Jonathan Miller’s work as a reporter, writer, editor, radio and television producer, podcaster, communications specialist, and project leader has taken him to more than 20 countries in Asia, Latin America, Africa, Europe, and the Pacific. He joined Homelands Productions in 2001 and has been executive director since 2006.
Jonathan’s features, news reports, and commentaries have been broadcast on NPR, Marketplace, The World, BBC, CBC, PBS NewsHour, and many other radio and television outlets. As a print journalist, he has written for the New Yorker, Condé Nast Traveler, Parents, American Way, Christian Science Monitor, and dozens of other publications. He has won several awards for his writing and radio projects.
From 2019 to 2020, Jonathan was senior producer of the Wondery podcast “The Next Big Idea.” From 2016 to 2018 he was associate director of the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies at Cornell University. Prior to that, he was executive producer of Homelands’ “Food for 9 Billion,” “WORKING,” and “Worlds of Difference” projects, and editorial director of “Think Global,” the Public Radio Collaboration involving 30 national shows.
As an audio documentary producer, Jonathan has contributed to “Living Downstream” from Northern California Public Media, Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting, “Groundwork” from the Duke Center for Documentary Studies, the “Audio History Project” from Radio Diaries, State of the Re:Union from WJCT, and “Stories from the Heart of the Land” from Atlantic Public Media. He has been a juror for the Third Coast International Audio Festival, Podcast Academy, and One World Media awards; served on the advisory board of World Vision Report; worked as a consultant and producer on Interfaith Voices’ award-winning God and Government series; and edited the “Against the Odds” documentary project by author and columnist Ellis Cose.
He spent 13 years living in the Philippines and Peru prior to moving to Ithaca, New York, in 2001. He has also lived in Kenya and France. He has taught, led workshops, and worked as a consulting writer and editor for international development institutions and NGOs in Asia, Latin America, and Africa.
Jonathan is founder and co-director of Story House Ithaca, a local organization devoted to building community through storytelling. He also serves on the board of Ithaca City of Asylum, a nonprofit that offers refuge to persecuted writers and artists.
Before becoming a journalist, Jonathan worked as a farmhand, forest ranger, firefighter, construction worker, bicycle messenger, maintenance man, cafeteria worker, fruit picker, and day laborer. After completing a degree in English Literature at Swarthmore College, he served as a VISTA volunteer in Seattle, where he helped establish a child care center for the children of families living in emergency shelters.