Emily Kwong
Co-host, Short Wave @NPR
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WORK HISTORY
Co-host, Short Wave @NPR
Washington, DC, US
Co-host of NPR’s flagship science podcast, reporting on the science behind the headlines. Our show won the 2021 Ambie Award for Best Knowledge, Science or Tech Podcast. Writes and edits two-ways and reported pieces, publishing 4x/week. Supports podcast administration (booking, digital write-ups, hiring, training). Regularly brings reporting to broadcast via All Things Considered and social via NPR\'s Instagram account. Routinely presents to NPR donors and teaches journalism and SciComm workshops across the U.S.
EDUCATION
Salt Institute for Documentary Studies
Radio and Multimedia Documentary
Columbia University
Bachelor's Degree, Anthropology, Human Rights
School for International Training
South Africa: Social and Political Transformation
SKILLS
ABOUT EMILY KWONG
I am the founding reporter and co-host of Short Wave, the NPR science podcast, which won the 2021 Ambie Award for Best Knowledge, Science or Tech Podcast. I am also the host and co-creator of Inheriting, the AAPI family history podcast from LAist Studios. Currently, I am seeking funding support for Inheriting: Season Two, which will focus on how we got to this point in U.S. immigration policy. How has your family been affected by U.S. immigration policy and law? Let us know. Email i••••••••@laiststudios.com with ideas, questions, or to share your story.Inheriting: Season One spanned 80 years of history through the eyes of seven families. Through emails and live events, we received visceral and emotional responses from listeners inspired to dig into their family histories. Inheriting was funded entirely by individual donors, in a groundbreaking model driven by listener support. Our first season won the 2025 Ambie Award for best society and culture podcast, the Signal Award for Best History Podcast (Silver), and the 2025 RFK Journalism Award in radio.I am interested in stories that unfolds at the level of family and community, with a focus on mental health, the environment, and social justice. Previously, I was NPR\'s 2018 \"Above the Fray Fellow,\" reporting a multi-part series on climate change and internal migration set in Mongolia. For four years, I was a daily reporter for KCAW-Sitka, a community radio station in Alaska. I chased stories from the firehouse to city hall, onto fishing grounds and up volcanoes. My work earned multiple awards from the Alaska Press Club and Alaska Broadcasters Association. My stories are driven by empathy and context — a desire to slow down and spend time. There is a sense of people being real people, and of their lives continuing on after the story ends. I am proud to have interviewed both of my parents, shining a light on mental health for StoryCorps with my mom and heritage languages for NPR\'s \"Where We Come From\" series with my dad.I have committed her 15-year career to building equitable workplace cultures. I served as the first co-lead of NPR AZNs, the employee resource group for (ERG) that supports over 100 staff members who identify as Asian, Asian-American, and/or Pacific Islander. Since 2022, I have been the co-president of the board for the Association for Independents in Radio (AIR), an organization for independent audio storytellers. She was a AIR New Voices scholar in 2015. I learned the finer points of cutting tape at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies in 2013.
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