AUDIO EXPERIENCE
Rachel began her journey in journalism hosting a radio show on Cornell’s campus called Black Students United Radio in 2015. Until her graduation in 2019, she interviewed many names her peers were familiar with such as the PHDivas and Dr. Melina Abdullah from the documentary 13th. When she began her Master of Science program at Columbia Journalism School in 2019, she wanted to take those four years of radio hosting skills and learn how to write for the ear.
Like & Describe, from YouTube
Rachel is a scriptwriter on YouTube’s new podcast Like & Describe hosted by popular YouTuber MatPat. The first episode, “The Rise of the VTubers” was released December 2022 and new episodes are released every month.
From the show description: “Each episode, you’ll join host, MatPat, on a journey to find the little known stories behind YouTube’s biggest trends. You’ll get the inside scoop from creators and experts, while hearing insights you can’t find anywhere else.”
Mandela: The Lost Tapes, from Audible Originals Studio
Rachel is an Associate Producer on this rich, personal story from Richard Stengel, the ghostwriter for former South African President Nelson Mandela’s groundbreaking memoir A Long Walk to Freedom, released December 2022.
From the show description: “In 1993, after 27 years of imprisonment, Nelson Mandela sat down with ghostwriter Richard Stengel to begin working on Long Walk to Freedom, a critically acclaimed memoir that would become a best seller around the globe. Mandela: The Lost Tapes reveals never-before-heard audio from Stengel’s interviews with the Nobel Prize winner, freedom fighter, and former South African president. Hours of rare recordings detail the turning points of Mandela’s life, key moments that shaped a revolution and the man who was to bring freedom to his nation. In this Audible Original, Stengel relives his intimate chats with Mandela, attempting to answer the questions ‘What made Nelson Mandela who he is?’ and ‘How can the rest of us be more like him?’ In Stengel’s own words: “It’s partly the story about how Mandela and I wrote his memoir Long Walk to Freedom. But much more than that, it’s a story about our unusual friendship, my struggle to learn who Mandela really was, and my quest to understand what makes a human being great.” Mandela: The Lost Tapes provides an intimate look at who Nelson Mandela was beyond his carefully curated public persona. Through Mandela’s own words, he reveals his extraordinary journey to becoming one of the greatest leaders in modern history.”
The Plot Thickens: Here Comes Pam, a podcast from Turner Classic Movies
Rachel is a scriptwriter and producer on season four of TCM’s award-winning podcast, The Plot Thickens, which follows the icon, legend, and Hollywood’s first action hero herself: Pam Grier. Rachel traveled, interviewed, and reported for the scripts. Released October 2022.
From the show description: “For our fourth season, we’re bring[ing] you the story of Pam Grier as only she can tell it. How did a country girl from Colorado become a movie icon – and the face of the genre known as Blaxploitation? It’s a story of bravery, both onscreen and off. It’s a story about race in Hollywood and race in America. And it’s a story about how real life is a lot messier than the movies. Join host Ben Mankiewicz as he speaks with Pam Grier as well as her colleagues, family and friends to discover what it took to survive one of Hollywood’s greatest decades.”
People Every Day, from PEOPLE Magazine
Rachel is an associate producer for the People Every Day Podcast, hosted by Janine Rubenstein. New episodes available every weekday.
From the show description: “Each day, host Janine Rubenstein talks to newsmakers and PEOPLE journalists to bring you the day’s biggest news, and tell you a story that’ll make you smile. Listen to the show on iHeart Radio, Amazon Music or wherever you find your podcasts.”
The Book of Baraka, from Audible Originals Studio
Rachel is an Associate Producer on this colorful audio memoir from the Mayor of Newark, New Jersey, Ras Baraka, son of activist and former Poet Laureate, Amiri Baraka, released February 2022.
From the show description: “’When I become mayor, we become mayor,’ Ras Baraka’s famous words speak to exactly who he is as a leader – a fiercely loyal member of his community. In this innovative and ground-breaking Audible Original, hear how Baraka – the mayor of Newark, New Jersey – grew from spoken-word artist to school principal to successful politician. Mixing prose and poetry, musical interludes and powerful soliloquies, Ras explores his life in-depth, including stories about his father, poet Amiri Baraka, and his personal encounters with jazz singer Nina Simone and hip-hop superstar Lauryn Hill – who famously featured him on her debut album. This is the story of how one man found his voice – and how each of us can find our own calling.”
Algorithms at Work, from Audible Originals Studio
Rachel is an Associate Producer on this book-adapted podcast from best-selling authors of Algorithms to Live By, released in January 2022.
From the show description: “In this highly intoxicating original series, researchers Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths, authors of the best-selling smash hit, Algorithms to Live By, tackle some of the biggest ideas in computer science today – and, in the process, illuminate cutting-edge ways of understanding how we live, work and play.They take us inside a tomato factory where no one has a job title to shed new light on decentralized network structures; visit an Olympic fencer to explore the game theory of when to make the first move; and tour the birthplace of the internet, a buzzing laboratory on the border of France and Switzerland, to examine the true – and truly human – limits to what a network of nearly one million machines can achieve.”
Elizabeth Banks’ My Body, My Podcast, from Audible Originals Studio
Rachel is an Associate Producer on the highly-rated podcast created by actress Elizabeth Banks for Audible, released in June 2021.
From the show description: “In My Body, My Podcast, Banks seamlessly mixes autobiography and information to create an open space to talk about all things sex and sexuality. Throughout, you’ll hear personal stories from Banks’ life – her traumatic first period, an inappropriate meeting with a Hollywood agent, watching a PBS documentary at age eight that showed sperm swimming toward an egg inside a real human body. In telling these stories, Banks unearths important and difficult questions: Why are young people separated by gender during sex ed? What is intimate justice? How do women take control of their pleasure? Can we break the cycle of generational shame? And how on earth do we talk to kids and young people about all of this?”
The Baby Napping, from the podcast series Shoe Leather
“In the late afternoon of February 3, 1990, two-day-old Steven Lyons was kidnapped from a Brooklyn hospital— a feat that seems nearly impossible with hospital security measures in 2020. Now, 30 years later, Shoe Leather reporters, follow in the footsteps of a brazen baby-napper with the help of news archives, child abduction experts, and social media.”
In January 2020, Rachel was one of 16 students to pitch this story for the new podcast series, Shoe Leather. In February, Baby Steven’s story was chosen as one of the seven episodes. She produced, reported, and edited the episode released in May 2020.
The Baby Napping is available on all streaming platforms.
VIDEO EXPERIENCE
While at Columbia, Rachel also took some courses in video production and broadcast news reporting. Here are some news pieces she produced, shot, and created on her own.
Rachel J. Pilgrim 