Ep 14: Gianna Toboni
14: Journalist Gianna Toboni discusses her book The Volunteer, the state of the death penalty in the U.S.
For over a decade, Gianna Toboni has traveled around the world by way of her insightful and daring investigative journalism. She’s been to more than 30 countries for her documentary work that has appeared on the likes of HBO, Showtime, Hulu, and Vice. A two-time Emmy winner, recipient of a GLAAD Award, two Front Page Awards, honored on Forbes’s 30 Under 30 list for Media — Gianna’s list of accomplishments is long.
She joins On Topic, Off Script to discuss her new book — The Volunteer: The Failure of the Death Penalty in America, and One Inmate’s Quest to Die with Dignity.
The book stems from her reporting for Vice News, when she met Scott Dozier, a man who was sent to death row in Nevada back in 2007, convicted of two murders. Dozier’s life story is a complex one full of twists and turns. The path to writing this book began in 2017, when Gianna wrote Dozier a letter in the hopes of securing an interview before his scheduled execution date. Dozier’s execution was stayed at the last minute, and from there, the two formed a connection between reporter and subject. She became his confidante while he advocated for his own execution. Gianna sets the fraught ups and downs of Dozier’s life against the backdrop of this nation’s flawed capital punishment system. The book is riveting and it forces you to confront the realities of just how embedded the death penalty is in America’s psyche.
I sat down with Gianna to discuss The Volunteer, how her reporting on Scott Dozier led to this book, and the state of capital punishment today.
“Until we start asking ourselves tough questions, and questioning our own views, and thinking for ourselves...we need to think for ourselves, there is not enough of that happening in our country.”
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