Pivoting from academia to podcasts with Regina Barber
Plus Transom's best interviewing resources
Welcome back to Starting Out from me and Transom!
In this issue I spoke with NPR’s scientist in residence and Short Wave co-host Regina Barber, who made the leap from academia to media. She has a PhD in physics and taught physics and astronomy at Western Washington University. She also led WWU’s efforts to recruit and retain underrepresented students and faculty in STEM. If you’re making a career change into podcasts and radio, you’re gonna want to check this interview out.
You might also notice that the classifieds section of the newsletter looks a little bit different. In the past, I’ve listed only job postings that were involved in the podcast/radio production process.
Then I had a conversation with an intern at my job who works in the digital department -- working with Wordpress, writing copy, and doing so many other things that help get stories to listeners. Talking to her I realized that podcast production internships are super competitive, and for a lot of people, any role at a podcast/radio company is a step in the right direction. So I’m listing any internship or fellowship, to encourage as many points of entry into the industry as possible.
Alice: Do you have any advice for academics who are interested in making a podcast or want to dip their toes into that?
Regina: I would tell them your university has resources. There's probably a radio station. There's probably a TV station.
There are media people at your university that are dying to talk to a scientist. It's the easiest way, and so find them, find the press officer.
If you want to be on the radio, go talk to the radio people. If you want to make short videos, go talk to the video people. If you want to write, talk to the press officer and see if there is something that he or her or they need for a newsletter. There's so many opportunities at a university.
There's so many resources that you don't know even exist that you have access to. There is a rental place at Western where you can just rent cameras or rent a frickin typewriter. You can rent a sewing machine! You can rent a recorder!
hi there!
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Resource
I hope y’all have enjoyed this season of the newsletter’s guide to interviewing! If you missed it, I covered pre-interviewing, writing a prep (this was a two parter!), and producing an interview.
Of course, none of this is exhaustive, so I wanted to spotlight some of my favorite Transom resources around interviewing:
Tips for Interviewing Shy People (Especially Nuns!) feat. Erika Lantz and Elin Lantz Lesser.
On Interviewing A Racist feat. Reveal’s Al Letson.
Interviewing with Your Skeptical Brain feat. my beloved former co-worker Sally Helm.
Treat an Interview Like a Relationship by Anna Sale (a former Starting Out interviewee!)
Trauma Informed Interviewing by me!
Losing Control in an Interview by Erica Heilman
The Burning Question feat. Audie Cornish
Leave in the Question feat. Sean Cole
Classifieds
Internships
Newsroom Intern, The Pulse, WHYY ($15/hr)
Media Arts Education Intern, WHYY ($15/hr)
Major Gifts & Donor Relations Intern, WHYY ($15/hr)
Fundraising Operations Intern, WHYY ($15/hr)
Public Information Intern, WHYY ($15/hr)
Intern, Radio Reporter, Minnesota Public Radio, American Public Media Group ($18/hr)
Intern, Media Production and Operations, Minnesota Public Radio, APMG ($18/hr)
Intern, Programming, The Current, APMG ($18/hr)
D.C. Bureau Intern, Marketplace, APMG ($18/hr)
U.S. Summer Audio Internship, Financial Times ($16/hr)
Production Intern, Wonder Media Network ($17/hr)
Fellowships
Fellow, Marketplace, APMG ($18/$23/hr)
Spencer Fellowship for Education Reporting, Columbia Journalism School
Residential fellows receive an $85,000 scholarship for personal living expenses. The scholarship is dispensed in two halves at the beginning of each semester. In addition, each fellow receives $7,500 for the year in project expenses, also dispensed in two halves. Non-residential fellows receive a $43,000 stipend and $7,500 project related expenses, each dispensed in two halves.
Reflect Alabama Fellow, WBHM ($15/hr)
Reveal First Amendment Fellow, (No pay information shared)
Associate/Assistant Producer
Podcast Associate Producer, WHYY (No pay information shared)
Associate Producer, Entertainment, Sirius XM ($42,000 - $48,000/yr)
Associate Producer, YMH Studios, Sirius XM (No pay information shared)
Bonus!
Street Team Assistant, WHYY (No pay information shared)
Partner Manager, Podglomerate ($60,000-$75,000/yr)
KPBS Assistant News Producer/Penner Fellow Intern, ($16.30/hr)
Production Assistant, Wonder Media Network ($50,000/yr)
Junior Producer, Wonder Media Network ($60,000/yr)
If you are hiring interns, fellows or other entry level positions, send your job postings and rates to startingout [at] transom [dot] org and I’ll list them in the next issue. Please note that Starting Out features only paid opportunities.
Regina Recommends these Short Wave episodes:
p.s. I love: Working in the backyard with my dog / Love Island Games was made in a lab for my enjoyment / Wish I could live at the Centa… / I do not love the death of Jezebel but I will celebrate their work! / Not going on Instagram for days at a time
Next month: The return of my final exam care package, plus the origin story of Starting Out.