David Newtown,
Audio Reporter
David Newtown (CC ’18, CJS ’23) is an audio journalist living in New York City. He is a graduate of Columbia Journalism School, having received an MS with Honors in 2023. David’s main focus is audio production, and he loves to capture interesting conversations, stories and people through sound.
In the summer of 2022, he completed an audio Master's Thesis on PrEP, or medication people take to prevent contracting HIV. He explored what PrEP has meant to young gay men in NYC and abroad, advances in new drugs, and the UN’s goal of ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030. He also compared and contrasted PrEP advocacy in NYC and Santo Domingo, in the Dominican Republic.
Though he grew up on a farm in northwestern Louisiana, David has lived in New York City since 2014. He attended Columbia University for undergrad and worked on a major in Earth Science and a concentration in Music. He works as the Administrative Assistant for the Columbia University Department of Music.
David freelances as a podcast producer. He is one of the editors for Wow If True, a podcast within the Multitude network about how the Internet intersects with Real Life. He also produced and edited Season 2 of the Queercore podcast from the LGBTQ History Project. The show uses both archival tape and recent interviews to tell the stories of LGBTQ+ activists from the era of gay liberation.
He produces podcasts with PRX, as well. He was a producer for Tomorrow’s Cure, a production made in partnership with Mayo Clinic that was a 2025 Ambie Award Nominee for “Best Interview Podcast.” He also produced American Railroad in partnership with Silkroad. Narrated by Rhiannon Giddens, the 5-part limited series explores the history and music of the forgotten people who built, traveled and were affected by America’s railroads. Copy he wrote for the podcast was used during Silkroad’s touring show promoting the album. American Railroad won the Silver Award for Arts & Culture from The Signal Awards. He is an Associate Producer on "Pursuit: The Founders' Guide to Happiness" with the National Constitution Center.
Outside of journalism, David is an avid cellist and singer and regularly performs with ensembles around New York City. He has a passion for the intersection of ludomusicology and ethnomusicology, and he knows far too much about Pokémon.