Tracking
- American Public Media has hired Liliana Kim, formerly the vice president of MTV International Content Strategy & Brand Management, as its new managing director of podcasts. She starts August 19.
- Transmitter Media has made a few additions to its staff: Jordan Bailey as Associate Producer (formerly of Gimlet Creative and Jetty), Constanza Gallardo as Producer (formerly of Planet Money’s The Indicator), and Sara Nics as Managing Editor (formerly of the New Yorker Radio Hour).
- ICYMI, ESPN is launching a daily sports news podcast called, ahem, The ESPN Daily. Here’s The Washington Post, with the meatiest write-up.
- From the LA Times: “In the Trump era, a comedy podcast about conspiracy theories finds a home in the mainstream.” An excellent profile on The Last Podcast on the Left, which now reportedly averages 1 million downloads per episode and another 11 million per month off the back catalogue.
- Sarah Larson’s latest in the New Yorker is fantastic, and fascinating: “The audio app that’s transforming erotica.”
- From The Verge: “Publishers are pissed about Amazon’s upcoming Audible Captions feature.” Keep an eye on this, a development that may have ramifications far beyond its bounds.
Release Notes
- Lawfare, the highly influential blog focusing on national security issues, has rolled out a narrative series podcast that seriously attempts to unpack the Mueller report in a more accessible form. The project is called The Report, it’s a co-production with the DC-based network Goat Rodeo, and it hit the top of the Apple Podcast charts over the weekend.
- Vox Media is releasing its first season of Land of the Giants, its documentary anthology series on the big technology companies that’s increasingly governing our lives, today. That debut season tackles Amazon, and it’s hosted by Recode’s Jason Del Rey.
- Spoke Media, the Dallas podcast network and production studio, recently added two new shows to its portfolio: Hot & Bothered, which comes out a partnership with the creators of Harry Potter & The Sacred Text; and Untitled Dad Project, by Janielle Kastner.
- iHeartMedia has forged a co-production partnership with Pride Media — whose media brands include Out, The Advocate, and Pride — that involves the creation of a new slate of LGBQT+ podcasts across the next year. The first projects include The Outcast, co-produced with Out Magazine, and a relaunch of Food 4 Thot. Here’s Variety on the matter.
- Sam Greenspan, a founding producer on 99% Invisible and USA Today’s The City, has launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund his upcoming project, a speculative journalism podcast called Bellwether.