Jake Warga

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Jake Warga (born April 24, 1972) is an American radio journalist, photographer, and educator. He has contributed to public radio programs including NPR, Public Radio International, and American Public Media, and has reported from six continents.

Warga was born in Hollywood, California, to Wayne and Carol Warga; his father wrote for Life Magazine and the Los Angeles Times. He earned a BA in anthropology from UC Davis in 1995 and an MA in visual anthropology from Goldsmiths, University of London in 2003. Early in his career he worked as an assistant cameraman on several films and as a cinematographer on others. In 1996 he became involved in public radio after helping with an audio documentary; his first piece, “Street Dogs,” aired on KUOW in Seattle.

He has since contributed stories to NPR’s All Things Considered and Day to Day, American Public Media’s Weekend America, and Public Radio International’s The World, Studio 360, This American Life, and The Savvy Traveler. His personal essay “Father’s Day” won the 2005 Golden Reel Award from the National Federation of Community Broadcasters. From December 2009 to January 2010, Warga embedded with U.S. soldiers in Iraq for Marketplace and The World, producing pieces about what soldiers listened to on their iPods. In December 2012, he embedded with U.S. forces in Afghanistan to create “The Things They Carry” for PRX.

In 2008 he published a photo essay, Asses of the World, and later had a Seattle Art Museum exhibit called “Faces,” a multi-media project with 100 African portraits and ambient sounds. His stock photography is represented by Getty Images. Warga was a lecturer in the Stanford Storytelling Program from 2015 to 2019 and has taught at Al Akhawayn University in Morocco, as well as in the United States, with courses in Writing for Radio, Documentary Studies and Production, Photography, Cinematography, and related subjects. He has also given talks at universities around the world, including the University of London, USC, the University of Washington, and the Australian Film, Television and Radio School.