Temporary Associate Producer, Throughline

OVERVIEW

A thriving, mission-driven multimedia organization, NPR produces award-winning news, information, and music programming in partnership with hundreds of independent public radio stations across the nation. The NPR audience values information, creativity, curiosity, and social responsibility – and our employees do too. We are innovators and leaders in diverse fields, from journalism and digital media to IT and development. Every day, our employees and member stations touch the lives of millions worldwide. 

Across our organization, we’re building a workplace where collaboration is essential, diverse voices are heard, and inclusion is the key to our success. We are committed to doing the right thing in our journalism and in every role at NPR. This means that integrity, adherence to our ethical standards, and compliance with legal obligations are fundamental responsibilities for every employee at NPR.

Intro to Position

Application Deadline: Tuesday, November 11th at 5pm ET

As the United States commemorates the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026, NPR will present a six-month long podcast feed through July 6th, 2026. In collaboration with Throughline, the standalone feed explores significant historical locations, events, and ideas across the country, reflecting on Americans’ ongoing quest for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness through the lenses of innovation, arts and culture, faith, civic engagement and more. 

This temporary 6-month associate producer will support all aspects of bringing this new feed to life, including working in ProTools to shape episodes from Throughline’s back catalogue, collaborating with NPR news magazines on prepping new material from throughout the NPR Network for podcast distribution, partnering with the series editor on scripting and fact checking, and working in NPR’s CMS to publish episodes. 

The Throughline team is a highly collaborative, curious, creative, and hardworking group producing one of NPR’s top longform storytelling shows. Throughline goes deep into the events and ideas dominating our national conversations, illuminating the history we sometimes forget — or didn't know in the first place. Our guiding question is ‘how did we get here?’ We work to answer that question every week through cinematic and sound-rich storytelling, exploring perspectives, people, and places often missing from history textbooks, bringing themes and concepts to life with some of the most compelling non-fiction audio storytelling being made today.

This is a union-represented role covered under the terms of a collective bargaining agreement with SAG-AFTRA.

This is an NPR editorial role covered under the terms of the NPR Ethics Handbook. All editorial staff are bound by this guidance. Editorial staff are defined as staff members who play a role in shaping the journalistic or creative direction of NPR's content, including events.    

Responsibilities

• Works in ProTools to adapt existing Throughline podcast episodes and create new podcast episodes from NPR newsmagazine pieces
• Handles episode publishing in NPR CMS
• Works in collaboration with series editors, Throughline team, and others to write episode copy, including drafts of hosts’ leads and other production copy. 
• Attends production and team meetings as needed
• Edits audio with minimal editorial supervision.
• Adapts and produces radio segments for broadcast
• Contributes to other digital pieces when asked

The above duties and responsibilities are not an exhaustive list of required responsibilities, duties and skills. Other duties may be assigned, and this job description can be modified at any time.

Required Qualifications

• 5+ years professional experience in editing audio in ProTools 
• Demonstrated experience fact-checking and adhering to journalistic standards
• Strong conversational writing skills
• Ability to work both collaboratively and independently, with sometimes multiple competing deadlines
• Familiarity with podcast publishing

Preferred Qualifications

• Familiarity with Slack and Google Docs in remote communications
• Creative sound design experience
• Understanding of public radio
• Experience with longform production
• Strong organizational skills

Education Requirements

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent in work experience

Work Location & Requirements

NPR Remote-Permitted: This is a remote-permitted role. This role is based out of our Washington, D.