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UPDATED Deadline Extension: NPR Student Podcast Challenge

Delphine Lee/NPR

Updated 3/23/20

It's become clear that our initial deadline extension won't be enough, so we're extending the deadline for entering the NPR Student Podcast Challenge to May 1, 2020.

We've heard from many teachers about the challenges their students are facing to finish up their student podcasts. We've also heard from lots of other teachers, saying that with so many students working at home the NPR Student Podcast Challenge offers a great opportunity for students to stay busy and engaged remotely.

If there's a bit of good news in all this, it's that podcasting is something you can do at home. Podcasts are recorded remotely all the time — often it's more unusual for a host and a guest to be in the same studio than in different ones!

You can record in your bedroom or your living room or any quiet place. Many of us here at NPR are working remotely because of the coronavirus as well — we're even doing our podcast about the contest from home.

This will be our final deadline extension this year. We know the disruptions have been huge for so many schools and students, and we encourage those who can not make this year's deadline to please apply to next year's contest.

Students who have already submitted are fine (we might have even listened already!) and please do submit early if you can. This extension will alter our judging period, so we are now aiming to have winners by the end of May.

As a reminder, here's how the NPR Student Podcast Challenge works: Put together a podcast with your class or extracurricular group. Then your teacher can submit it to us. This contest is for teachers with students between 5th and 12th grade. Each podcast should be between three and 12 minutes long. The winning podcast submissions will be featured in segments on Morning Edition or All Things Considered. Here are all the rules.

If you are still working on a podcast while learning from home here is an article about mobile apps students are using to make their podcasts. We also have a video about how to turn any space into a recording studio.

Questions? Check out our FAQs and feel free to email us at studentpodcastchallenge@npr.org

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Sequoia Carrillo is an assistant editor for NPR's Education Team. Along with writing, producing, and reporting for the team, she manages the Student Podcast Challenge.