Hey, seniors! There are a lot of you out there and the numbers are growing: The roughly 60 million Americans age 65 and older make up the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. population.
At this point in life you’ve clocked a lot of miles and gained some experience along the way. You’ve probably got some gray hair to show for it, and no doubt some stories to tell.
Here at NPR, we’d like to hear those stories. And so this fall, we’re asking you to hit “record” and send them to us, in audio form. Stories of love, of family, of finance and health. Memories of the past – or fears and hopes for the future.
We’re calling it the Senior Podcast Challenge, and our judges will select the best ones and put them on our NPR shows.
The grand prize winner? We’ll bring you and a guest to NPR headquarters in Washington to watch — and listen— as your story airs live on Weekend Edition Sunday.
Stories about … almost anything
The competition builds on the NPR Student Podcast Challenge, which, since 2018, has introduced tens of thousands of young people to the world of audio storytelling. And in 2020, we launched the College Podcast Challenge.
What kind of stories will our judges be listening for? The simple answer is, almost anything – what we’ve found over the years is that the podcasts that stand out are entries where students are passionate about the story they’re telling.
For seniors, podcasts might touch on:
- Adjusting to retirement or life on a fixed income.
- Health or the cost of healthcare.
- The isolation that comes with divorce or the loss of a partner.
- Interviews with a friend or family member.
- Reflections on family history, a long career, or association with historical events.
- Romance, travel and third (or fourth!) careers.
- Grandchildren, learning, and new beginnings.
With our student podcasters, many entries involve the efforts of young people to figure out their place in the world. But we’ve also had great journalism – investigative reporting and hard-hitting interviews. And deeply personal stories – about disability, about loss, about identity, about their hopes for, and worries about, the future.
Some of the most compelling student podcasts have been when they tell the stories of seniors – interviews with a grandparent, retellings of family immigration journeys, or the story of someone in their community who took part in historical events. One memorable entry in our competition for college students was from a non-traditional student who’d gone back to college in her 60s.
Now, we’re excited to hear from seniors in their own voices.
Key rules & dates
Here’s how it will work: The competition will open Aug. 16 and close on Nov. 30. You can submit here.
Podcasts submitted must be completely original work, no longer than eight minutes in length. We encourage stories of all kinds – from personal narratives to in-depth interviews to fully reported audio journalism.
Some key rules: No copyrighted music. And, this should come as no surprise: keep AI out of your writing and presentation. See the rules page for exact requirements and restrictions.
You can submit multiple podcasts. Please fill out a separate form for each entry.
We’ll choose several finalists and our grand-prize winner early in the new year and air the winning podcast on Weekend Edition Sunday in January or February.
If you have no idea where to get started, don’t worry! You don’t need to be an audio expert, and you can make a podcast with nothing more than a smart phone, a computer, and some easily available editing software. You can check out our student podcasting resources page, which includes step-by-step instructions, from choosing a good story, conducting interviews, writing a script, and tips for editing and mixing. And you can subscribe to our newsletter for the latest from the contest team.
And finally, if you have questions about the Senior Podcast Challenge, email us at seniorpodcastchallenge@npr.org
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Image Credit: Tatyana Alanis for NPR