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CV: Soren Wheeler

Fall 2022

By Magazine Staff

Soren Wheeler
Photo: WNYC Studios

Soren Wheeler is executive editor of Radiolab, a science-based radio program.

Education

1996 Bachelor’s degree, literature, creative writing, and philosophy, University of Wisconsin
2007 Master’s degree, The Writing Seminars, Johns Hopkins University

Notable

  • Spent 10 years researching and writing about K–12 science education before launching his career in radio.
  • Radiolab has won two Peabody Awards for shows he helped produce and edit.
  • Radiolab attracts close to 2 million listeners.
  • Was a project coordinator at the Association for the Advancement of Science, where he co-authored the book Atlas of Science Literacy.
  • Received the AAAS Kavli Science Journalism award for production of a show about statistics and probability.
  • Johns Hopkins instructor David Kestenbaum, then a science reporter for National Public Radio, told Wheeler about Radiolab. (“I showed up as an unpaid intern for a couple of months and sort of wiggled my way into the scene.”)
  • Has been with Radiolab since 2007, when the still-emerging show created only five hours of audio a year.
  • Was named University of Wisconsin-Madison’s fall 2015 Science Writer-in-Residence.

In His Own Words

I do not want to tell two sides of a story when one side ignores someone’s humanity, steps outside of our more cherished values as a society, or denies basic facts about the world around us.”

Transom, March 10, 2020

I think what Radiolab does is you get to start with us in the room, while we make the call and ask the stupid questions. You’re sort of on the reporter’s journey with us. Our job is to get out of our little ‘squee for science’ heads and help other people come along with us…Once you’ve made someone curious, you have to be able to deliver on that curiosity, you have to give them something to chew on after that.”

The Capital Times, November 7, 2015

Audio gets you a different kind of access to vicarious experiences. It goes straight to your brain, straight to your emotions.”

Johns Hopkins Magazine, Spring 2017

Soren’s advice to science writers:

Make me feel something, please. Fight to find the right anecdote, and keep making science dance with emotions in brave and innovative ways.”

The Last Word on Nothing, 2012