ANUPAMA CHANDRASEKARAN
Editor, Podcasts

Loud chatter, hushed gossip, tongue-twisting accents, sing-song dialects, muffled giggles, belly laughs and pregnant pauses. When I was in fifth grade, my late father thrust empty audio tapes in my hands and nudged me to record conversations with my then octogenarian grandmother. These anecdote-rich soundscapes culled during sleepy vacation afternoons have shaped my audio journey.

In 2000, I flew from Mumbai to New York City to study business journalism; little did I know that a year later, I would be just four miles away from one of the craziest catastrophes to hit the world – 9/11. Of course, I was wrong. The craziest was yet to come.

After a four-year stint with Reuters in New York City and a baby in hand, I returned to India. I wrote for Mint business daily, played stringer for Reuters and also contributed to the New York Times India Ink blog. I taught economics to 16 and 17 year olds for nearly a decade at an alternative school before taking a plunge to make a podcast.

Finally, I got to revel in the joys of shaping audio stories from on-the-ground recordings eked from travels to fossil sites with scientists and prehistoric digs with archaeologists. I financed this personal audio project by writing for online news portals The Wire Science and Scroll. This also landed me a contract to write a children’s book on fossils. I have also produced audio stories for the BBC, Deutsche Welle and Radio Canada.

At Newsreel, I produce audio documentaries that bring you the diverse languages, voices and sounds of our amazing country. Do check out our collaborative project with community radio stations in India called Radio Local.

I can be contacted at Anupama@Newsreel.Asia.