Thomas Lu

Thomas Lu (he/him) is a producer for NPR's science podcast, Short Wave. The podcast is a perfect equation of curiosity, nerdiness and everyday discoveries.

Lu came to NPR in 2017 as an intern for the TED Radio Hour with Guy Raz. After his internship, he continued to develop his radio skills working with How I Built This, All Things Considered, Weekend Edition and Pop Culture Happy Hour. He pitched and produced All Things Considered's annual Thanksgiving music segment with Ari Shapiro.

Lu was then hired as a producer for Hidden Brain — where he worked on episodes ranging from the benefits of nature to the importance of the human voice to our hidden influence on others. He contributed to the Hidden Brain episode "The Ventilator," which earned an Edward R. Murrow award in 2020.

Prior to NPR, Lu interned for StoryCorps in Brooklyn, New York.

Lu is a 2020 AIR New Voices Scholar. He graduated from Middlebury College in 2016 with a degree in psychology. Oh, and he's a huge fan of the Golden Girls.

The Story Of Money: How Human Behavior Shapes Economies — And Vice Versa

Shankar Vedantam

What's the point of money? The answer might seem obvious: we need it to get paid for our work, and to buy the things we need. But there's also a deeper way to look at the role of money in our lives.
Yum and Yuck: The Psychology Of What We Eat...And What We Spit Out

Shankar Vedantam

This week on the Hidden Brain radio show, we dig into the culture and psychology that determines the foods that make us salivate and the scents that make us squirm.