Researcher/Writer Application
Remote Position
We’re looking to grow our team of freelance researchers and writers for the Be Smart channel.
Writers/researchers should have a strong background in science writing for general audiences, and experience writing for online video is highly preferred. You should be able to sort through research articles, relevant books, historical archives, and conduct expert interviews. The ability to translate big ideas into simple language without losing complexity or awesomeness is essential.
It’s also a big plus if you’re funny!
New contributors typically (but not always) begin as script researchers, with the opportunity to pitch and write full scripts after we’ve had the chance to work together a bit. You’ll work closely with our host and head writer Joe Hanson to plan and execute projects.
Pay range for script researcher is $20-30/hour depending on experience. Rates for full scripts vary by project and experience.
We write about topics across the sciences, and sometimes even into history and philosophy. So please let us know if you have a particular specialty or field of expertise (though we love generalists too!)
We welcome pitches and story ideas from our contributors, and also have many ideas and assignments ready to be developed. You can expect to work on 1-2 projects per month, with opportunity for more frequent work in the future as our brand continues to grow and we have several future projects in the pipeline.
Please fill out the form below so that we can learn more about you.
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Our goal on Be Smart is to give deep answers to simple questions about science and the rest of the universe using the most interesting storytelling possible.
We are one of the biggest science & education channels on YouTube and our team has won numerous international awards for our uniquely entertaining brand of science and nature storytelling.
We value diversity in our team, our stories, and our perspectives.