FiveThirtyEight is seeking an intern to join our audio team during the summer of 2021. We’re looking for a current student or recent graduate who has thoughts about how to use audio to tell memorable political stories and offer meaningful political analysis. 

The intern’s main role will be to work collaboratively to help craft segments for our politics podcast, which airs twice a week. That includes brainstorming potential topics, researching guests and preparing interview questions. It may also include documentary or original reporting work for standalone episodes, which would include archival research, cutting tape and scripting.

Journalism experience (whether from a journalism class, school paper, job, or internship) is a must, as is some experience reporting on politics. But “politics” doesn’t just mean electoral politics. It could mean you have experience reporting on policy issues, social movements, how polarization affects your community, or something else. Interpret it broadly, because we will too!

Some experience working in the audio editing software of your choice is required. The intern should know how to listen for good quotes in an interview, and edit the interview accordingly. There will be opportunities to learn how to be a better interviewer, a more disciplined researcher and a sharper writer on the job. 

An interest in FiveThirtyEight’s empirical approach to journalism is also required.

The intern will be embedded with a small audio team and report to our politics podcast producer. That said, FiveThirtyEight is a small newsroom, and the intern will work closely with politics reporters. 

Applicants should be able to commit to a full-time schedule from May or June through August. They must be a current student or have graduated in the past 18 months. This is a remote position.

And if you don’t check every box, that’s OK! Please don’t talk yourself out of applying. But please do apply by March 22. Apply with a cover letter, resume and three clips at the Disney jobs portal. The clips need not all be audio stories. We are most interested in seeing your ability to tell compelling stories, regardless of the medium.

Responsibilities:

• Brainstorm segment ideas for our politics podcast.
• Help prep segments that we are doing, including research, question docs and more.
• Cut tape of interviews as needed.
• Collaborate with teams across the newsroom.

You’ll learn:

• How to get a podcast out the door two times a week, every week.
• How to create prep packs for a host so they can interview well.
• How to be a better interviewer yourself.
• How to research political issues in a nonpartisan way.

Must-haves:

• Journalism experience, whether from a class, working at a student publication, or through a job or internship.
• Some experience reporting on politics.
• Experience working in an audio editing program.

Nice-to-haves:

• Podcasting experience.
• Documentary experience.