Calling all students! NPR’s student podcast challenge returns for 2025: Is music a public domain or non-copyrighted?
If you want to get more tips, advice and the latest updates on this year’s contest, please sign up for our weekly newsletter. Students, we can’t wait to hear your stories. Good luck!
We like to listen to every single entry. So whether it’s you and your friend’s podcast, a class assignment or a passion project you’re finally putting together, we’re excited to hear from you and listen to whatever you got for us.
Yes! You can submit as many entries as you’d like. Make sure each of your entries are not less than three and eight minutes and that they don’t use copyrighted audio. We don’t want your work to be disqualified.
You can use your own audio, interviews, field recordings or natural sound, music or sound effects you recorded for the podcast. If a student doesn’t know about their rights, then we don’t recommend using audio.
“Recordings may not be used.” Entrants may include live performances of public domain songs or non-copyrightable rhythm elements if it is relevant to the story. For the purposes of these official rules, “public domain” does not mean “publicly available;” it means that the copyright has expired and material is no longer under protection. If the entrant is unsure of whether the music is copyrighted or not, then they should exclude it.
Source: Calling all students! NPR’s Student Podcast Challenge returns for 2025
Student Podcast Challenge: Questions, Answers, Resources, and How to Write Your Story for NPR’s Ed Team (Extended Abstract)
Here are a few questions we get over and over again each year. For any other questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at [email protected].
It all started with a small idea back in 2018, when NPR’s education team wanted to know what was really going on in the minds of young people. We wanted to hear about the things that keep students up at night, their obsessions and concerns, and stories they’re dying to get off their chest. So we created the Student Podcast Challenge, an opportunity for students all around the country to record their stories and share them with NPR.
There are other good resources out there too: Check out this audio storytelling toolkit and recording tutorial from our friends at PBS News Student Reporting Labs.
And, it’s worth pointing out that several of our past winners (including both our middle and high school winners in 2023) were first-time podcasters, so you can do it, too!
Our judges will select a middle school and high school grand prize winner. The grand prize includes a certificate and trophy, and a visit from the NPR Ed team, who will interview you and your teacher for a story on NPR’s programs, such as Morning Edition or All Things Considered.
A special note here: Parents and educators, step away from the microphone! No podcasts were produced or edited by adults. The FAQ section below tells you how the entries should be original work by students. We had to disqualify some entries last year for clearly breaking this rule.
Again, you can choose any topic you wish to explore. It doesn’t have to be a big important subject – just anything that excites you! If you aren’t sure about your idea, run it by your friends, teachers and family. You might want to ask them what parts of your story they find most interesting.
Books We Love: 10 Young Adult Novels to Add to our List of Must-Reads, Part I: The Yule Log, Food, and Movies
📚 Books: Whether you are a young reader or young at heart, here are 10 young adult novels you should add to your list of must-reads. The books are part of this year’s Books We Love series.
Jazz Night in America gets a little bit more relaxing and comforting with a special holiday edition featuring George Burton’s album The Yule Log.
🍛 Food: The rare cookbook Dalit Kitchens of Marathwada explores the culinary traditions of two groups of Dalits, a group of people who broadly occupy the lowest rungs of South India’s ancient caste system. Some dishes include ingredients you might not traditionally find in your kitchen. There are a few recipes from the book.
The new show is a dark comedy. No Good Deed follows several couples and families that get tangled up in the sale of a home that holds a secret. Lisa Kudrow, Ray Romano, Luke Wilson and more are in the cast.
🍿 Movies: The Room Next Door explores the inevitability of death and its intertwined ties to life. Martha asked her friend Ingrid to join her during her last days after her cancer treatment failed.
Source: GOP stop-gap bill fails, bringing potential shutdown closer. And, NPR’s guide to dance
The Up First newsletter: Failure of the Gop Stop-Gap Bill to Failed Possibly Government-Shutdown Ukraine War-Syria Hts
Good morning. You’re reading the Up First newsletter. To get the news delivered to your inbox and to listen to the Up First show, subscribe here.
Federal agencies will run out of money tonight at midnight after House Republicans weren’t able to pass a stop-gap funding measure yesterday. House Speaker Mike Johnson crafted a Plan B proposal in response to President-elect Donald Trump’s demands to replace an original bipartisan bill that was killed on Wednesday. Plan B was a flop last night. The original plan was derailed when Trump and his top advisers demanded that Congress kill the deal.
The Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk is facing one of the fiercest battles in the country’s eastern region. It’s a transportation hub and coal mining center. Over 3000 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded trying to capture it, according to an independent estimate.
Source: GOP stop-gap bill fails, bringing potential shutdown closer. And, NPR’s guide to dance
How to Dance with Confidence? An Introductory Guide for Running a Crossover from Bashar Al-Assad to the Rescue of the HTS
The rebel group that toppled former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s regime now faces the challenge of replacing it. They’ve set up an interim government. People are curious to see how the HTS will change in comparison to Assad. The challenge: governing a devastated country with many ethnic and religious groups.
If you think you can’t dance, you would be wrong. Anyone can dance, and you don’t need special shoes or skills to do it. Great music is a plus, though. This comic has advice from experts about how to move and grooves with confidence in the step by step guide.
