Photo by Brandon Waldrop
Melody Rowell is a writer and podcast producer living in KANSAS CITY.
She is a graduate of the Transom Story Workshop in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. For two and a half years, she worked in photography at National Geographic as a coordinator for the magazine and an assistant editor for the news team. Now, she produces Strict Scrutiny, a weekly podcast about the Supreme Court and the legal culture that surrounds it. After running an indie operation with the hosts for 3 years, Strict Scrutiny was acquired by Crooked Media in January 2022.
In August 2022, she joined Crooked and Anne Helen Petersen to launch Work Appropriate, an advice show about modern workplace culture.
She moved from Washington, D.C., to Kansas City, Missouri, to produce Central Standard, a daily talk show about arts and culture from KCUR. Under her leadership, the show was named “Best Talk Show” by the Kansas City Press Club for the first time. She also edited an hour-long special episode on climate change in Kansas City, which won a regional Edward R. Murrow award in 2021.
As a freelancer, she worked with NPR's 1A, Man Repeller's The Call, and First Mondays.
Melody holds a master's degree in Nonfiction Writing from Johns Hopkins University. She graduated from the Oxbridge Honors Program at William Jewell College with a bachelor's degree in English Literature & Theory. She also has a certificate from an 8-week beekeeping class, but that's another story.
Her downtime is dedicated to exploring Kansas City dog parks with her rescue mutt Polly, watching Nationals and Royals baseball games, and stewarding a Little Free Library.
In October 2020, Melody founded Yellow Armadillo Studios, a podcast production and consulting agency. For inquiries and work samples, visit www.yellowarmadillostudios.com.