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Caitlin Esch

Senior Producer

SHORT BIO

Caitlin Esch is the senior producer of Marketplace's climate solutions podcast, "How We Survive," and its investigative podcast, "The Uncertain Hour." Caitlin joined Marketplace in 2014. Her work focuses on systemic inequality and the climate crisis.

Caitlin's reporting (and the work of the teams she senior produces) have won several accolades, including three awards from the Society of American Business Editors & Writers, a Webby Award, and a New York Festivals Gold Award. The teams' work has been a finalist for the Loeb Awards twice, the Covering Climate Now Awards and the Investigative Reporters & Editors (IRE) Awards. Caitlin has a bachelor’s degree in English and a master’s degree in journalism from University of California, Berkeley. She lives in Los Angeles.

Episodes by Caitlin (8)

How We Survive | Season 4 | Episode 3

Rewriting the Rules

Nov 1, 2023
The Uncertain Hour | Season 5 | Episode 6

Big Boss, Little Boss

Mar 10, 2021
The Uncertain Hour | Season 5 | Episode 5

To catch a chicken

Mar 3, 2021
The Uncertain Hour | Season 3 | Episode 6

Kicking the habit

Apr 18, 2019
The Uncertain Hour | Season 3 | Episode 5

Supply

Apr 11, 2019
The Uncertain Hour | Season 3 | Episode 3

Sentencing

Mar 28, 2019

Latest Stories (44)

Would a $10 billion Purdue settlement reach towns affected by the opioid crisis?

Aug 28, 2019
A proposed settlement would reportedly see the OxyContin maker declaring bankruptcy and paying big. Is that enough for people on the ground?
A homemade sign says "Think drugs gets you high give God a try," on a front lawn in Big Stone Gap, Virginia. The town in Wise County has been hit hard by the opioid epidemic.
Julia Rendleman/Marketplace

As jail costs pile up, one county is taking a new approach to community service

Apr 11, 2019
The opioid epidemic is filling jails. Wise County, Virginia, is looking for alternatives.
Mitzi Bowen, 44, of Wise, Virginia, cleans up after a resident moved out of the Commonwealth Apartments on Dec. 7, 2018. Bowen said she became addicted to opioids after her dentist prescribed Lortabs for tooth pain. "One day I woke up and I couldn't feel good without the pills," she said.
Julia Rendleman/Marketplace

Opioids made it impossible to run his family business, so he became an undercover cop

Apr 3, 2019
Bucky Culbertson's career has followed the booms and busts of Wise County, up to his current job fighting the opioid epidemic.
Bucky Culbertson in his office, January 2019.
Ben Hethcoat/Marketplace

How one sentence helped set off the opioid crisis

Dec 13, 2017
Recently unsealed documents shed light on how the maker of OxyContin seems to have relied more on focus groups than on scientific studies to create an aggressive and misleading marketing campaign that helped fuel the national opioid epidemic.
Alex Wong/Getty Images

How do you do business without high-speed internet?

Jun 20, 2017
In rural Erie County, 38 percent of people don’t have access to high-speed internet.
Taxidermist Paul Czarnecki and his wife, real estate agent Christie Mahany. 
Reema Khrais/Marketplace

100 days into Trump's presidency, Union City, Pennsylvania, stands behind him

The president has our 'best interests at heart' Union City locals say.
At Ma-Donna’s Restaurant, a local gathering spot in Erie County’s Union City, Marketplace host Kai Ryssdal checked in to see how locals feel about President Trump’s first 100 days. From left to right: Merv Troyer, Robert Glen, Keith Troyer, and Norm Troyer.
Caitlin Esch/Marketplace

Sterling Technologies: A small business optimistic under President Trump

Jan 20, 2017
We're following the county of Erie, Pennsylvania, and the people relying on President Trump's promises. Today, a factory banking on those promises.
Factory workers at Erie's Sterling Technologies in 2017.
Maitham Basha-Agha/Marketplace

Union City: a town waiting on Trump's promises

Jan 18, 2017
Voters in this small Pennsylvania community have hope, but need jobs.
Union City, Pennsylvania, once the "chair capital of the world," now searches for a new identity.
Maitham Basha-Agha/Marketplace

A visit to Erie's Polish Falcons

The Pennsylvania county represents the economic dissatisfaction that voters felt during the election.
Erie, Pennsylvania was built on manufacturing, and its county went Republican in the 2016 presidential election after voting for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012. We dropped in on the Polish Falcons Social Club, Nest 610, to chat with some voters about how their economies are going.
Maitham Basha-Agha/Marketplace

The legacy of welfare reform, 20 years later

Aug 22, 2016
We follow the money. How is it spent and to what impact?
Then-President Bill Clinton clinches his fist during a 1996 speech on welfare reform at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Two decades ago, Clinton signed welfare reform.
PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images