Aaron Scott

Multimedia journalist and content creator. Former host of NPR's "Short Wave" and OPB's "Timber Wars" podcasts.

United States

Aaron Scott is an award-winning multimedia journalist with experience in almost every roll in radio, podcast and video production: from hosting a national science show for NPR, to creating the breakout environmental podcast Timber Wars, to editing a city magazine and producing for everything from a nature TV show to a weekly arts radio program.

He's a Swiss Army Knife of storytelling open to a range of writing, producing and editing work. The details of the position are less important than that it's a team of smart, kind people telling compelling stories or working to address climate change or today's other leading challenges.

His stories have appeared on NPR, "Short Wave," "Radiolab," "This American Life," the "Outside" podcast, "Reveal," "Here and Now," "Throughline," Oregon Public Broadcasting, "Oregon Field Guide," "Portland Monthly," "Out" magazine and elsewhere, and have won Emmy, National Headliner, Edward R Murrow, Gracie, SPJ, NLGJA and Mark Twain awards.

Aaron most recently served as a host of the NPR science podcast "Short Wave," a curiosity-fueled voyage through our universe that asks big questions, relishes little moments of wonder and explores the stories behind the science.

In 2020, Aaron hosted, reported and produced the podcast "Timber Wars," which told the story of how a small group of scientists and environmentalists forever changed the way we see—and fight over—forests and the natural world. The podcast has been downloaded more than a million times, has been incorporated into college curricula around the country, and has won multiple awards, including the National Headliner Award for Best Narrative Podcast and the MIT Knight Science Journalism Program's Victor K. McElheny Award (it was the first audio work to win the prestigious prize).

For four years, Aaron was a producer/reporter for Oregon Public Broadcasting's Science and Environment Team and flagship nature TV show, Oregon Field Guide, where he roamed the Pacific Northwest, exploring North Cascade glaciers with microbiologists, bushwhacking coastal old growth with ornithologists, snorkeling rugged California rivers with conservationists, and otherwise feeding the curiosity of OPB's audience.

As a kid, Aaron couldn't choose between outdoor camp and theater camp, and he still loves to linger in that space where science and culture overlap. He previously produced OPB's arts show State of Wonder, was a fellow at This American Life, and directed publicity for the band Pink Martini.

His escape fantasy is to join a monastery in the mountains.

Facebook Icon Twitter Icon LinkedIn Icon Instagram Icon Email Icon
Portfolio

Spent two years hosting NPR's daily science podcast "Short Wave." Select episodes:

NPR's "Short Wave"
09/02/2022
Worm Blobs From The Bowels Of The Earth

Host Aaron Scott descends into a toxic cave near where he grew up in search of blood-red, entangled worm blobs that have captured the imagination of scientists from around the world.

NPR's "Short Wave"
04/01/2022
What Octopus Minds May Tell Us About Aliens

Octopuses are incredibly intelligent, but much of their brain is spread throughout their arms and suckers, meaning understanding how they think means understanding as alien an intelligence as we're likely to encounter on this Earth.

NPR's "Short Wave"
05/03/2022
Why You Should Give A Dam About Beavers!

Beavers have long been considered pests by landowners and government agencies. But now, many are starting to embrace them. Today on the show, Host Aaron Scott tells Host Emily Kwong how these furry ecosystem engineers are showing scientists a way to save threatened and endangered fish.

NPR's "Short Wave"
01/23/2023
Fossil CSI: Cracking the case of an ancient reptile graveyard

This mystery begins in 1952, in the Nevada desert, when a self-taught geologist came across the skeleton of a massive creature that looked like a cross between a whale and a crocodile. It turned out to be just the beginning.

NPR's "Short Wave"
07/13/2022
Real Life 'Goonies'? A Mysterious Shipwreck Found Off the Oregon Coast

For centuries, mysterious blocks of beeswax and Chinese porcelain have washed up on the Oregon coast, leading to legends of pirates, treasure, and a sunken Spanish galleon. It has inspired centuries of treasure hunters—and maybe even Steven Spielberg, as he created "The Goonies." This is the story of how a team of volunteer archeologists are working to solve one of the most enduring mysteries of the Pacific Northwest, using old-school detective skills and one well-timed natural disaster.

NPR's "Short Wave"
06/28/2022
The Quest To Save The California Condor

Host Aaron Scott talks to Yurok biologist Tiana Williams-Claussen about the years-long quest to return the California Condor to its ancestral skies, and the importance of the bird to the Yurok people and the natural world.

NPR's "Short Wave"
04/12/2023
Under the Henfluence: The delightful science of chickens

When Tove Danovich decided to dabble in backyard chicken keeping, she embraced a tried and true journalistic practice — reading everything there is to find on the subject. In her search, she found plenty of how-to guides, but what she really wanted was to know more about the science. She wanted to understand their evolution and unique relationship with humans. So she wrote a book about it.

NPR's "Short Wave"
07/05/2022
Against All Odds, The Pumpkin Toadlet Is

Being small has its advantages ... and some limitations. One organism that intimately knows the pros and cons of being mini is the pumpkin toadlet. As an adult, the animal reaches merely the size of the skittle. At that scale, the frog's inner ear is so small, it's not fully functional.

NPR's "Short Wave"
09/22/2022
Working With Tribes To Co-Steward National Parks

Aaron talks to National Park Service Director Charles Sams, the first Tribal citizen to head the agency, about a push across the federal government to increase the level of tribal co-stewardship over public lands, how the parks are already incorporating Traditional Ecological Knowledge, and what national parkland meant to him growing up as a member of the Cayuse and Walla Walla tribes on the Umatilla Indian Reservation in eastern Oregon.

Created, produced and reported the award-winning podcast "Timber Wars"

OPB
09/21/2021
"Timber Wars" Podcast

I reported, wrote, produced and hosted this narrative podcast about how a fight over old growth trees and the spotted owl forever changed the way we see—and fight over—forests and the natural world. Episodes have aired on Throughline, Reveal, How to Save a Planet and Outside Podcast, and the podcast won the National Headliner Award for Narrative Podcast, two SPJ awards, and was the first audio work to win the MIT Knight Science Journalism Program’s Victor K. McElheny Award for Local and...

Science and environment reporting for OPB across platforms: video, radio & print

Oregon Field Guide
03/29/2022
Want to study how aliens might think? Look to the octopus

Octopuses are incredibly smart, yet the majority of their neurons exist in their arms and suckers, and not in their brain, making them as close to alien intelligence as we can find on Earth. It's like: what if our hands and fingers could think for themselves? Won an Emmy for science and environment reporting.

Oregon Field Guide
02/17/2022
Powwow dancing meets yoga in the life and artistry of Acosia Red Elk

Umatilla tribal member Acosia Red Elk travels the world as a champion powwow dancer, yoga teacher and collaborator with artists ranging from Portugal. The Man to Indigenous Enterprise. Her goal is to promote Indigenous healing through movement and dance.

Oregon Field Guide
07/11/2022
Can Beavers Save Salmon in Oregon's High Desert?

At a nondescript creek in eastern Oregon, scientists came up with a paradigm-shifting idea: instead of using expensive machines to restore damaged streams for salmon and steelhead, maybe they should enlist beavers to do it. This story revisits the Bridge Creek Project for an update on how the success of the project reshaped our understanding of the role of beavers in the landscape.

Oregon Field Guide, OPB's Morning Edition
11/13/2021
Could 'Smokey Beaver' help fight wildfires?

Science shows beavers make the landscape more resistant to wildfire and drought, inspiring a growing movement to partner with them against the worst effects of climate change.

Oregon Field Guide
04/11/2020
It's Alive! The High Country Mystery Of Red And Pink Snow

Those pink and red patches of snow you’ve hiked by in the summer? They’re not someone’s spilled watermelon sno cone. They’re not paint. They’re not blood. They are actually a thriving community of algae.

Timber Wars, Oregon Field Guide
10/26/2020
What happens when loggers and environmentalists work together?

A group of loggers and environmentalists have found some semblance of common ground in the midst of the Timber Wars. I explored how they managed to overcome their differences to save the forest and the mill for the final episode of "Timber Wars" and a video story for "Oregon Field Guide."

Here & Now, OPB's Morning Edition, Oregon Field Guide
10/05/2018
Why Many Northwest Animals And Plants Need Wildfire

We've been taught that thick forests have always blanketed the Northwest and that we need to preserve them unchanged to protect creatures like the spotted owl. But what if that's wrong? We tromp through the woods with some scientists and members of the Karuk tribe to learn about the necessary role fire plays.

Here & Now, OPB's Morning Edition, Oregon Field Guide
12/21/2018
Honey, I Shrunk The Gorge! Model Railroad Re-Creates Iconic Region

Ever wonder what it would be like to be a giant towering over the Northwest landscape? You can find out firsthand at Columbia Gorge Model Railroad Club, where even children loom like Godzilla looking down on all the iconic sites of the Gorge.

OPB's Morning Edition, Oregon Field Guide
10/08/2018
The Search Is On For Every Bee Species In Oregon

No one knows how many or just what bee species live in Oregon, which means we can’t even begin to track if they’re declining. A statewide project wants to change that.

OPB's Morning Edition, Oregon Field Guide
11/01/2018
Snorkeling With The Salmon

It’s a rare person who would look at a wicked stretch of whitewater rapids and think: “that’d make for killer snorkeling.” But that’s exactly what’s attracts nearly a hundred people to the Salmon River in Northern California every year.

Here & Now, NPR Salt Blog, OPB's Morning Edition
08/28/2018
How Bees Help Family Farmers Grow One Of America's Biggest Crops

Around a dozen family farms in the arid Northwest have created a fruitful partnership with millions of alkali bees, specialists in pollinating alfalfa flowers, to produce about a quarter of the country's alfalfa seed.

Reporting and producing for "Radiolab"

Radiolab
10/19/2015
New Stu

I co-reported and co-produced this story about how a conservative town come to elect our country's first transgendered mayor? Originally broadcast in 2012, the story won the NLGJA's Excellence in Radio Award, and we updated it in 2015.

Radiolab
01/08/2012
Why Are Bad Guys Bad?

Detective Tom Jensen spent 17 years searching for the Green River Killer and six months trying to get him to answer the question: why? Story begins at 7:11 mark.

Radiolab
10/07/2010
It's Alive?

Sxip Shirey avoided New York City most of his life. But as an aspiring musician, he decided that moving there was a necessary evil. Then, one night on a roof overlooking the skyline--he had an epiphany that completely changed the way he saw the city. This is the opening story in the Cities episode.

Arts reporting for NPR & OPB

NPR, All Things Considered
01/18/2018
'Portlandia' Is Ending, And Portlanders Are OK With That

There was a time when saying you lived in Portland, Ore., would get a response like, "That's above California, right?" Now, people not only know where the city is but also inevitably ask, "Is it just like the show?"

NPR, Weekend Edition Saturday
01/06/2018
Christopher Marley's Dead Things

Christopher Marley sees beauty in dead things: snakes, octopuses, bugs. Other people do too - his work sells in high-end shops, inspires NIKE shoes, and is starting to make its way into museums.

NPR, Weekend Edition
10/23/2015
O Romeo, Romeo, What The Heck Are You Saying?

No one debates that Shakespeare was one of the greatest writers in the English language. What is debatable, however, is just how much today's audiences actually understand what he was saying. That's why the Oregon Shakespeare Festival wants to translate the Bard's entire canon into contemporary English.

OPB's Morning Edition, State of Wonder
09/24/2015
In 'Frozen Music,' Sound Merges With Architecture

Two famed music and choral ensembles transform the famous Mount Angel Abbey Library by Finnish architect Alvar Aalto into a living instrument. This feature won the regional Edward R. Murrow Award for Use of Sound.

Longform Magazine Features

Portland Monthly
06/02/2014
The Lost Album of Okinawa

In 1945, a Portland navy officer salvaged a book of photos from the Okinawa battlefield. Seven decades later, his widow began a journey to find its owners and return it.

Portland Monthly
02/17/2012
By the Grace of God

Churches are one of the last institutions knitting Portland's displaced African American community together. But how much longer can the bonds last?

Portland Monthly
1/02/2014
Live Wire Radio Goes for National Glory

After a decade of cracking up local listeners, Portland's radio dynamos aim to be public radios next big thing—and they just might make it.

Portland Monthly
08/23/2012
Tilting at Landfills

A motley crew of farmers and wine-makers wage a quixotic battle to stop North America's largest garbage company from growing even bigger in the heart of Oregon's wine country.

Portland Monthly
07/23/2013
Marketing Portland's Music to the Masses

Sara Matarazzo, Chris Funk, and a budding local cluster of music connoisseurs are making Portland a capital for a new music industry, one ad at a time.

Portland Monthly
03/05/2011
The Ladies' Man

With the HBO miniseries Mildred Pierce, iconoclastic Portland director Todd Haynes brings his exploration of the female psyche to the small screen.

Out Magazine
03/29/2009
The Rise and Fall of Sam Adams

Sam Adams became the first openly gay man elected mayor of a major US city. But no sooner had he taken office when a sex scandal threatened to bring him down.

Magazine Service Packages

Portland Monthly
06/02/2013
Portland Summer Guide 2013

Summer camp for adults, Trek in the Park, perfect picnic challenge, where to soak up the sun (and stash a body), and other adventures to help you craft the perfect season.