Sanaz Meshkinpour was born in Tehran, Iran to Jewish and Muslim parents. She moved to the United States as a refugee in 1987 at the height of the Iran-Iraq war. She spent the rest of her childhood in Orange County, Southern California.

Her background, her upbringing, and the backdrop of beaches and palm trees all contributed to her desire to know and understand different cultures as an outsider — not a bad foundation for a career in journalism and storytelling.

Sanaz has degrees from UC Berkeley and Columbia Journalism School. She joined NPR in 2010, working in the News Department for three years. She is now a producer at the TED Radio Hour, the most downloaded NPR podcast. And most recently, she is serving as an editor of several new podcast projects at NPR.