Throughline

History is a Time Machine

In 2019, I co-created Throughline with Rund Abdelfatah. The show reached number one on the Apple Podcasts charts within a week of launch. From there, its audience grew quickly, eventually reaching millions of people a month. The show went on to become nationally syndicated on radio, airing on hundreds of stations across the country.

Our reporting was included in NPR’s 2021 Pulitzer finalist portfolio for Audio Reporting, and our Afghanistan series won a 2021 Peabody Award. My sound design and composition for “David v Goliath” won the 2024 Ambie Award for Best Production and Sound Design, sponsored by Dolby.

My work on Throughline spanned story development, reporting, interviews, scripts, editorial review, production, and original composition. I worked across the process with the show’s editorial and production teams, bringing journalistic judgment and a musician’s sense of rhythm to each story. I wrote original music for every episode of the show.

I’ve always believed that narrative must come first. Any historical idea becomes more immediate when a listener can connect with the individuals at the heart of the story. My sound design and music bring together voices, atmosphere, and transitions to give a story scale and texture. Those choices are part of how the narrative unfolds, taking an audio story from a set of facts to an emotional experience.

Behind the show · NPR

How Throughline began.

NPR tells the story of how Rund Abdelfatah and I created Throughline in an illustrated journey by Connie Hanzhang Jin.

Listen to the craft.

My portfolio includes three short sound-design excerpts: the Mongol choir in “David v Goliath,” a turn of the dial into Radiohead in “History Is Over,” and a guided meditation on the idea of a penumbra in “What the Constitution Means to Me.” Each offers a different way to hear how sound carries a narrative.