Katie leads our efforts to design and produce innovative and data-driven visual journalism. She came to Tortoise from the Wall Street Journal, where she was a graphics reporter covering business and technology in New York. Before that she worked at the Financial Times and the Atlantic. She’s originally from Chicago, Illinois.
Katie Riley
Data and Digital Storytelling Editor
“As someone whose career sits at the intersection of the news and technology industries, I’ve never been asked to justify my utility at Tortoise. Everyone here knows that there’s more than one way to be a journalist.”
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Wednesday 30 October 2024
18:30-19:30 GMT
The News Meeting – LIVE
Join Tortoise Media journalists in their editorial meeting to discuss what stories should be investigated further.
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Thursday 13 April 2023
09:00-10:00 BST
The Review
Join us at our fortnightly breakfast event that helps Tortoise members and friends make sense of what’s going on in the world, from breaking news and the latest scoops, to the slow burn stories we should be keeping an eye on.
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Wednesday 6 November 2024
Trump could have a virtual lock on all three branches of government
That means sweeping powers to push legislation and install loyalists in key positions
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Tuesday 5 November 2024
How to make sense of the US election in real time
Keep an eye on Osceola county in Florida, Erie and Northampton in Pennsylvania – and avoid the BBC
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Monday 4 November 2024
US election: 17 reasons why Harris v Trump has gone to the wire
Some explain Trump’s survival as a candidate – others point to a possible late surge for Harris
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Wednesday 23 October 2024
Olivia Nuzzi leaves New York magazine over RFK Jr relationship
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Friday 20 September 2024
US election: ad money pours into the Keystone State
Harris and Trump both know that winning in Pennsylvania could mean winning the White House
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Friday 13 September 2024
How to consume US opinion polls without going mad
It’s no coincidence that Obama’s 2012 campaign chair threatened to fire staff who talked about them
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Thursday 12 September 2024
Taylor Swift’s endorsement of Kamala Harris actually matters
She has scale, comes from Pennsylvania, and is white
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Friday 23 August 2024
The men in Kamala Harris’s life have freed her up to run as a woman
The second woman to run for US president is the first to have the help of non-toxic masculinity
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Monday 19 August 2024
Harris’s astonishing honeymoon
Her supporters are getting goosebumps from echoes of 2008, but she has a long way to go.
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Friday 9 August 2024
Bumper banker bonuses are back at Barclays
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Wednesday 7 August 2024
Let’s Walz: what Kamala Harris’s VP pick says about her campaign
Picking a running mate doesn’t normally affect a US presidential election. But this is no normal election.
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Wednesday 24 July 2024
Kamala Harris’s potential path to victory
It’s not simple, but she can reach parts of the electorate that Biden couldn’t.
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Friday 21 June 2024
Giant MRP polls tell stories of Tory catastrophe – or mere disaster
The surveys are bigger than normal polls but also packed with uncertainty.
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Tuesday 4 June 2024
Samuel Alito and a tale of two flags
Too much deference undermines America’s highest court.
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Thursday 30 May 2024
UK election 2024: Sunak is courting old voters because they vote
His problem is that they don’t vote reliably Tory any more.
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Thursday 16 May 2024
Surging migration to the US is driving politics from Washington to Panama
Closure of a key route to Central America will leave thousands stranded.
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Tuesday 23 April 2024
Columbia moves classes online over Gaza protests
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Friday 19 April 2024
The Tortured Poets Department: Taylor Swift releases 11th studio album
The world now divides into those who understand Swift and those who will have to find a way
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Thursday 14 March 2024
US election: why three’s a crowd for Biden and Trump
The Democrats and Republicans have chosen their presidential candidates but Biden and Trump will not be the only names on the ballot. That could mean trouble for both.
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Friday 8 March 2024
How to spam TikTok (for free)
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Tuesday 16 January 2024
Trump secures record victory in first key contest of Republican nomination
Trump wins every county in Iowa except one with the biggest margin ever seen in a competitive caucus
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Tuesday 12 December 2023
Texas top court overturns ruling allowing emergency abortion
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Tuesday 5 December 2023
Westminster committee proposes “joint first ministers” in Northern Ireland
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Tuesday 28 November 2023
World’s largest iceberg breaks free from Antarctica
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Thursday 9 November 2023
House of Lords doubles threshold for declaring shares
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Wednesday 8 November 2023
Off-year US elections deliver win for women
Democrats win big after campaigning on abortion in the reddest of red states
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Thursday 2 November 2023
Idaho trafficking laws used against people seeking abortion care elsewhere
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Thursday 12 October 2023
Republicans nominate Steve Scalise as next Speaker of the House
Scalise will now need to convince 217 members of the house to vote for him
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Friday 29 September 2023
Bad stuff on eBay
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Friday 22 September 2023
Work – for now
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Monday 4 September 2023
Burning man mud
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Thursday 24 August 2023
India 1, Russia 0
The UK can’t build connections fast enough
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Wednesday 23 August 2023
Trans rights and wrongs
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Tuesday 15 August 2023
An Ohio vote shows how abortion could derail Trump
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Thursday 1 June 2023
No good neighbour
State Farm stops insuring Californian homes
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Tuesday 7 March 2023
Sensemaker: Ron’s rules
What just happened
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Sunday 8 January 2023
The Westminster Accounts –Methodology
The process of collecting, analysing and visualising tens of thousands of financial records gets very complicated very quickly – here’s how we did it
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Sunday 8 January 2023
Letting the light in
The fact that all of this data was already public meant that collating it all couldn’t be that hard, right? Wrong. Very wrong
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Sunday 8 January 2023
Come fly, MP
Hidden in plain sight: David “Airmiles” Morris
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Thursday 12 May 2022
10 minute read
Sensemaker: Who abortion bans hurt
What just happened
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Wednesday 6 April 2022
10 minute read
Sensemaker: The pay gap gap
What just happened
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Tuesday 29 March 2022
Gas guzzlers
In a climate and energy crisis, the UK’s leaky, old housing stock is an extravagance neither people nor the planet can afford.
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Friday 18 March 2022
10 minute read
Sensemaker: Moscow mules
What just happened
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Monday 14 March 2022
Shadow whipping: the men who saved Boris
Whipping up support
We’ve charted the changing attitudes of Conservative MPs towards the prime minister over the last two months – with “Partygate” dominating the news for much of that time. The results may surprise you
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Friday 22 October 2021
Can Asia kick its coal habit?
The world’s most populous continent, with its fastest-growing economies, depends on coal. We’ve mapped the data over the last 50 years to try and get a sense of this critical challenge for Asia – and the world
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Tuesday 28 September 2021
The world just missed its first major vaccine target. Here’s why
Ten per cent of every country’s population was meant to be fully vaccinated by the end of this month. But poorer countries, in particular, just haven’t had the doses
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Friday 3 September 2021
The Arms Race: Beta Vaccine Tracker
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Wednesday 6 November 2024
News Meeting: Did the media help Donald Trump win an historic election?
Donald Trump will be the next president of the United States. James Harding and guests discuss why Americans turned out for him and the role of the media under the new Trump administration.
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Friday 1 November 2024
Will the Budget fix the housing crisis and what is Jeff Bezos’s influence on the Washington Post?
Giles Whittell and guests debate what should lead the news. They discuss whether Rachel Reeves pulled off Labour’s first Budget in 14 years, government pledges to increase social housing and why some of America’s major newspapers aren’t endorsing Kamala Harris.
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Friday 18 October 2024
Trump threatens to fight the enemy within and the gender divide splitting US voters
Giles Whittell and guests debate what should lead the news. They discuss the controversy surrounding the planned execution of Robert Roberson, why the genders are so divided on who to vote for and Trump’s threats to use the military against his enemies at home.
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Monday 7 October 2024
UK hands the Chagos Islands back to Mauritius and the anniversary of October 7
Tortoise’s editor James Harding is joined by three journalists all vying to pitch the top story of the weekend. This week they are in the iconic Abbey Road Studios in London as part of the KITE festival. They discuss Chappell Roan’s fight against toxic celebrity culture, an end to the longstanding dispute over Britain’s final African colony and one year on after Hamas attacked Israel.
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Friday 4 October 2024
Driving test hold-ups and why was Hurricane Helene so damaging?
Jess Winch and guests debate what should lead the news. They discuss the deadliest mainland US hurricane since Katrina in 2005, the undecided voters who decide the US election and why the UK driving test system is broken.
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Monday 23 September 2024
US election workers threatened and Labour’s plans to stop migrant gangs
Giles Whittell and guests debate what should lead the news. They discuss the mysterious packages being sent to US election officials, the abortion laws that contributed to the death of a pregnant woman and Labour’s migration plan.
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Monday 9 September 2024
Is Trump beating Harris and does Britain still matter on the world stage?
Tortoise’s editor James Harding is joined by three journalists all vying to pitch the top story of the weekend. They discuss Antony Blinken’s visit to the UK, a new damning report on the NHS and polling which puts Trump ahead of Kamala Harris.
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Friday 23 August 2024
Democrats showcase their wife guys and Starbucks boss is under fire
What should lead the news? Three people tell Giles Whittell what they think the top story should be and Giles has a message for the new Starbucks CEO.
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Monday 22 July 2024
Joe Biden quits the presidential race
After weeks of mounting pressure, Joe Biden has quit the race for the White House. James Harding is joined by three journalists to make sense of this turning point in history.
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Friday 28 June 2024
The Biden problem and is Julian Assange a hero or a villain?
After Joe Biden’s debate disaster, what might happen next? Plus Julian Assange is freed, the prime ministerial debate between Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak, and what we can do about political corruption.
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Monday 3 June 2024
Word for word: Trump on trial – Episode 5
Donald Trump is the first former US president to face and to lose a criminal trial. He is accused of falsifying his business records by saying a hush money payment to a porn star was for legal fees. He’s facing 34 counts of fraud under campaign finance laws, and has pleaded not guilty to all of them. The trial, which is expected to last eight weeks, is being held in a New York court and Donald Trump has to appear every day. This is the story of that trial, told using the transcripts of what is said in court.
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Friday 31 May 2024
Word for word: Trump on trial – Episode 4
Donald Trump is the first former US president to face a criminal trial. He is accused of falsifying his business records by saying a hush money payment to a porn star was for legal fees. He’s facing 34 counts of fraud under campaign finance laws, and has pleaded not guilty to all of them. The trial, which is expected to last eight weeks, is being held in a New York court and Donald Trump has to appear every day. This is the story of that trial, told using the transcripts of what is said in court. Michael Cohen is on the stand.
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Tuesday 21 May 2024
Word for word: Trump on trial – Episode 3
Donald Trump is the first former US president to face a criminal trial. He is accused of falsifying his business records by saying a hush money payment to a porn star was for legal fees. He’s facing 34 counts of fraud under campaign finance laws, and has pleaded not guilty to all of them. The trial, which is expected to last eight weeks, is being held in a New York court and Donald Trump has to appear every day. This is the story of that trial, told using the transcripts of what is said in court. Michael Cohen is on the stand.
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Tuesday 14 May 2024
Word for word: Trump on trial – Episode 2
Donald Trump is the first former US president to face a criminal trial. He is accused of falsifying his business records by saying a hush money payment to a porn star was for legal fees. He’s facing 34 counts of fraud under campaign finance laws, and has pleaded not guilty to all of them. The trial, which is expected to last eight weeks, is being held in a New York court and Donald Trump has to appear for every day. This is the story of that trial, told using the transcripts of what is said in court. Stormy Daniels takes the stand.
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Tuesday 7 May 2024
Word for word: Trump on trial
Donald Trump is the first former US president to face a criminal trial. He is accused of falsifying his business records by saying a hush money payment to a porn star was for legal fees. He’s facing 34 counts of fraud under campaign finance laws, and has pleaded not guilty to all of them. The trial, which is expected to last eight weeks, is being held in a New York court and Donald Trump has to appear every day. This is the story of that trial, told using the transcripts of what is said in court.
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Tuesday 5 April 2022
The gender pay gap bot
On International Women’s Day, a Twitter bot drew attention to the gender pay gap in Britain’s biggest companies. But does the data they report tell the full story?