This American Life Creators & Guests

David Kestenbaum is an American radio producer for This American Life. He was formerly a correspondent for National Public Radio.

Ira Glass is an American public radio personality and the host and producer of the radio show, and podcast This American Life. A staple on NPR's schedule, he participated in several programs including Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Talk of the Nation. He has appeared on several other podcasts and continues to work on This American Life.

Sarah Vowell a historian and writer. She has written seven books on American history. She was a contributing editor for This American Life from 1996 to 2008.

Lilly R. Sullivan is a producer for "This American Life."Previously, Sullivan worked with StoryCorps recording oral histories.

Emanuele Berry is a producer at Gimlet. She currently is with Gimlet podcast "The Nod." The Michigan native wandered around St. Louis with a microphone for St. Louis Public Radio, and taught English in Macau, China as a result of winning a Fulbright scholarship.Berry formerly worked on the podcasts "StartUp" and "Undone."

Tobin Low is the co-host and co-managing editor of Nancy and also served as a producer on the first season of More Perfect.

Bethel Habte is a documentary audio producer and story editor based in Brooklyn, NY.

Chris Benderev is a reporter, currently working at NPR in Washington as a producer on Embedded.Benderev's freelance reporting has appeared on NPR's Embedded, All Things Considered and Weekend Edition, PRI's The World and the BBC World Service.Benderev has also produced for Weekend Edition, Hidden Brain, TED Radio Hour and NPR's Election Unit.

Dr. Diane Wu is an audio producer. Currently, she is a producer and Deputy Managing Editor at "This American Life." She co-created and co-hosted the podcast "The Egg Factory."Previously, Wu was at the Gimlet Media show "Science Vs." Before that, she was a scientist.

Nancy Updike is an American public radio producer and writer. She is one of the founding producers of the long-running radio program This American Life. Her work has been featured on other radio programs including All Things Considered, and has been published in The New York Times Magazine, LA Weekly, The Boston Globe, and Salon.com.

Stephanie Foo is a writer, a radio producer and an editor. She was a producer at This American Life for five years, and helped create Snap Judgment. Her book about healing from Complex PTSD, "WHAT MY BONES KNOW," will be coming out in February 2022. Foo taught high school journalism after college but wanted to make radio. She started the music podcast "Stagedive."Foo was an intern and then a producer at "Snap Judgment," then moved to "This American Life." She has also contributed to Reply All and 99% Invisible.Foo launched her own podcast, "Pilot." She was also the project lead on the "This American Life" app called Shortcut. Her culture criticism focuses on diversity in media.

Miki Meek interned and freelanced for This American Life before joining the staff in December 2012. Previously, she worked as an online producer and editor at National Geographic and The New York Times. Miki has won two Emmy Awards for new approaches to documentary programming, and a duPont Award for her immigration coverage.

Aviva DeKornfeld is a journalist and audio producer, currently working as an Associate Producer for "his American Life."Previously, DeKornfeld was a producer for the NPR show "Rough Translation," and, before that, "Planet Money." Her writing has been featured on the Feminist Wire and in the Daily Palette.DeKornfeld received a B.A. in Sociology from Pitzer College, and is a graduate of the Transom Storytelling Workshop.

Producer for This American Life

Alex Blumberg is the CEO of Gimlet Media.

Eric Mennel is an award winning journalist and podcast producer. He was one of Gimlet Media’s first employees, and spent several years developing and launching the network’s early programming. His reporting has appeared on This American Life, NPR, Marketplace, 99% Invisible, and other programs. In 2013 he co-created the podcast, Criminal.

Producer at This American Life; Playwright

Talia Augustidis is a freelance audio producer and artist. She produces audio documentaries and series for radio and podcasts. Her work has appeared on BBC Radio 3, 4 and World Service, iHeart Radio, Audio Flux, The Roundhouse, and The Financial Times.

Emmanuel Dzotsi is a producer at Reply All. Before that, he produced and reported stories for WBEZ, This American Life, and Serial.