Marketplace. Morning Edition. All Things Considered. Fresh Air. News and Notes. The segments that make up the programming for what we fondly know as National Public Radio-NPR for short.

NPR is headquartered in Washington, DC (near my Shaw/Convention Center neighborhood, no less) and describes itself as an “internationally acclaimed producer and distributor of noncommercial news, talk, and entertainment programming.”  But  how does one get covered on the ubiquitous news radio network ?  While the news organization’s Web site has what appears to be some pretty helpful advice about getting your story on, NPR has hundreds of local affiliates, so it’s a little more daunting than the Web site makes it appear.

Jamila Bey to the rescue!  Jamila is a full-time freelance journalist and frequently works as an editor and producer for NPR- her former full-time employer before she went freelance. She also co-owns Tactical Productions Company and does sound and video production for music and fitness organizations. Here’s how to pitch Jamila for NPR.

Mopwater: What types of stories do you write and produce?

JB: I write stories that focus on either fitness, African-American and women’s issues, free thought and separation of church/state issues, and within the last year- parenting stories.  My background, however, is that of a political reporter, but I haven’t been in the daily government grind since the election of 2000!

A recent story I pitched and produced, but I didn’t report, was for NPR’s show, Tell Me More with Michel Martin.  There was a hilarious commentary in TheRoot.com about the absurdity the author felt about celebrating Kwanzaa.  We brought her in for an interview about the “True meaning” of the holiday and a consideration about what it means today.  I LOVE stories with a twist of some sort.

Mopwater: What kind of stories are you most interested in covering, and in what context?

I like covering fitness and protest stories best.  I love the fact that they both lend themselves to the obvious before and after.  However, one story I produced for NPR really stuck with me.  Zimbabwe in turmoil was the title, and I found a journalist there on the ground to talk about the nation  that was once known as “Africa’s breadbasket” is now facing famine and political breakdown. When I work as a radio producer, I will often call and do a lot of reporting of a story and then hand over my notes and questions to the on-air host.  In this case, Michel Martin.  I enjoyed this story because it allowed us to get a very good sense of what was happening in Zimbabwe and a good historical perspective as well. You can listen to the story here. Read the full story