NPR received nearly 1,500 podcasts from students in 42 states and the District of Columbia before naming its middle- and high-school finalists for 2026. The selected entries now go to a judging team. Grand prize winners will be announced in the coming weeks, and winning podcasts will air on Morning Edition, All Things Considered and other NPR programs. Many young makers, one narrow doorway to the microphone.
Students Investigate Power
In San Diego, Anthony Perez made “I.C.E. Out” after increased I.C.E. activity in 2026 prompted middle schoolers to investigate why the agency was created, research its history and conduct interviews. The entry puts a federal agency under student scrutiny, though the article gives no details about what the interviews found.
Fifth graders behind “Civics in Our Schools” ask, “What do you really know about our country?” They discuss civics with classmates and teachers, then learn from an expert how to engage people. The question belongs to the students. A judging team makes the contest’s final decisions.
Anna Su’s high-school podcast, “The Government Exodus: Why Federal Workers Resign,” examines why federal employees left their jobs. Hundreds of thousands voluntarily left in 2025, while Su’s mother stayed; Su interviews former federal workers about their decisions. The contest also invited students to explore what it means to be an American in the year marking the nation’s 250th anniversary.
School itself becomes a subject in several entries. Eleanor Deutsch, a fifth grader who uses a computer more than ever at school, interviews students, parents and administrators about technology’s benefits and drawbacks. She proposes alternatives, including paper and pencil. Miles Jackman investigates how artificial intelligence, pervasive in school, influences students’ work. Other students take up AI, cell phone bans and screen-time concerns.
Stories Beyond the Official Script
The finalists also focus on experiences that institutions often reduce to labels or overlook. Cora Walsh talks with her mother and tutor about her dyslexia diagnosis and what it’s like to be an adult with dyslexia. “People with dyslexia can be amazing in so many ways,” she says, adding that reading has long been difficult but dyslexia isn't all bad.
Lucas DeVries says his brother Jacob has Down syndrome and wants listeners to see more than a diagnosis. “People often think they understand Down syndrome, but a lot of times, they really don't.” Kate Baker’s “Dear Kate” follows her effort to understand dementia, the disease that took her Grandpa Ted from her. “Words couldn't even describe how much he meant to me,” she says.
Other students collect family histories and memories. Livie Courser interviews her grandfather about leaving his small village on Crete for America. “It was very difficult for him and his family, and he had many chores after school,” she says. Jacob Zheng describes home through a FaceTime call, superhero debates and family missions on Minecraft, which grew more meaningful after his sister moved away to college. Amit Biligiri asks why some memories stay and others fade: “There are entire weeks of my life I don't remember.”
Who Gets the Microphone
The challenge is in its eighth year. NPR’s education team listened to entries over the summer, and finalists appear alphabetically within their categories. Thousands of students, teachers, parents and sponsors participated, but the contest now moves to judging, with airtime on NPR programs promised only to winning podcasts. Winners and honorable mentions in the fourth-grade category will be announced later.
The selected work ranges from students investigating a suspected gas leak at school to interviews about careers, music therapy, a teacher’s influence and why people collect things. One student in “A Small Town’s Meteoric Significance” recalls feeling light headed while sitting out on a curb. “I remember sitting out on the curb and I felt light headed.” The students investigated and found a crater millions of years old and a subterranean storage facility, not broken pipes.
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