In 2010, I got my foot at the door at NPR with a two-day-a-week job at News Operations.
I also filled at in All Things Considered, Morning Edition, and worked on special projects with the Science Desk, Multimedia, and the Investigative Unit.
In 2012, I was tapped to help launch the pilot season of The TED Radio Hour.
Personal notes analyzing an early pilot of TED Radio Hour, with content analysis of the show was it was (left) and a detailed plan for how I’d make it better (right). It must have made sense to someone, because I got the job. Summer, 2012.
The TED Radio Hour debuted as the #1 podcast in iTunes—making it the first show to bump This American Life out of the coveted spot.
I could have stayed at NPR indefinitely—but instead, I quit my job, packed a very busted Chevy Lumina with everything I owned, and moved sight unseen to Oakland, California.
I may have been the first person to have ever left an NPR staff position to go work on a “podcast.” When I told my NPR colleagues what I was doing, I was mostly given looks of concern.
NPR’s old building on Massachusetts Ave NW in Washington, DC. Count five floors up and find the exterior wall of the first Tiny Desk Concerts.
I had a cameo in a viral video of NPR staffers parodying a parody of Lady Gaga & Beyoncé’s “Telephone” music video. Produced by Shereen Marisol Meraji.