On November 19, The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer and The New York Times’s Andrew C. Revkin were presented with the John Chancellor Award for Excellence in Journalism and spoke at Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism.

Mayer was honored for her reporting on the use of torture by the Bush administration. (Two examples of her excellent work can be seen here and here.) Revkin was awarded for his coverage of climate change. (In addition to his Times articles, he also runs the lively and informative Dot Earth Blog.

In her talk, Mayer emphasized the importance of developing strong relationships with sources and finding innovative strategies for reporting on topics shrouded in secrecy. For his part, Revkin encouraged journalists to think of scientific knowledge as an advancing and evolving set of ideas.

Listen to the full lecture here.