. military’s reliance on private security contractors.

Fainaru, co-produced the PBS “Frontline” documentary League of Denial, based on his accompanying book, League of Denial: The NFL, Concussions and the Battle for Truth. Bot the book and documentary raised eyebrows in addressing the severity and prevalence of concussions among NFL players and how the league has addressed those issues. League of Denial posits that the NFL, over a period of nearly two decades, sought to cover up and deny mounting evidence of the connection between football and brain damage. 

He lives in Berkeley, California, with his wife Maureen Fan, and son Will.

Recordings

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Podcast

Concussions, Cigarettes and Climate

November 30, 2017
What do football, tobacco and oil have in common? A common narrative of deceit. When tobacco companies faced public scrutiny about the link...