Joe Richman is the founder of Radio Diaries, a non-profit organization. Over the past 15 years, Radio Diaries has helped to pioneer a model for working with people to document their own lives for public radio. Richman has collaborated with teenagers and octogenarians, prisoners and prison guards, bra saleswomen and lighthouse keepers to create award-winning productions including: Teenage Diaries, Prison Diaries, My So-Called Lungs, New York Works, Thembi's AIDS Diary, Mandela: An Audio History, and Willie McGee and the Traveling Electric Chair. Before Radio Diaries, Richman worked for many years as a freelance reporter and producer for NPR programs All Things Considered, Weekend Edition-Saturday, Car Talk, and Heat. He also teaches at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.

Samara Freemark is a reporter at American Public Media's Public Insight Network. Before coming to APM she was a producer at Radio Diaries, an independent production company helping people document their own lives. She has also worked in the newsroom of Ann Arbor's NPR affiliate, and done her time in the freelancing trenches. Freemark's work has been heard on All Things Considered, UnFictional, This American Life and other outlets. Prior to settling on a career in radio she tried out policy research, community organizing, and urban planning before choosing soundwaves over spreadsheets.