
Emily Guerin
Writer and Investigator
in San Francisco
My background
My work
My skills
I grew up in suburban Boston and went to college in Maine. My first journalism job was investigating the backstories of abandoned buildings. I've led wilderness trips in Wyoming and New Mexico. I speak Spanish, drink tea, hike and ride bikes. I gravitate towards rural and overlooked places. I live in San Francisco with my husband and sons.
In 2025, I left journalism to work as an investigator for the San Francisco Public Defender's office.
I'm a writer, reporter and audio producer with over 15 years of experience telling stories in print, on the radio and in serialized podcasts.
From 2016 until 2025, I was a senior podcast producer and host at LAist 89.3 (formerly KPCC), where I worked on Imperfect Paradise, a long form narrative journalism show.
I hosted California City, an investigative narrative podcast about a 60-year long real estate scam in a small town in the Mojave Desert.
Before that I was a senior reporter at KPCC covering the environment and the economy. I've also reported on the oilfield in North Dakota and wrote about the rural West for High Country News.
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I've won a multiple awards, including a national Edward R. Murrow award for my reporting on wildfires. I was a finalist for the Daniel Schorr prize for my work on mysterious oilfield deaths.
Imperfect Paradise: Nury & the Secret Tapes, a series I senior produced and reported, was named one of the best podcasts of the year in 2023 by The Atlantic.
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Editing narrative audio stories and podcasts
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Teaching news reporters to report and write longform audio stories
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Giving and receiving feedback gracefully
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Interviewing for narrative
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Writing quickly and beautifully
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Field and studio recording
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Asking hard questions
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Meeting deadlines
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Tracking down public records and hard to find people
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Editing and mixing in Adobe Audition