Josie Lenora
Politics/Government ReporterJosie Lenora is the Politics/Government Reporter for Little Rock Public Radio. She covers anything involving city government, the legislature, or the governor's office. She lead up the "Arkansas Decides 2024" election coverage, and is working on developing an anthology news podcast for the station. She is the occasional fill-in host for Morning Edition or All Things Considered.
Josie has ten first-place awards from the Arkansas Society of Professional Journalists. Her report on the Arkansas Department of Education's AP African American Studies ban won first place at the National Federation of Press Women Communications Contest for 2024, in the radio category. She won another award from the Arkansas Press Women the next year, for her piece on a planned prison in Charleston, Arkansas.
In 2025, she won the UA Little Rock Ben Fry Award for Staff Achievement.
She is also the recipient of The National Press Foundations 2024 Elections Journalism Fellowship. She served as a board member for the Arkansas Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists 2024-2025.
Her reporting has been featured on NPR's All Things Considered and Morning Edition. This includes the Lawsuit over "Critical Race Theory" in Schools, Arkansas drag bans and the State Monument to the Unborn. She has done freelance audio work for Gimlet's podcast "Crime Show" and Dateline NBC's "Murder in Apartment 12." She is an occasional guest on the Arkansas-PBS weekly news show "Arkansas Week," and moderated a congressional debate for the television station.
Josie has a B.A. degree in English/creative writing from Hendrix College in Conway.
Outside work, Josie is a crafting fanatic. Name a craft and she's probably tried it: renovating the insides of old dollhouses, scrapbooking, making cards, polymer clay, needle felting, DIY home decorating and paper crafting.
Josie loves spin class, nonfiction audiobooks, caffeinated lattes and every shade of pink. She listens to as many podcasts as she can fit in a day.
She loves hearing from listeners. Email: josie@littlerockpublicradio.org
-
Protestors lined the Broadway Bridge over the Arkansas River as they cried out against President Donald Trump's policies. -
The law mandates a copy of the Ten Commandments be hung in all Arkansas public buildings, including school classrooms. -
The groups plan to sue the state while they work to pass an amendment rolling back restrictions to direct democracy. -
The suit alleges wrongful death and violations to the Fourth Amendment in the killing of former Little Rock Airport Director Bryan Malinowski. -
The amendment seeks to walk back legislative hurdles to the direct democracy process. -
The Arkansas nonprofits put forward bills that accomplish the same things with nuanced processes. -
Former Pine Bluff Police Chief Denise Richardson is suing Mayor Vivian Flowers, alleging she was terminated unfairly. -
A slate of new laws make it extremely difficult for grassroots attempts to amend the state constitution. -
The law requires a sign listing the biblical rules be hung in all public buildings, as well as all school classrooms, in Arkansas. -
Though they haven't performed abortions in about three years, the former clinic re-enacted what the process was like when it was legal.
