Holy Sh*t — What a Year
As 2019 ramps up, we can’t help but reflect on what a fruitful year 2018 was for Radiotopia. This year we turn five, which is actually fairly mature as far as podcast networks go. As the industry continues to evolve quickly (one might even say head-spinningly) around us, we’re proud to hit pause, think back on last year’s accomplishments, and muse about what’s ahead for this one. It’s our pleasure to share some of our highlights with you.
In a nutshell, during 2018, Radiotopia…
Launched two, very Radiotopian, new shows:
- ZigZag: from Manoush Zomorodi and Jen Poyant of Stable Genius Productions, this show is about changing the course of capitalism, journalism, and women’s lives. For real.
- Everything is Alive: an unscripted interview show in which host Ian Chillag’s guests are inanimate objects.
Delivered a sold-out, six-city “Radiotopia Live” tour featuring seven podcasts, a house band, live coffee-grinding, a machine-learning houseplant, and even a streaker(!)
Featured four unique, limited series in our Showcase podcast:
- Secrets: from Swedish producers Martin Johnson and Mohammed El Abed, this podcast explores the secrets we keep, and why we keep them.
- Errthang: from the fabulous Al Letson and Willie Evans Jr., the show features a mix of storytelling, radio drama, interviews, and music.
- The Great God of Depression: from co-producers Karen Brown and Pagan Kennedy, the story explores two brilliant minds and the intersection between creativity and depression.
- Special mini-series of The Stoop: Hosts Leila Day and Hana Baba dig deeper into stories about black life that we don’t hear enough about.
Wrapped up a hugely successful fundraiser, including our first-ever Radiotopathon (think: marathon internet telethon), bringing our total number of supporters to a whopping 30,000+!
Topped year-end “Best Of” lists from The Atlantic, The New Yorker, Apple, Time, and more.
Nigel Poor and Earlonne Woods were interviewed in June by Ted Koppel for a special Ear Hustle feature on CBS News Sunday Morning.
But wait, there’s more! Several Radiotopia shows branched out with new projects in 2018, with great success. Criminal’s Phoebe Judge and Lauren Spohrer brought their signature storytelling to life’s most persistent mystery, throughout two seasons of their new show, This Is Love.
Long-time 99% Invisible producer Avery Trufelman spearheaded the six-part, thought-provoking series Articles of Interest, about the clothing we wear, and why. Both series have been popularly adored, critically-acclaimed, and ended up on multiple year-end best-of lists, from Cosmopolitan to The New Yorker. The Kitchen Sisters launched their new Keeper series, telling stories of activist archivists, rogue librarians, curators, collectors, and historians. Benjamen Walker’s Theory of Everything grappled with being known as a podcast that celebrates the blending of fact and fiction, in the age of Fake News, in his multi-month series, False Alarm. And The Truth produced its first serialized production, a four-part drama called The Off Season, which takes place against the backdrop of the growing #MeToo movement.
More evolution: In December, Hrishikesh Hirway, creator of Song Exploder, announced that Thao Nguyen, of the band Thao & The Get Down Stay Down, will guest host the podcast in 2019. Hrishi is stepping away to make room for live events and new projects, but will remain part of the Song Exploder team behind the scenes (instead of on the mic) as the creative director.
An especially bright moment of the year for Radiotopia and podcast fans around the world came right around Thanksgiving. Governor Jerry Brown of California announced that he had commuted Ear Hustle co-host and co-producer Earlonne Wood’s prison sentence. On November 30, Earlonne emerged out of San Quentin State Prison after serving 21 years of a 31-year-to-life sentence. We couldn’t be more thrilled about the news, nor more excited that Earlonne will continue alongside his partner in Ear Hustle, Nigel Poor, as a full-time producer with PRX/Radiotopia, co-producing from the outside and reporting on the challenges of re-entry into American society, post-incarceration.
As we lean into 2019, rest assured we’re contemplating new projects, new partners, and plenty of new adventures in podcasting. Early in the new year, the new Showcase series Spacebridge will bring us the story of how DIY citizen diplomats (ranging from hippies to tech-enthusiasts to astronauts) forged unprecedented connections between the US and then-USSR during the Cold War. And we have a few other new shows cooking, which we’ll tell you all about soon.
We’re also looking at a few changes for Radiotopia in the new year. The Bugle will be moving out of the network and will continue to be produced independently. Love + Radio is also moving on from Radiotopia and will be resuming production in the spring. Big thanks to our friends Andy Zaltzman and Chris Skinner from The Bugle and Nick van der Kolk from Love + Radio for being great partners, and sharing so much excellent programming during their time with Radiotopia. We wish them the best of luck and continued success moving forward.
Friends, it’s been a year, eh? As we dive headfirst into 2019, we believe in the mission of Radiotopia more than ever: to empower independent producers to do their best work, grow their audience, increase their revenue, and to cultivate community for listeners and makers alike…And to hear the world differently. We want to convey one more heartfelt thank you for all of your support: your listening, your sharing with friends and families, your donations, your emails, tweets, photos, and FB messages… and look forward to more of all of it in 2019. We hope you’re having stress-free, peaceful, and sonically-pleasing holidays. And we’re happy to leave you with a playlist of favorite Radiotopia episodes of the year, curated by the producers themselves, just for you. Let us know what you think, ok?
