Michael Moran is an author, journalist, documentarian and political analyst whose work on international affairs and geo-economics have won awards, influenced policy and angered despots for decades. In his most recent documentary work, he shared Executive Producer credits with MediaStorm founder Brian Storm on a 2019 multimedia look at US-Russia relations funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, The Quest for Stability in US-Russia Relations. A lecturer on international affairs at the Korbel School of International Affairs in Denver, Moran is also CEO and Chief Research Officer of Transformative, a content strategy and risk advisory, working with nonprofit, media and corporate clients to help them match strategy to goals. Before launching Transformative in 2016, Moran was Chief US/Macro Analyst and Director of Marketing/Americas at Control Risks, the world’s leading political and security consultancy. Moran previously served as head of thought leadership at the investment bank Renaissance Capital, and as chief geo-strategist and digital editor for Roubini Global Economics, where he helped launch the company’s product offering. In 2005, Moran conceived and launched the documentary series “Crisis Guides” for the Council on Foreign Relations, where he ran digital content. The series was produced with MediaStorm from 2006-2013, garnering three Emmy awards, an Overseas Press Club award and several other honors. Moran is also author of both fiction and non-fiction books, including The Reckoning: Debt, Democracy and the Future of American Power, critically acclaimed and translated into four languages. Ian Bremmer, CEO of Eurasia Group, said of The Reckoning: “Moran is a sharp thinker and fine storyteller, and The Reckoning is a terrifically engaging read. Moran’s work as a journalist dates to his university years in the 1980s, when he was the night and weekend copy boy at The New York Times Washington bureau. In the years that followed, he covered wars, revolutions, crime and sundry human events for the Associated Press, BBC World Service, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and other outlets before joining the launch team of MSNBC.com in 1996. Moran’s writing regularly appears in prominent newspapers and broadcast outlets including Foreign Affairs, the Los Angeles Times, CNN, CNBC, Foreign Policy, Forbes and Slate. He has lectured at dozens of universities, government agencies and think tanks around the world. He is a Life Member of the Council on Foreign Relations and, since 2011, a member of the Communications Advisory Board of Human Rights Watch.
MediaStorm, in partnership with the Carnegie Corporation of New York (CCNY) and Transformative presents US-Russia Relations: The Quest for Stability, the definitive guide to US-Russia relations.
This project leverages Carnegie’s unparalleled access to issue-area expertise, with MediaStorm’s storytelling capabilities, to create a communications toolset that offers historical content, fact-based journalism, and potential solutions to the current impasse in US-Russia relations. Powered by the MediaStorm Platform, this responsive, interactive experience showcases video, timeline, audio, interactive charts and maps, to explore why US-Russia relations are critical to the preservation of American democracy and global stability.
Drawing on the insights of more than twenty-five leading analysts, government officials, and journalists, Crisis Guide: Iran explores these challenges and offers a range of expert opinions on the policy options for addressing them. The guide also uses multimedia elements to trace the country's history, examine its oil-driven economy, and survey its controversial nuclear program.
It is the seventh in a series of guides produced by MediaStorm and the Council on Foreign Relations that look at major international issues.
Tensions over U.S. attacks in Pakistan's tribal areas, and concerns about stability after recent floods, highlight Pakistan's importance to U.S. policy in the region. To address one of the world's most troubling states in crisis, Crisis Guide: Pakistan is an online interactive guide that examines the roots of Pakistan's problems, what it means for the region and the world, and offers paths to a solution. It is the sixth in a series of guides produced by MediaStorm and the Council on Foreign Relations that look at major international issues.
For decades, the effects of the Israel-Palestinian conflict have reverberated throughout the Middle East and the world. Understanding the origins of this dispute requires understanding its complex and often contested history.
Crisis Guide: The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict integrates a comprehensive array of audio, video, imagery, and text, to offers an in-depth look at the history of the conflict and its geopolitical repercussions.
Crisis Guide: The Global Economy is the fifth in a series of guides produced by MediaStorm and CFR that look at major international issues. Produced in the wake of the worst financial crisis in decades, the guide through multimedia had to explore how this crisis came about and what it might mean for business and international affairs in decades to come.
To foster better understanding of modern global challenges and the international community's track record in responding to them, the Global Governance Monitor is an online multimedia tool that maps and evaluates efforts to tackle the most pressing problems facing the world. It contains multiple components addressing the issues of Nuclear Nonproliferation, Global Finance, Oceans, Climate Change, and Public Health, the latest issue, with future components to come.
Fashioning an appropriate response to the Earth's changing climate may be the most difficult challenge facing world policymakers in the early twenty-first century.
Explore the known effects of these changes, the diplomatic dilemmas, the relevant technologies and policy options, and the diverse perspectives on the problem.
Crisis Guide: Climate Change looks at the known effects of climate change, the diplomatic dilemmas, the relevant technologies and policy options, and the diverse perspectives on the problem.
The Nuclear Energy Guide explores the past, present and future of nuclear power, focusing on its unique benefits and risks.
Concerns over climate change and energy security have spurred countries to reevaluate their energy policies. After decades of decline, nuclear power is increasingly presented as an option to meet growing electricity demands. Global construction of new reactors is on the rise, with some observers predicting a renaissance for nuclear power. Still, there exists an array of obstacles to expansion.
The conflict raging in Sudan's Darfur region since 2003 has claimed over 200,000 lives. Sudan has broken repeated promises to rein in its militia allies in the region, and Darfur rebel groups hae shown little interest in negotiating a peace agreement. Meanwhile, the suffering of Darfur's people continues.
Crisis Guide: Darfur is the second in a series of interactive guides to the most complex issues and conflicts on the planet. The six-chapter project includes a multimedia narrative, interactive maps and timelines, and extensive information on the situation in Darfur.
Crisis Guide: The Korean Peninsula provides comprehensive background information on the Korean crisis and is driven by in-depth reporting via CFR experts. It is the first in a series of interactive guides to the most complex crises, issues and conflicts on the planet.

Once teetering on the brink of extinction, the Santa Catalina Island Fox made a dramatic recovery. Its resurgence marks one of the greatest conservation success stories in United States history.

In the shadow of Silicon Valley’s booming technology industry, a growing number of people remain out in the cold. Skyrocketing housing prices in America’s hub of innovation have pushed many onto the streets, straining policymakers to find solutions to a homelessness problem that impacts everyone in the community.

This page recognizing Zora J Murff for ICP’s 2023 Infinity Award for Documentary Practice and Visual Journalism features a film about his life, a slideshow of his projects and extra clips of his thoughts about his work and motivation.

Sebastião Salgado says "a good picture, a fantastic picture, you do in a fraction of a second, but to arrive to do this picture, you must put your life in there."

Esther Horvath has sent questions to the universe and she has received answers. She found her calling to tell visual stories that show the full research story behind our climate data.

See photographer Acacia Johnson’s growth from her earliest explorations of Alaskan landscapes to a National Geographic cover for a documentary project among indigenous people of the Arctic.

Sir Don McCullin never intended to become a photographer. He found it hard to believe he’d ever escape the poverty of North London. But a spur of the moment photograph launched McCullin into a career spanning 50 years in photography.

As the U.S. prepares for the final drawdown of soldiers from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, Soledad O’Brien and MediaStorm take an intimate look at two veterans as they struggle with the transition from war to home.

Writer Zadie Smith pays homage to photographer Deana Lawson in the artist’s first Monograph for Aperture.

As a formerly incarcerated person, Michael struggled for work, and found purpose in being a husband, father, and activist. But 7 years since his release from prison, the cost of Michael’s activism is evident.

Benny is a “certified” garbologist. He collects what others throw away. Benny is also at war with his family. Here is a man sharing a house with his wife but living as a stranger. This is a household on the edge.

Photographer Amber Bracken recognized something deeper than a protest was afoot when hundreds of tribes gathered at the Standing Rock reservation in opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline.

How does the death of a child change a parent? How does the death of a parent change a child? How do these moments change us as we develop and grow further away from who we were as children?

Maurice Berger–cultural historian, and columnist for the New York Times’ Race Stories–has spent his career studying and teaching racial literacy through visual literacy.

Japan’s Disposable Workers examines the country’s employment crisis: from suicide caused by overworking, to temporary workers forced by economics to live in internet cafes, and the elderly who wander a town in search of shelter and food.

Karl Ove Knausgaard is the celebrated author of a massive six-volume autobiography. But Knausgaard remains confused by the attention. This is a portrait of a man who has achieved massive success yet still considers himself unworthy.

Michael Thomasson has devoted his life to video games. It’s been his passion and his obsession for more than three decades. He owns over 11,000 unique game titles for more than 100 different systems.

A film about Michael Christopher Brown for the 2017 ICP Infinity Awards.

The Long Night, a feature film by Tim Matsui and MediaStorm, gives voice and meaning to the crisis of minors who are forced and coerced into the American sex trade.

Jonathan Harris and Greg Hochmuth have a complicated relationship with the internet and have worked together to develop an artwork that explored some of the more difficult consequences of what it means to live with the internet.

In 1977, Robyn Davidson walked 1,700 miles across the Australian outback. National Geographic sent Rick Smolan to photograph her perilous journey—a trek that tested and transformed them, forming an immutable bond that continues to this day.

Once at the center of the U.S. economy, the family farm now drifts at its edges. In Iowa, old-time farmers try to hang on to their way of life, while their young push out to find their futures elsewhere. Driftless tells their stories.

The American family farm gives way to a subdivision - a critical cultural shift across the U.S. Common Ground is a 27-year document of this transition, through the Cagwins and the Grabenhofers, two families who love the same plot of land.

For Walter Backerman, seltzer is more than a drink. It’s the embodiment of his family. As a third generation seltzer man, he follows the same route as his grandfather. But after 90 years of business, Walter may be the last seltzer man.

Larry Fink has spent over 40 years photographing jazz musicians, wealthy manhattanites, his neighbors, fashion models, and the celebrity elite. His archive is a thoughtful collection of American history, and Fink’s experience of it.

LaToya Ruby Frazier’s body of work “The Notion of Family” examines the impact of the steel industry and the health care system on the community and her family. Collaborating with her mother and grandmother, she uses her family as a lens to view the past, present and future of the town.

Tomas Van Houtryve wants there to be a permanent visual record of the dawn of the drone age, the period in American history when America started outsourcing their military to flying robots. In order to create this record, Van Houtryve sent his own drone into American skies.

Evgenia Arbugaeva was born in the magical town of Tiksi, Russia. This barren, arctic landscape influenced Arbugaeva in almost every aspect of her dreamlike photography.

Surviving the Peace: Laos takes an intimate look at the impact of unexploded bombs left over from the Vietnam war in Laos and profiles the dangerous, yet life saving work, that MAG has undertaken in the country.

A family is determined to give their disabled son a whole and vital life. In the midst of a great burden, one small child – with a seemingly endless supply of love – is the blessing that holds a family together.

Inspired by the photographs of the Farm Security Administration growing up, Lynn Johnson has spent nearly 35 years as a photojournalist working for LIFE, National Geographic, Sports Illustrated and various foundations.

Resetting the Table takes a unique, personal look at the impact Starbucks’ Create Jobs for USA program has had on the American Mug & Stein pottery facility in East Liverpool, Ohio.

Hungry Horse captures the spirit of renewal, peace and serenity through stunning landscapes and intimate oral histories.

Using humor and a love of fantasy, "The Amazing Amy" Harlib connects with audiences through performing strenuous yoga-based contortion acts in New York City.

In many countries, girls as young as eight are forced into marriage by their families, culture and economic situation. This practice destroys their chance at education leading to tragic results.

Surreal and mysterious, North Korea was a black hole to outsiders wanting a glimpse of the country. That all changed in 2012, when AP photographer David Guttenfelder led the opening of the bureau's newest office inside the North Korea.

Virginia Gandee's brilliant red hair and dozen tattoos belie the reality of this 22-year-old's life. Inside her family's Staten Island trailer her caregiving goes far beyond the love she has for her daughter.

Based on 14 trips to Afghanistan between 1994 and 2010, A Darkness Visible: Afghanistan is the work of photojournalist Seamus Murphy. His work chronicles a people caught time and again in political turmoil, struggling to find their way.

In Rwanda, in 1994, Hutu militia committed a bloody genocide, murdering one million Tutsis. Many of the Tutsi women were spared, only to be held captive and repeatedly raped. Many became pregnant. Intended Consequences tells their stories.

To those who serve in the armed forces, what is the aftereffect of war? The Marlboro Marine is photographer Luis Sinco's portrait of Marine Corporal James Blake Miller, whom he met in Iraq. For Miller, coming home has been its own battle.

Zakouma National Park is one of the last places on earth where elephants still roam by the thousands. In a land where poachers will slaughter the huge animals for their tusks alone, it takes armed guards to keep them safe.

Kingsley's Crossing is the story of one man's dream to leave the poverty of life in Africa for the promised land of Europe. We walk in his shoes, as photojournalist Olivier Jobard accompanies Kingsley on his uncertain and perilous journey.
The MediaStorm Platform is an advanced video platform that extends the user experience beyond linear video to include the interactive capabilities of the Internet.
The MediaStorm Platform is an advanced video platform that extends the user experience beyond linear video to include the interactive capabilities of the Internet.
Copyright 2025 MediaStorm, LLC | Terms & Conditions | Privacy | Contact
