Calling all students! NPR’s Student Podcast Challenge returns for 2025 (2019): Email us if you’d like to join us

For more information, advice, and the most recent updates on this year’s contest, please sign up for our weekly newsletter. Students, we can’t wait to hear your stories. Good luck!

We listen to every single entry. So whether it’s you and your friend’s podcast, a class assignment or a passion project you’re finally putting together, we’re excited to hear from you and listen to whatever you got for us.

Yes! You are allowed to submit as many as you’d like. Just make sure each of your podcast entries are (1) between three and eight minutes in length and (2) don’t use copyrighted audio. We don’t want your work to be thrown out.

All eligible contest entries must be written, recorded and produced by students. We would be glad to show students the basics of audio recording and editing with the help of the teachers who incorporate podcasting into their classes. And as a part of this process, we understand that students may be getting feedback from the adults involved. Bottom line, we please ask the adults to not get their own hands on their students’ projects.

“Pre-recorded music may not be used. If the story is relevant to the performance, live performances of public domain songs or non-copyrightable rhythm elements may be entered. For avoidance of doubt, for the purposes of these Official Rules, “public domain” does not mean “publicly available”; it means that copyright has expired and the material is no longer under copyright protection. If the entrant does not know if the music is copyrighted or not, they should exclude it.

Source: Calling all students! NPR’s Student Podcast Challenge returns for 2025

How to Write a Podcast? Questions and Answers about the Student Podcast Challenge ([email protected], August 4-5, 2019)

Here are a few questions we get over and over again each year. Don’t hesitate to email us at [email protected] with any questions.

It all started with a small idea back in 2018, when NPR’s education team wanted to know what was really going on in the minds of young people. We wanted to hear about the stories students are dying to tell to get off their chest and the things that keep them up at night. So we created the Student Podcast Challenge, an opportunity for students all around the country to record their stories and share them with NPR.

The PBS News Student Reporting Labs has a good audio toolkit that we can check out.

In previous years, our winners and their podcasts have also been included on NPR podcasts like Up First or Code Switch. They’ve also received additional recognition from their school or school districts, and many have been interviewed by local media. It’s a great opportunity to share your story and get more people to listen to it.

The judges will pick the middle and high school grand prize winner. The grand prize includes a certificate and trophy, and a visit from the NPR Ed team, who will interview you and your teacher for a story on NPR’s programs, such as Morning Edition or All Things Considered.

A special note here: Parents and educators, step away from the microphone! Please do not produce, edit or otherwise handle the production or editing of podcasts. The FAQ section below shows the information on how the entries should be original by students. We had to disqualify some entries last year for clearly breaking this rule.

Again, you have the option to explore any topic you want. Something that stimulates you doesn’t have to be a very important subject. If you aren’t sure about your idea, run it by your friends, teachers and family. Ask them what part of your story they find the most interesting and try zooming in on that.

Ten Books We Love for the Young Adult World: The Room Next Door, No GOOD DEED, and No Good Deed starring Lisa Kudrow

Whether you are young or old, here are ten youngadult novels you should read. The books are part of this year’s Books We Love series.

🎵 Music: Jazz Night in America gets a little more mellow and cozy with a special holiday edition featuring The Yule Log — an album by Philadelphia-born pianist George Burton.

🍛 Food: The rare cookbook Dalit Kitchens of Marathwada explores the culinary traditions of two groups of Dalits, a group of people who broadly occupy the lowest rungs of South India’s ancient caste system. There are some dishes that are not typically found in your kitchen. Here are some recipes from the book.

📺 TV: The new ensemble dark comedy No Good Deed follows several couples and families that get tangled up in the sale of a home that holds a secret. Lisa Kudrow is in the cast.

The Room Next Door looks at death and its relation to life. It follows Martha, who asks her friend Ingrid to accompany her during her last days after a cancer treatment failed.

Source: GOP stop-gap bill fails, bringing potential shutdown closer. And, NPR’s guide to dance

Up First Newsletter: Stop-Gap Bill Fails, Bring Potential Government Shutdown, Ukraine War-Syria hts

Good morning. You’re reading the Up First newsletter. You can subscribe to the Up First newsletter to get the news you need to start your day.

The federal government will run out of money at midnight due to the inability of Congress to pass a stop-gap funding measure yesterday. The plan B proposal was made by Speaker Johnson after Donald Trump demanded that there be a new bipartisan bill. Last night, Plan B didn’t work. The original plan was derailed when Trump and his top advisers, including Elon Musk, demanded that Congress kill the deal.

The city of Pokrovsk, located in the eastern part of the country, is going through one of the fiercest battles in its history. It’s a transportation hub and coal mining center. An independent estimate finds that over 3,000 soldiers in Russia’s army have been killed or wounded trying to capture it — so far unsuccessfully.

Source: GOP stop-gap bill fails, bringing potential shutdown closer. And, NPR’s guide to dance

Getting into the Swing of Things: Difficulties in Moving Beyond Bashar Al-Assad’s Reionization Regime

The rebel group that toppled former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s regime now faces the challenge of replacing it. An interim government has been set up. Many people are waiting to see what the rebel group HTS will do differently than Assad. The country has many ethnic and religious groups.

If you believe you can’t dance, you are wrong. Anyone can dance, and you don’t need special shoes or skills to do it. Great music is something that is a plus. The guide in this comic has advice from experts on how to move and get into the swing of things.