In this episode, SquadCast co-founder Zach Moreno speaks with the Association of Independents in Radio (AIR)’s managing director, Amanda Hickman. If you’re a freelance podcast or radio producer, you do not want to miss this chat. Amanda speaks about AIR’s member benefits, which include free mentorship, courses, support, freelance solidarity, and more.

Zach and Amanda discuss the pivots that AIR made once the pandemic was in full swing. How did they redirect the money that was going to be spent at conferences? They created online learning opportunities for members. They teach creators how to raise money, how to pursue grants, where to look for support, and how to find the right funders.

Amanda tells independent creators what to look out for when potentially accepting a freelance gig. Are you looking for a client or an employer? There are ways to tell them apart.

About AIR

The 1,300+ journalists, podcasters, story editors, audio producers, documentarians, engineers, sound designers and media entrepreneurs who energize AIR’s creative community span 46 states and 30 countries worldwide. AIR’s training and mentoring programs enrich and expand an ecosystem where independents can do their best work, advocate for their needs and build thriving careers in audio.

About Amanda Hickman

Amanda led BuzzFeed’s Open Lab for Journalism, Technology, and the Arts, and has taught reporting, multimedia storytelling and data visualization at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, the CUNY Graduate Center, and Columbia Journalism School. She helped launch DocumentCloud, an award winning reporting tool and catalog of primary source documents now used by thousands of journalists around the world, and her work as Director of Technology at Gotham Gazette, won numerous awards, including multiple notable entries to the Knight Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism, General Excellence in Online Journalism from the Online News Association and multiple Knight News Challenge Innovation grants. Amanda is also a foster parent and a mentor and editor with Emojination, advisor to Planetary.social and takes great pride in bringing 🧷🧵 and 🧶 to keyboards everywhere.

Show Notes