For 50 years, the idea of making psychedelic drugs legal again was unthinkable. Now, even conservative lawmakers are supporting efforts to approve psychedelics as a treatment for veterans with PTSD.
Michael I Schiller
Senior Reporter and Producer
Michael I Schiller is a senior reporter and producer for Reveal. His Emmy Award-winning work spans animation, radio and documentary film.
“The Dead Unknown,” a video series he directed about the crisis of America's unidentified dead, earned a national News and Documentary Emmy Award, national Edward R. Murrow Award and national Society of Professional Journalists Sigma Delta Chi Award.
His 2015 animated documentary short film “The Box,” about youth solitary confinement, was honored with a video journalism award from the Society of Professional Journalists’ Northern California chapter, a San Francisco International Film Festival Golden Gate Award and a New Orleans Film Festival special jury prize, and it was nominated for a national News and Documentary Emmy for new approaches.
Schiller was one the producers of the pilot episode of the Peabody Award-winning Reveal radio show and podcast. He continues to regularly produce audio documentaries for the weekly public radio show, which airs on over 450 stations nationwide. Schiller is based in Reveal's Emeryville, California, office.
The Plague in the Shadows
Decades before COVID-19 came along, AIDS tore through the U.S., but there was little help for the most vulnerable communities.
Gaza: A War of Weapons and Words
The loss of civilian life in Gaza and Israel has sparked outrage and protest, but a group of grieving parents continues quietly working for peace.
America Goes Psychedelic, Again
For 50 years, the idea of making psychedelic drugs legal again was unthinkable. Now, even conservative lawmakers are supporting efforts to approve psychedelics as a treatment for veterans with PTSD.
Mississippi Goddam Chapter 7: Reasonable Doubt
New revelations cast doubt on the official story that Billey Joe Johnson accidentally killed himself.
Mississippi Goddam Chapter 6: Mississippi Justice
There have long been concerns about the quality of investigations into suspicious deaths of young Black men in the state, especially when police are involved.
Mississippi Goddam Chapter 5: Star Crossed
Billey Joe Johnson was a Black boy dating a White girl. That made the story behind his death even more complicated.
Mississippi Goddam Chapter 4: The Investigator
When a detective with the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation finds out what Reveal has uncovered, he begins to wonder whether Billey Joe Johnson’s case should be reopened.
Mississippi Goddam Chapter 3: The Autopsy
The autopsy of Billey Joe Johnson helped a grand jury conclude that his death was an accident. But an independent review of the autopsy came to a different conclusion.
Mississippi Goddam Chapter 2: The Aftermath
On the morning of Billey Joe Johnson’s death, crime scene tape separates the Johnsons from their son’s body. Their shaky faith in the criminal justice system buckles as authorities fail to follow up on inconsistencies in the official story.