Rachel Lightner is a media producer and audio engineer
Rachel produces, records, sound designs and edits award-winning nonfiction audio and video projects
Recent Podcast Work
The Pink House with Sam Smith
From Season 1 of Lemonada’s original series, The Pink House with Sam Smith, I was tasked with building the sonic identity of the Pink House and establishing the format of the narrative/chat hybrid show in piloting. I booked and researched guests, prepped the host for interviews, recorded all interviews, story edited, wrote voiceover, and mixed and sound designed the series.
Credit: Producer, Mix & Sound Design
Awards: 2024 Signal Award Nominee for Best LGBTQ+ Series
Wild Things
From the very first Apple Original Podcast, Wild Things. I was the lead researcher during development of the series and produced, mixed and sound designed the pilot that was ultimately greenlit. I scripted, sound designed, edited, and sourced the archival for the excerpt above.
Credit: Development Producer, Lead Editor
Awards: Webby Award for Best Limited Series
Uncared For
From Season 1 of Lemonada’s 6-part narrative series on the maternal health crisis in America in partnership with The Commonwealth Fund. I traveled to Costa Rica, the Netherlands, and Germany to interview healthcare professionals and gather field reporting on other countries’ maternal healthcare systems, and what America can learn from what’s working abroad. For over the course of a year, I worked with a team to take dense research and turn it into compelling storytelling.
Credit: Producer, Mix & Sound Design
Awards: #23 best podcast of the year by The Atlantic
I Need To Ask You Something
Created in partnership with the JED Foundation to facilitate difficult conversations between a young person and someone close to them. I researched and booked guests, scripted voiceover, edited, mixed, and engineered the series.
Credit: Producer, Mix & Sound Design
Awards: Mental Health America 2024 Media Award
More Podcast work
Credit: Producer, Mix & Sound Design
Credit: Lead Editor, Audio Engineer
Credit: Lead Editor, Audio Engineer
Credit: Lead Editor, Audio Engineer
Credit: Producer
Credit: Associate Producer
Incomplete list of more podcast credits can be viewed here on Podchaser
Unite and Win: A Guide to Workplace Organizing
Unite and Win: A Guide to Workplace Organizing is a 13-part podcast series by the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee (EWOC), produced in partnership with Haymarket Books. This podcast is split up into two parts: an audiobook version of EWOC’s “Unite & Win” handbook and interviews with labor organizers across industries moderated by labor journalist and author Kim Kelly. These episodes use real-world examples to illustrate the themes we raise in the handbook, including just how much a union can help us accomplish when we come together and fight.
Credit: Audio Engineer & Mixer
The true story of the most misunderstood law on the internet. Tech journalist Mike Masnick brings you inside the making of Section 230 of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, featuring witnesses to Silicon Valley’s Wild West era, the Congressmen who wrote the law, and innovators who benefited from its balance of freedom and responsibility. Why do so many people hate this law, how does the rest of the world deal with these issues, and how can it be used to take on new challenges like A.I.? Listen to find out.
Credit: Producer
Otherwise Objectionable
Documentary Work
Chicagoland
Client: CNN
Credit: Associate Producer, Location Sound, Music Supervisor
Freeway: Crack in the System
Client: Al Jazeera America
Credit: Associate Producer, Music Supervisor
Gainesville
Client: Viacom / CMT
Credit: Associate Producer, Music Supervisor
Jersey Strong
Client: Pivot / Participant Media
Credit: Associate Producer, Location sound