Carl Smith is a multi-award-winning science journalist, author, and PhD Candidate from Australia. He makes audio documentaries and podcasts, often with accompanying written features and original photography. His work has appeared across ABC Radio National, ABC Radio Australia, the BBC, CBC, WNYC, and beyond, winning some of Australia's top journalism prizes and regularly being recognised in international competitions. Carl also hosts the popular children's ethics and philosophy podcast Short & Curly which unpacks life's curliest questions for younger audiences.

Carl has degrees in science (genetics) and journalism, and has worked for the ABC for the past 12 years as an ABC News cadet, children's television presenter, feature maker, science reporter, producer, writer, and more recently as the creator and senior producer of science podcasts and series such as Strange Frontiers and Pacific Scientific.

In 2025 Carl is stepping aside from his regular reporting roles to focus on a PhD in Digital Journalism at the University of Queensland, which he began in 2023. Drawing on his experience as a contemporary podcast maker, his project examines the role of non-speech, non-music sounds in narrative journalism storytelling in science podcasts. Using a practice-led approach, his research both analyses how other works use these sounds to construct a 'sonic narrative' while also demonstrating the usefulness of this work to other practitioners through a core creative work - a podcast series about scientists who live and work in unusual places that experiments with the use of non-speech, non-music sound. This industry-focused research will provide podcast makers with a deeper understanding of how best to use these techniques to engage audiences.

During his time in the EJF programme, Carl will focus on collecting and designing new stories for this series while also embarking on a textual analysis of how other contemporary podcasts use these sounds to augment storytelling.