I’m an award-winning audio producer, reporter, and editor based in Philadelphia
I'm a freelance producer, reporter, and editor with a troubling fixation on debris, discard, and detritus. I make audio documentaries, write feature articles, and dabble in trash ceramics.
My work has appeared in print and radio at Defector, VICE, Snap Judgment, BBC, PRI’s The World, WHYY, Next City, and High Country News, among others.
Currently looking to expand my editing portfolio, so if you have a podcast, book project, article, script, song lyrics - anything that needs an edit - get in touch.
I’m also available to write feature articles.
PROJECTS & FEATURES
Seven Days at the Bin Store / Defector
“This spring, a new business opened on the main drag of my West Philadelphia neighborhood, provoking both excitement and trepidation. “I saw it just the other day and feared it,” one friend texted. “Like what the actual fuck is that shit,” said another. “Why?!!!” said a third. “Who is that for?”
Monaea: A 2020 Diary / Vice News Reports
2020 has been a YEAR, and it’s not done yet. This episode, we hand over the mic to Monaea Upton in North Minneapolis. She’s 17 years old, and she’s been keeping an audio diary of her senior year of high school. Also aired on Snap Judgment.
Three-part podcast series about teachers who carry guns in schools, the policies that allow it, and the trainings where current and former police teach gun skills to the teachers.
The global tear gas business is booming / PRI's The World
Tear gas links rural Pennsylvania with Egyptian protests
In Philadelphia neighborhood, latest wave of change brings worry / Here & Now
Strawberry Mansion went from being one of Philadelphia's wealthiest neighborhoods to one of its poorest, from being predominantly white to majority black. Now it seems poised to change again.
A documentary project in photographs, writing and archival materials about the town of Whittier, Alaska.
REPORTING, PRODUCING & EDITING
Contributing editor at Question Everything | Placement Theory / KCRW, 2024 - present
Reporter Brian Reed re-examines everything about journalism, the profession he thought he knew. In the middle of making his second hit podcast, Brian got sued. Accused. Told the biggest story of his career — the Peabody Award-winning series S-Town — wasn’t journalism. Which meant he had to spend years proving that it was. Obsessing over the question, “What is journalism, anyway?”
Lead producer at Philadelphia Revealed | Rowhome / WHYY, 2024
I was lead producer on a podcast about the Atwater Kent Collection, an archive of objects from Philadelphia's history. In collaboration with First Person Arts.
Senior Producer at The Sicilian Inheritance | Kaleidoscope Media, 2023 - 2024
I co-wrote and senior produced an 8-part series about journalist Jo Piazza’s family and their hundred year long game of telephone about the supposed murder of Jo's great great grandmother Lorenza Marsala.
Contributing editor at Spiraled | 101 Studios, 2023
Contributed editing and writing to a 6-part series about former Green Bay Packer Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila and his spiral into a new religious movement.
Editor at Thriving | Rowhome Productions, 2023
Edited a 10-part series following 10 Philadelphian's economic goals for a year, produced by Nichole Currie in collaboration with Technical.ly Philly.
Producer at Silenced: The Radio Murders | Kaleidoscope & iHeart, 2022 - 2023
Produced a seven-part investigative series about the murders of three Haitian radio broadcasters in Miami and the geopolitical context of the crimes.
Producer / reporter at Vice News Reports | VICE, 2019 - 2022
Reported and produced weekly news documentary show, Vice News Reports, hosted by Arielle Duhaime-Ross, in collaboration with reporters across VICE. I reported ARMED, a three-part series on schools arming their teachers. These are some of my other favorite episodes from my time at VNR. The episode “Monaea, a 2020 Diary,” which I co-produced with then-17-year-old Monaea Upton, won a Third Coast Award for Best Documentary, Silver in 2021.
Reporter / producer | WHYY, 2018 - 2020
Freelanced and worked part-time, contributing stories and production to the newsroom, PlanPhilly, Keystone Crossroads, The Why, and The Pulse. I also helped develop a new Things to Do segment for radio and web.
Regular contributor | Next City, 2015 - 2018
Wrote weekly articles and long-form features about infrastructure, with a focus on water, public art, housing policy, and counter-cultural mapping.
Podcast development consultation | Freelance, 2022 - present
I’ve led research, pre-reporting, and pitch development for unreleased projects from Vice Media, Talkhouse Media, and Hyper Object Industries, and consulted on an interview series for Wired.
AWARDS
Silver & Listener's Choice Awards in True Crime from Signal Awards, for The Sicilian Inheritance, from Kaleidoscope & iHeart Radio
Arthur E. Rowse Award for Examining the News Media from The National Press Club, for Silenced: The Radio Murders, from Kaleidoscope and iHeart Media
Best Stand-Alone Audio Documentary from International Documentary Association, for Monaea: A 2020 Diary, with VICE Audio
Best Documentary - Silver from Third Coast Audio, for Monaea: A 2020 Diary, with VICE Audio
Honorable Mention, Best Documentary from Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association, for "Siblings and addiction"
Honorable Mention, Best Enterprise Reporting from Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association, for "Shooting people is deescalation: Three days with teachers training to use guns in schools"
Dorthea Lange-Paul Taylor Prize from The Center for Documentary Studies, for "City Under One Roof"
General Grant Recipient from Alaska Humanities Forum, for "City Under One Roof"
SPEAKING & MEDIA APPEARANCES
Armed at Vice News Tonight: Crosstalk. Interviewed by Krishna Andavolu about my podcast series Armed, for Vice News Tonight, 2020
The Movement to Arm Teachers at WNYC: All of It. VICE audio producer Jen Kinney joins us to talk about her 3-part audio series for VICE News Reports, Armed, 2020
On the State of Independent Media with Kim Kelly at The Wooden Shoe. Moderated discussion with labor journalist Kim Kelly about the state of independent media, 2019
Tear Gas with Anna Feigenbaum at The Wooden Shoe. Moderated discussion with Anna Feigenbaum about her book, Tear Gas: From the Battlefields of World War I to the Streets of Today, 2019
Building Community Through Play at Philadelphia City Hall With Next City, Gehl, Philadelphia Parks Alliance and WURD Radio -- a public conversation about the vital role that public parks and recreation centers play in changing neighborhoods, 2017
Lange-Taylor Prize Talk at Center for Documentary Studies. Reading and discussion of "City Under One Roof", 2014
In Conversation with Pictures & Archives at Center for Documentary Studies. Panel discussion about role of archives in photographic projects, with Pete Pin and Alex Harris, 2014
AND
I curate what are you doing, a weekly Philadelphia events newsletter.
I make ceramics using shipping and packaging garbage. Two of these pieces are currently being exhibited at Cultureworks in Philly, in the show Simultaneous Contrast (curated by Da Vinci Art Alliance)
I’ve guided bike and kayak tours in Philadelphia, Alaska, and Washington, and I’d love to do it again.
I’d love to talk to you about your story idea, editing your podcast, and life in the freelance grind.
GET IN TOUCH
jkjenkinney@gmail.com