Stephanie Tam

Stephanie Tam has over a decade of audio experience and has worked for various podcast/radio shows and studios, including Freakonomics Radio, Radiolab, WNYC Studios/New York Public Radio, and BBC World Service. On staff at Freakonomics, she produced over twenty episodes including five of the show's highest performers, "5 Psychology Terms You're Probably Misusing," "There's a War on Sugar: Is it Justified?" and the three-part Bad Medicine Series. As a consultant and editor, she's developed production strategy, editorial structure, and pilot episode/templates for new podcast series for First Look Media, Theos Think Tank, the Centre for Effective Altruism, and NYT-bestselling author James Clear.

As a producer, researcher and writer, she’s known for her ability to swiftly metabolize a wide range of interdisciplinary material and to craft compelling narratives around complex issues. Special research and reporting interests include psychology, immigration, behavioral economics, postcolonial politics, sociolinguistics, and medical history — but her omnivorous curiosity means those interests expand to just about anything, from the science of trees, the calculated risk of playing football, and the economics of altruism, to the quirky history of invented languages. She has been interviewed about her reporting on language politics for KERA’s Think (on NPR).

Before her adventures in audio, she pursued her love of storytelling and the social sciences through two master’s degrees in evidence-based social intervention and world literatures as a fully-funded Daniel M. Sachs Scholar at the University of Oxford; she also graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor's in English literature from Princeton University. Her research has been published by the academic publisher Brill and in top social policy journal Trauma, Violence, & Abuse. She has a special love for bridging the nerdy worlds of academia and social good.

Her writing has been published in various outlets, including The Believer, The Behavioral Scientist, and Slate, and she's been shortlisted for the Fitzcarraldo Editions/Mahler & LeWitt Studios Essay Prize, longlisted for the Royal Society of Literature's V.S. Pritchett Short Story Prize, and nominated for the Pushcart Prize.  

Testimonials/Recs:

• "Stephanie is an exceptionally focused, intelligent, organized, creative and collegial individual. On a team that operates at a high level under significant pressure, Stephanie stood out — for her insights, curiosity, good humor, and hard work. She is willing to take risks but is never reckless. Stephanie is an excellent communicator and a generous mentor to younger staff and interns. I thoroughly enjoyed working with her and hope very much to do so again." - Alison Craiglow, Executive Producer at Freakonomics
• "Stephanie was recommended to us by a friend with lots of experience in the podcast production industry. After a really good initial chat, we commissioned her to work with us on the development of a new podcast series called Reading Our Times. We worked specifically on concept development and production of a pilot episode (to provide a template for further episodes). Stephanie was brilliant. She brought really sound ideas and expertise, provided input on a whole range of questions we had, connected us with music licensing agencies, sound engineers & composers and also really helped make things work within our limited not-for-profit budget. I highly recommend working with Stephanie and we would have no hesitation in doing so again!" - Lizzie Harvey, Head of Communications at Theos Think Tank
• "Stephanie is a fantastic researcher, writer, interviewer, and producer. To start, she checks all the boxes you would want in a coworker. She's kind and pleasant, but has an exceptional work ethic. She's very organized. She'll never hand you something that's a mess. She is reliable and was never late for a meeting or call.  Stephanie has a wealth of podcast experience. She touched nearly every aspect of our show from developing show concepts to pitching story ideas to recording interviews and producing episodes. If you're dealing with a problem, she usually knows the answer. And if she doesn't, she has a vast network of sound engineers, technical directors, composers, and producers. She'll find the right person for each issue.  But what really separates Stephanie is her ability to find what matters and script it in a compelling way. Ultimately, great podcasts are about great stories, and Stephanie is a fabulous storyteller. She is overflowing with intellectual curiosity and is willing to research almost any subject. During her reading and research, she has a fantastic ability to identify the elements that matter most for each topic. She'll track down the most impactful stories and insights, connect the dots and weave a compelling narrative, and then script it all out into a fabulous episode.  Once you're done, you'll be glad you worked with her." - James Clear, author of Atomic Habits