Kat Aaron has been working in audio for more than 20 years, starting in low power FM and now as an executive producer in podcasting. She has developed, written, and produced daily, weekly, and long-form shows, for broadcast and podcast. Kat loves thinking about voice, pacing, story structure and the puzzle of keeping people listening.
the longer version
I find, shape and tell stories. I am a structure nerd. I love managing people and supporting their growth. I lead collaborative teams with clarity and intention. I am committed to building equity in my workplace and industry.
I’m the Executive Producer for Development at Pineapple Street Studios. In my previous role as senior producer, I led the teams that made Will Be Wild, Because of Anita, My Fugitive, Pod Save America’s Iowa series, Stay Tuned with Preet, and other projects. I co-EP’d and co-wrote the audio stories for The Book of Hov, the interactive exhibit about the artist JAY-Z at the Brooklyn Public Library.
Outside of Pineapple, I produce Octavia’s Parables, a chapter-by-chapter read-along of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Talents and Parable of the Sower, hosted by adrienne maree brown and Toshi Reagon. Before that, I was the senior producer at Note to Self, at WNYC Studios. And before that, I was the reporter for WNYC’s all-star Data News team.
In my free time, I’m working on a project about disaster preparedness, and how to nurture community in a time of crisis.
the even longer version
I love producing and reporting audio stories. I’ve reported a lot on how poor people navigate the civil courts, particularly family court and immigration court. Stories about forfeiture, access to counsel in the immigration courts, and termination of parental rights. I spent several years reporting a series of articles exploring what happens when people confront lenders and landlords in court without the benefit of lawyers, as almost all low-income borrowers do.
At Pineapple Street, I’ve worked on weekly shows and long-term narrative projects. I led the team behind the audio for The Book of Hov. Octavia’s Parables is a labor of love, conceived with adrienne maree brown and hosted by adrienne and the incomparable Toshi Reagon. As a freelancer, I’ve made a series with Jad Abumrad about gay conversion therapy called UnErased, a series with Edible Magazine about food and technology, and helped launch a series about the opioid crisis.
Before WNYC, I was an Alicia Patterson Fellow and an editor at the Investigative Reporting Workshop. Before that, I was a reporter at the Center for Public Integrity, covering the subprime mortgage meltdown.
I started in radio at WBAI, producing a live three-hour morning show. I was co-director with Deepa Fernandes of a nonprofit called People’s Production House, which trained low-wage workers and high-school students as radio reporters. (Did I do pirate broadcasts before that? Who can say.) I did community organizing and policy work around subprime mortgage lending, back in the early 2000s.
I speak fluent French and interview-capable Spanish. I make things from fabric, yarn and thread. I experiment with ice cream. I rollerskate and skateboard. And I worked on special effects for Starship Troopers.