Burn Your Draft Podcast Producer

The Burn Your Draft Podcast Producer will help run Burn Your Draft, a podcast exploring the year-long senior thesis experience at Reed College through interviews with current students and alumni. Burn Your Draft is a production of the Center for Life Beyond Reed, and Reed College. It launched in August 2020 and has more than seventy published interviews with alumni. The podcast is distributed professionally, and is available wherever podcasts are found. The podcast producer will work with CLBR staff members to run all functions of the podcast. Staff member Joe Janiga in ITS provides technical advising as needed.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Interview guests (seniors and recent graduates) and manage recording and storage of audio files
• Edit recorded audio interviews to be released as podcast episodes
• Schedule guests via email to be interviewed over Zoom or in the PARC and work with them to find a time to record the interview
• Work in various recording, editing, and hosting platforms, such as Audacity, Descript, Garage Band, Zoom, SoundCloud, or others as needed
• Learn to use equipment in AV Recording & Editing Workroom in the PARC with help from staff
• Become comfortable as an interviewer and help seniors and recent grads to reflect on their thesis experience while still maintaining a compelling narrative
• Responsibly represent both Reed College and the voices and views of podcast guests
• Maintain sustainable onboarding documents in shared Google drive
• Promote the podcast as time permits to students, with help from CLBR
• Assist with social media promotion of podcast if time permits

Requirement:

• Must have first year or sophomore status in spring 2026.
• Student work at Reed is intended to be performed and supervised on campus. Students attending a study abroad (or away) program during or between spring 2026 and spring 2027 are not eligible for this position.

Qualifications:

• Ability to work independently and take initiative as needed to release episodes on set schedule
• Great communication (specifically interviewing) and organizational skills
• Some experience with recording and editing audio or video content
• Evidence of capacity for creative problem-solving

To Apply:

Submit a resume and cover letter in Handshake describing how you meet the above qualifications.

Interview/Hiring Timeline:

Top applicants will be invited to interview over Zoom during the week after the application closes. We will contact all applicants once someone has accepted the position.

Shifts and Hours:

Eight hours per week, including a one hour weekly meeting with the supervisor in person in Prexy. The rest of the time is flexible based upon commitments for that week (time needed for editing, or interviewing). You’re welcome to use your own computer to work if possible, but a workstation will be made available in a shared workspace in Prexy if needed. The recording studio in the PARC can also be reserved as needed.

Duration:

This is an academic year position beginning in Spring 2026 and ending in May 2027, while school is in session. There will be an option to work in summer 2026 up to 8/hours per week if you’ll be in Oregon, but this is not a requirement or qualification.

Training:

Spring 2026 will focus on training to learn interview techniques and audio recording and engineering. Much of this (especially recording and engineering) will involve self-study with guidance from staff.

Learning Outcomes:

CLBR is committed to providing opportunities for students which focus on developing professional skill sets. In this role you’ll be able to:

• Learn how to produce a professionally syndicated podcast
• Build expertise in audio content creation, production, and distribution
• Hone your professional communication and collaboration skills
• Help manage a program with skills and outcomes that you can highlight on your resume

The podcast additionally has a number of goals:

• Help seniors and recent grads hone their thesis narrative for professional and personal development
• Create a publicly available and easily accessible record of Reed student accomplishments
• Raise awareness, generate excitement, and drive connection with the college and CLBR
• Connect current students and alumni to strengthen Reed community

This position was made possible by a gift from Seth Paskin ‘90.