A.C. Valdez is an award-winning audio producer and editor, offering freelance work and consulting for nonfiction audio. He’s also the founder of Joyful Amazing Wonderful Industries, a production company and game creation studio, currently developing new products.
Previously, he worked as senior supervising producer for 1A from NPR and WAMU. He also worked at The Atlantic, where he and his colleagues produced the flagship show Radio Atlantic. His work there also includes launching The Review, a show featuring culture writers asking big questions about pop culture like “Why do we need to expose our kids to villain redemption narratives about Cruella DeVille?” A.C. also edited an anthology podcast in which The Atlantic’s contributors teach listeners how to manage life, relationships, and social situations. The first and third seasons hosted by Arthur Brooks are How to Build a Happy Life. The second season is How to Start Over, featuring Olga Khazan and producer Rebecca Rashid.
He previously edited the Guns & America collaborative reporting project, a partnership of ten public media stations across the country, chronicling the role of guns in American life. Some highlights include Shattered, intimate portraits of those who have survived gun violence, and an episode of 1A on the 20th anniversary of the Columbine High School shooting. He also helped to develop the Pulitzer-winning podcast No Compromise.
At the Panoply podcast network, he produced About Race, was the founding producer of Vox.com’s The Ezra Klein Show and The Weeds, and recruited the team behind Malcolm Gladwell’s Revisionist History. He was also a longtime producer of Chris Guillebeau’s Side Hustle School, one of Apple’s top-downloaded podcasts of 2017.
His other work in public radio includes production of shows such as Tell Me More, The Kojo Nnamdi Show, and America Abroad. His leadership at Latino USA won the show its first Peabody Award in its 20+ year history and tripled its audience in two years.
