I am a freelance journalist, audio producer, and oral historian based out of Louisville, Kentucky. My reporting can be heard on NPR’s Newscast, Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Weekend Edition. Currently, almost all of my coverage centers on athletes with disabilities. Among others, you’ll find my reporting in Outside Magazine’s Climbing Magazine, Highland Outdoors, and Gear Junkie.

Developing a disability in my late twenties led me to this reporting beat. But, I have long been interested in how we adapt to the world around us, and how our lives show up on our bodies. Through the lens of adaptation, I report on innovative technologies, human struggle, and resilience. 

Emily Chen-Newton

Emily Chen-Newton looks at the camera with a smile. She wears large gold rimed glasses and a necklace with a small charm shaped like the state of Kentucky. Her hair is red with lavender highlights. Photo credit: Emily Chen-Newton

Coming from a background of oral history and archival work, my reporting career began in Nebraska at the NPR member station, KIOS, Omaha Public Radio, in 2018.  I produced a long-form history and science podcast for KIOS, and a science show for kids during the COVID-19 Pandemic. I was also a local host and reporter for the station. In 2020, I began working for a smaller nonprofit news outlet, which I led through a First Amendment challenge from the then-governor of Nebraska. With the backing of Nebraska’s legacy newspapers and the ACLU, our nonprofit news outlet, NOISE, was able to report on the COVID-19 pandemic, child welfare, and social justice issues with the same access to the governor’s press briefings as any other outlet.

With this access, for the whole of 2021, I dedicated myself to reporting on the gross financial mismanagement and eventual early termination of a Nebraska state child welfare contract. 

I began reporting on para athletics in 2022 after moving back to my home state of Kentucky. Most recently, building this reporting, I launched a project to archive the presence of disabled rock climbers in Kentucky’s Red River Gorge. With this archive, I curated an oral history and interactive photo exhibit set to tour the state throughout 2025. Equipped with a braille guide and audio tour, this is an ultra-accessible exhibit, designed to be a rich experience for those with various physical and visual disabilities.

From audio productions such as Every Body Climbs to my reporting on Paralympic athletes, the basic pillars of my work are adaptation and access. If you have a project bolstered by either of those tenets, I would love to be part of it. 

Want to Collab?