Anya Steinberg is currently an Assistant Producer with Throughline but her NPR journey started with the Student Podcast Challenge. In this Q&A, Anya walks us through her journey.
How did you choose your topic for the Student Podcast Challenge and what are some tips when choosing your topic/creating your story?
The minute I heard about the contest, I pretty much knew immediately what I was going to make my podcast about. I was in a moment of my life where I was spending a lot of time reflecting on feelings I had about my family that I'd always pushed aside. The podcast was a chance for me to pick apart all those complicated emotions about my racial identity, and my relationship with my non-biological and biological dads. But even if it was very specific to my life, I think it has a lot in it that anyone can relate to – that feeling of trying to understand who you are, or the desire to know where you come from. After judging the contest in 2022 and 2023, I've heard hundreds of entries. My biggest tip would be to focus on a topic that you're obsessed with – not one that you think the judges want to hear. The best entries grab onto something emotional and take listeners on a journey.
Why did you choose to apply to the Student Podcast Challenge?
I was in my senior year of college and I really wanted to work in audio journalism. I majored in environmental science and race and ethnic studies, so I had no idea how to break into this industry. I had basically spent the whole fall of my senior year getting turned down from jobs and reaching out to journalists only to be told that I'd have to go to grad school if I wanted to have a career. The College Podcast Challenge was basically my last-ditch attempt to get a job (and I guess it worked out!)
How has winning this challenge impacted your career?
It was everything. When I won the contest, doors opened that I didn't even know existed. Mostly, I think it gave me a level of credibility that I didn't have because I hadn't gone to journalism school, and I didn't have any professional connections in the field yet. I started getting calls back for jobs. It led to me landing a temp gig at a member station in Seattle, which led to me landing an internship at NPR. Winning also gave me a huge boost of confidence. I knew I could make a piece that resonated with people on an emotional level, which is something that I still aspire towards in everything I make today.
What unique aspect do you feel like you bring to Throughline?
There are two things I'm notorious for: being from the Midwest and being the team's official Gen Z representative – which is funny because I am so out of touch with pop culture. I don't have TikTok, I still haven't seen Barbie (or really any trending movies or TV shows), it's honestly embarrassing. But those two things shape a lot of the work I do. I think that there can be a real coastal bias in the media world, especially because a lot of the big-name newsrooms are based on the coasts. Being from the Midwest has influenced the way I see the world and the stories I'm curious about. The most recent story I worked on, A Tale of Two Tribal Nations, was something I pitched, co-reported and co-hosted with reporter Sequoia Carrillo. And part of the inspiration for that story came from experiences I had growing up in Minnesota.
As for being the youngest, there's a lot about that that gives me a unique perspective to bring to the team. I mean, for one, I live in a house with eight of my best friends. Even if I'm very serious about the work that I do, I'm still in a stage of life where, outside of work, I'm not taking anything too seriously. I've heard that one way to be a better journalist is to cultivate a full life outside your job, and I really try to embrace that.
What episode have you worked on recently that you're really passionate about?
The most recent episode I worked on is actually the one I'm most proud of, too. It was a story I pitched, co-reported and produced with NPR Education Reporter, Sequoia Carrillo. We spent a year chasing the answer to the question: who owns tribal lands? Surprisingly, in a lot of cases, it's not tribal nations themselves. And that's because of a policy called allotment, which opened up the vast majority of reservation land in the U.S. to settlers. The episode centers around two reservations in northern Minnesota: Leech Lake and Red Lake. Leech Lake is typical, in the sense that Leech Lakers own less than five percent of their reservation land. But Red Lake is one of a few reservations in the U.S. that were never allotted, where the tribe still owns all their land in common. The reason why boils down to this fork in the road, which is what we explore in the episode. It's essentially a profile of these two tribal leaders who were facing an impossible moment in history, and how the choices they made rippled forward to today.
We even got a grant from the Fund for Investigative Journalism to do a week of field reporting on Leech Lake and Red Lake Reservations. We don't often get to field report for Throughline, so it was such a privilege to be able to spend time with our sources in person. Also, visiting the places we talk about in the episode and seeing the repercussions of history with my own eyes made the story resonate in a much deeper way — and I hope that came across for listeners, too!
What is your favorite part about working for Throughline/NPR?
It's hard to name one thing! The show itself is so much fun to make. There are so many elements that go into each episode – writing, scoring, sound design, archival tape – I love the challenge of trying to weave all those things together. It's basically creating an hour-long documentary each week. The fact that it's a show about history is a challenge in and of itself. It's easy for history to be boring, so it's our job to excavate compelling stories with some relevance to today's world. The hosts, Rund and Ramtin, are always trying to do new things and encourage us to push the boundary of what the show can sound like. The team is also super collaborative and supportive, which is an environment I love working in. The attitude is very much that we all have each other's backs, and all the episodes we make are truly a team effort.
How do you see your professional journey from here? And how does the Student Podcast Challenge influence that journey?
Sometimes I'm overwhelmed by how much I still have to experience in my career! I want to know what it's like to be a beat reporter, I want to know what it's like to be live on the radio. I just want to try everything I possibly can. This past spring was the first time I ever reported a longform piece in the field for A Tale of Two Tribal Nations. It was a life-changing experience to spend hours with people hearing their stories, getting a tour of their homes, and just seeing a slice of their lives. That's an experience I know I want to have again. Hearing hundreds of College Podcast Challenge entries and making my own taught me that there are so many ways to approach an audio story. That's what drew me to audio storytelling, and I hope I can keep being curious and creative in the work I do.
What advice do you have for future Student Podcast Challenge candidates?
Listen to a lot of audio pieces before you make yours and pay attention to all the elements in those pieces – the music, the writing, the tape, the pacing of the narrative. It'll help you think about what you want your own voice and style to be. And that's what's most important! Embrace your own style and voice, make the piece sound like you.
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