Simmerdeep Kaur

Audio clips.

Pitched and launched Redwood City Pulse’s first-ever podcast series as a public service initiative ahead of the 2024 election.
Hosted all seven episodes, featuring in-depth conversations with candidates who ran for Redwood City Council in November, allowing residents to hear directly from them about their motivations, priorities, and plans for the city’s future.
Each episode tackled issues that directly impact the community, including candidates’ plans to address the budget deficit, public safety, supporting small businesses, and affordable housing.
Produced and edited five episodes using Adobe Audition.
Structured the episodes by writing interview questions and drafting scripts.
Picked out the music to create engaging intros and outros for each episode.
By providing an unfiltered platform for discussion, the podcast helped voters make informed decisions at the polls, giving them insight into the perspectives of those vying for their vote.

Co-hosted a live radio show for KALX, an FM radio station that broadcasts to the San Francisco Bay Area. The show focuses on the protests taking place at Berkeley, following the start of the Israel-Palestine war in October 2023.
Reported a story about the Graduate Students for Justice in Palestine group that led the protests for UC Berkeley to divest from the war. The story shines a light on how the group was inspired to start the protest and the series of creative protests they held at the University's South entrance. It further leans into the group's demands and how the University has responded to them.
Interviewed the spokesperson of the group and UC Berkeley's Assistant Vice Chancellor Dan Mogulof.

Took on multiple roles for the production of a live radio show on KALX. The show focused on stories about technology, innovation and art.
As the Executive Producer, I picked the stories to be featured on the show. Worked with the reporters on editing the stories and ensured the highest possible standard of content production. I also guaranteed the audio files were organized and everything went according to plan when we went live.
Reported a story about Berkeley’s Citizen Clinic that is providing free cybersecurity services to nonprofits facing the threat of being politically targeted, thereby saving them up to $150,000 on IT services. The clinic was recently backed by Google and received $500,000 in funding and additional volunteer support from experts at Google. The time stamp for my story is ‘3:40 - 8:09.’
As the newscaster, I presented the latest news from the Bay Area live. The first story focuses on the encampment at Berkeley that Palestinian protestors set up to demand the university’s divestment from the war. The second story is about the California State Senate’s plan to provide unemployment benefits to striking workers. The time stamp for the newscast is ‘1:05 - 2:50.’

Wrote a long-form narrative story about the journey of two exiled women journalists as they fly across the world in an attempt to escape the Taliban’s extremist rule and save their lives, but at the cost of never being able to go back home.
Collected and analyzed data from the Committee to Protect Journalists to find out the total number of journalists executed in Afghanistan and compared this number to journalist killings in other countries.
Created a map showcasing Khwaga Ghani’s entire journey - from Kabul to California.

Covered the debut of North America’s first hydrogen-powered garbage truck in San Mateo County, as California moves toward a zero-emission future.
While the truck was marketed as producing zero emissions, the story reveals that it only eliminates tailpipe emissions, while hydrogen production still results in some carbon life-cycle emissions.
Conducted multiple, in-depth interviews with the truck’s driver, Recology’s CEO—the company testing the truck, Hyzon employees—who designed the hydrogen fuel cell, and a spokesperson from New Way Trucks—the company behind the truck’s body to present all sides of the story.
Spoke with an energy-conversion expert at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to break down the complex mechanics of hydrogen fuel cells for a general audience.
The story further revealed that while the truck is better for the environment than a diesel truck, its doubled cost and the lack of infrastructure in North America to support hydrogen fueling remain major obstacles in its widespread adoption.

Reported on how improper disposal of lithium-ion batteries was linked to fires at recycling centers and transfer stations across Cheshire County, New Hampshire—particularly in Keene, where the transfer station experienced three fires in a single week.
Interviewed fire officials and employees from transfer stations and recycling centers across 30 towns and cities to assess the scale of the problem.
Cited a report from the National Waste and Recycling Association to provide a broader perspective, highlighting the thousands of fires caused by lithium-ion batteries nationwide each year, connecting a hyperlocal story to the bigger picture in the U.S.
Interviewed the head of the Energy Storage Group at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, to explain in layman's terms why lithium-ion batteries pose a greater fire risk than other waste materials.

Investigated police data as a part of the data team at the California Reporting Project, also known as CRP. The project is a multi-newsroom coalition formed to research and report on law enforcement documents that became public after lawmakers passed the landmark "Right to Know Act" in 2018.
Examined the paperwork in DocumentCloud and annotated instances that stood out in CRP’s database, along with answering questions like "names of officers involved," "was lethal force used by an officer," "did the incident result in the death of the subject."
Conducted completeness checks using Python in a Jupyter Lab notebook to make sure each agency has sent over all the required documents.
Filed FOIA requests using MuckRock in case of a missing document.
The research was used to publish this piece about police brutality in The Guardian. A version of the story also aired on KQED.

Wrote a profile story about Marlena Robbins, a doctoral student at UC Berkeley, who's working on making psychedelics assisted therapy more accessible to indigenous communities.
Also made an augmented reality component as a fun interactive multimedia element to induce more engagement.
Created the AR experience using Blippar software. At the end of the story, there is a QR code for readers to scan. It takes you to a forest setting and provides information on the various types of psychedelic mushrooms growing in different parts of the U.S.