RECORDED WEBINAR - Thursday, May 15th 11-12pm PT / 2-3pm ET

NPR’s Embedded: Pitching Your Narrative Podcast Series

NPR’s Embedded team will walk you through the essential elements we look for in serialized, narrative podcast pitches and give tips on how to create scene-rich, character-driven audio documentaries that stick with listeners long after the credits roll.

This webinar is free for AIR members. RSVP via Zoom to attend. Non-members must purchase a ticket to  reveal the RSVP button. 
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Key Takeaways

  • How to make a more persuasive series pitch that will catch the ear of a narrative podcast team, and underline the relevance of your story for a national audience
  • How to think like a documentary podcasting journalist – building narrative arcs, brainstorming big-picture themes and looking for characters that can sustain an entire series
  • What it’s like to work with Embedded on a long-term audio project

About this webinar

  • Thursday, May 15, 2025. 
  • 11am - 12pm PT / 2-3pm ET
  • 60 min
  • Free for AIR members / 
    $25 non-members
  • This webinar is recorded and made available for AIR members and ticket holders after the recording. 
You have a big idea about a big story. Maybe you’ve been reporting it out for months, or maybe you’d like to report something that’s just started to happen. Either way, you’re wondering whether a longform podcast series is the best way to reach your audience. How do you bring your story alive in audio? And in a crowded industry, how do you catch the ear of the people who can help you do it? NPR’s Embedded team will walk you through the essential elements we look for in serialized, narrative podcast pitches and give tips on how to create scene-rich, character-driven audio documentaries that stick with listeners long after the credits roll.

Who is this webinar for? 

This session is best suited for people with intermediate to advanced journalism experience, and any level of prior audio experience. Attendees with narrative series ideas, however nascent, will likely get the most out of this session, but we’ll also be providing basic tips that can be filed away for future pitches.  
Meet the PRESENTER

Katie Simon

Katie Simon is the Senior Supervising Editor for Embedded at NPR (aka, the showrunner).

Before Embedded, she was a founding producer of NPR's multi-platform jazz programming, and, prior to that, a founding editor at StoryCorps. She co-created The Scarlet E: Unmasking America's Eviction Crisis (WNYC/On the Media), freelanced for ESPN's 30 for 30 podcast series, and piloted the Well-Read Black Girl podcast (Pushkin Industries).

Katie has contributed to exhibitions for the National Building Museum and the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. She's filed stories from the southernmost tip of Louisiana in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and with inmate firefighters in Wyoming. She got her start in audio as a reporter in Newark, NJ.

Katie's work has been recognized with a Columbia-DuPont silver baton, two George Foster Peabody awards, an Edward R. Murrow award, an Ambie, and multiple Emmy nominations. Series she’s overseen for Embedded have recently found themselves on best of lists from The New Yorker, The New York Times and Vulture. She holds degrees from Kenyon College and Columbia University's School of Journalism.
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Meet the PRESENTER

Adelina Lancianese

Adelina Lancianese is Senior Producer for NPR’s Embedded podcast, where she's worked on documentary series such as “A Good Guy”, “The Black Gate” and “Supermajority.” The latter was named one of the best podcasts of 2024 by The New Yorker.

Prior to her time at Embedded, Adelina was a lead producer for other NPR shows, including Rough Translation, On Our Watch, and Louder Than A Riot. She also co-led the annual Story Lab Workshop to train and support NPR Member station journalists working on big audio projects. 

Her work has been recognized by the National Press Foundation, Society of Professional Journalists, American Bar Association and Edward R. Murrow awards. Adelina was a 2017 NPR Kroc Fellow and a 2023 East-West Center KUSJE Fellow. 

Adelina loves sound-designing beautiful moments, taking long walks with hours of tape and project-managing big stories.
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Meet the PRESENTER

Luis Trelles

Luis Trelles is a Senior Editor on Embedded, NPR’s home for ambitious, deeply-reported documentary projects. As a story editor on series like “Alternate Realities”, “A Good Guy” and “The Last Cup” he’s helped different makers, reporters and hosts think about the right kind of storytelling for their pieces, and the best approach to writing and reporting. The “story” part is the one that really gets him excited about his job.

Before Embedded, he edited international stories for NPR’s Rough Translation podcast, personal essays about identity and belonging with Latino USA, and he also filed his own stories from Puerto Rico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and their diasporic communities for Radio Ambulante.

In a previous professional life he was a screenwriter, and he still uses the narrative tools he picked up along the way in each project he edits.
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