Who Killed the Penny? She Did.
An episode of What Next about the phasing out of the penny—and a reporter’s potential role in the process.
About
I’m a podcast producer based in Brooklyn making sharp, vivid audio stories, from daily news to reported investigations. I’m especially interested in the places where politics, religion, and private life meet.
I spent nearly six years producing Slate’s daily news podcast, What Next, where I also reported and hosted episodes. More recently, I’ve produced The Atlantic’s How To and worked on an audio investigation into a man’s death in immigration detention. Before Slate, I worked at NPR and Pineapple Street Studios (gone but not forgotten).
I like asking questions that don’t have neat answers, finding people who can make complicated stories concrete, and figuring out how to bring listeners into unfamiliar worlds.
Selected Work
How To Touch Grass
A series from The Atlantic about how technology shapes our minds, habits, and relationships—and how to get back in the driver’s seat.
Why Women Kill
A legal expert and an incarcerated survivor explain how self-defense laws fail victims of domestic abuse in this episode of What Next.
The Call
An episode of This American Life following a call to an overdose-prevention hotline and the lives connected by it.
Out of Afghanistan
A reported show about the bureaucratic maze faced by Afghans who came to the U.S. after the fall of Kabul.
Though Closed to the Public, Bryce Canyon Still Teems With Life
A non-narrative piece exploring the sonic landscape of Bryce Canyon during the pandemic, broadcast on All Things Considered.
Contact
Email: elenarschwartz@gmail.com