First Name
Thomas
Last Name
Lu
City, State
Washington, DC
Country
USA
Pronouns
He/Him
Gender
Male
Roles
Editor
Producer
Reporter
Sound Designer
Social Media
Tape Syncs
Transcription
Other role
Mentor/Teacher/Guest Lecturer
Formats / Genre
Interviews / Roundtable
Narrative Non-fiction / Documentary
News / Journalism
Experimental
Daily shows
Open to relocating
Yes
Open to branded content?
No
More about me
Thomas Lu is a gay, Vietnamese-American journalist, audio producer, and editor based in Washington, DC. He was most recently producing and editing for NPR, where he co-founded NPR's first disability and accessibility employee resource group.
He’s worked on stories ranging from author interviews with disability rights activists to the physics of rainbows to why some people enjoy spicy foods.
As a producer for Hidden Brain, Thomas explored the contradictions of human behavior—producing and sound-designing episodes such as the importance of the human voice and our hidden influence on others. He contributed to the episode “The Ventilator,” which earned a 2020 Edward R. Murrow award.
He has also contributed to KUOW, HBO, Life Kit, Short Wave, Code Switch, It’s Been A Minute, How I Built This, Pop Culture Happy Hour, All Things Considered, TED Radio Hour, and StoryCorps.
Thomas is a 2023 graduate of Neon Hum Media’s Editors’ Bootcamp and a 2020 AIR New Voices Scholar. With the goal of escaping the Atlanta heat, he attended Middlebury College in Vermont and United World College-USA in the mountains of New Mexico. Aside from audio, he enjoys watching The Golden Girls, running (slowly), and teaching himself film photography.
Thomas’s area of expertise (in no particular order):
- LGBTQ+ Stories
- Being Asian American in the US
- Science and social science (human relationships/behavior)
- Cancer survivorship + disability/disability rights
- Immigrant stories + family estrangement
Thomas’s interests (in no particular order):
- The messiness of being human, our relationships, and our contradicting behavior
- The intersection of disability, race, and gender
- Sound design + experimental storytelling
- Pop culture (TV/Movies/Music/the Arts) + science-fiction/speculation
- Society and cultural analysis
He’s worked on stories ranging from author interviews with disability rights activists to the physics of rainbows to why some people enjoy spicy foods.
As a producer for Hidden Brain, Thomas explored the contradictions of human behavior—producing and sound-designing episodes such as the importance of the human voice and our hidden influence on others. He contributed to the episode “The Ventilator,” which earned a 2020 Edward R. Murrow award.
He has also contributed to KUOW, HBO, Life Kit, Short Wave, Code Switch, It’s Been A Minute, How I Built This, Pop Culture Happy Hour, All Things Considered, TED Radio Hour, and StoryCorps.
Thomas is a 2023 graduate of Neon Hum Media’s Editors’ Bootcamp and a 2020 AIR New Voices Scholar. With the goal of escaping the Atlanta heat, he attended Middlebury College in Vermont and United World College-USA in the mountains of New Mexico. Aside from audio, he enjoys watching The Golden Girls, running (slowly), and teaching himself film photography.
Thomas’s area of expertise (in no particular order):
- LGBTQ+ Stories
- Being Asian American in the US
- Science and social science (human relationships/behavior)
- Cancer survivorship + disability/disability rights
- Immigrant stories + family estrangement
Thomas’s interests (in no particular order):
- The messiness of being human, our relationships, and our contradicting behavior
- The intersection of disability, race, and gender
- Sound design + experimental storytelling
- Pop culture (TV/Movies/Music/the Arts) + science-fiction/speculation
- Society and cultural analysis
Link to resume
Links to website / work