“SongWriter” Podcast Hosted by Ben Arthur Launches A New Season with PRX, Turning Stories Into Songs
Guests include acclaimed authors and musicians Joyce Carol Oates, Ali Sethi, Imbolo Mbue, Hamed Sinno, Susan Orlean, W. Kamau Bell, and more
SongWriter — a podcast featuring authors telling stories and musicians performing songs written in response — today announced its upcoming sixth season. The series is brought to audiences with Pulitzer and Peabody Award-winning public media organization PRX, one of the world’s top podcast distributors.
An audio trailer for the new season of SongWriter is available now. New episodes will be released every other Tuesday, beginning July 2, and will be available free on-demand across all major podcast platforms. Each episode will be accompanied by a segment on the syndicated radio show Acoustic Café for 1.5 million weekly listeners and a companion piece will be published in Paste Magazine.
Series creator, host, and musician Ben Arthur says of the new season: “I’m nerve-wrackingly excited to share these episodes with listeners. We’ve got a bunch of returning guests — including the fifth episode featuring legendary author Joyce Carol Oates! — along with many new artistic collaborators from around the world.”
The sixth season of SongWriter is made possible through the support of a grant from Templeton World Charity Foundation, Inc., and will focus on elements of human flourishing, including forgiveness, empathy, polarization, and caregiving. Along with each episode’s featured author and songwriter, scientists will share their research on the relevant topic.
Episodes this season include:
- Bestselling author and New Yorker staff writer Susan Orlean tells a story about the uncanny intelligence and heartbreaking limitations of homing pigeons, scientist Laura Simone Lewis speaks about the different ways that chimpanzees and bonobos seem to define their home territory, and songwriter Diana Gameros plays her song, recorded live performance at KQED public media in the Bay Area;
- Freddy Mutanghua, director of Rwanda’s Kigali Genocide Memorial, talks about visiting his mother’s murderer in prison, scientist Pamela Wadende speaks about the complexities of forgiveness, and songwriter Peace Jolis performs a brand new song recorded at the Kigali Genocide Memorial Amphitheather in Rwanda;
- National Book Award winner Joyce Carol Oates reads a piece about her late husband entering hospice, psychologist Allison Applebaum explains the deep ways that suffering and meaning are connected, and global superstar Ali Sethi debuts his song at a live performance recorded at Queens College in New York;
- Pen/Faulkner Award winner Imbolo Mbue reads an excerpt of her novel How Beautiful We Were, scientist Dorsa Amir describes her work with the Shuar people and the sometimes hyper-violent ways they defend their territory from interlopers, and social justice songwriter Crys Matthews shares a new song titled “Restitution;”
- Comedian and CNN’s United Shades of America creator W. Kamau Bell tells a story about communicating Black Southern identity to his young daughters, scientist Shira Gabriel talks about the magic of collective effervescence, and Kamau’s favorite band, Las Cafeteras, plays a song called “Home.”
Listeners are also invited to explore SongWriter’s rich catalog of episodes, featuring Questlove, Neil Gaiman, David Gilmour of Pink Floyd, Roxane Gay, Craig Finn of The Hold Steady, David Sedaris, Katie Melua, Cheryl Strayed, Steve Earle, and many more.
About Ben Arthur
An Emmy-nominated songwriter, Ben Arthur has released twelve albums (Collision, Edible Darling, If You Look for My Heart) and shared the stage with Dave Matthews, Shawn Colvin, and Bruce Hornsby. Ben occasionally writes songs for episodes of SongWriter, and has recently collaborated with banjo legend Tony Trischka and Byron Isaacs of The Lumineers.
About PRX
Celebrating more than 20 years as a nonprofit public media company, PRX works in partnership with leading independent creators, organizations, and stations to bring meaningful audio storytelling into millions of listeners’ lives. PRX is one of the world’s top podcast publishers, public radio distributors, and audio producers, serving as an engine of innovation for public media and podcasting to help shape a vibrant future for creative and journalistic audio. Shows across PRX’s portfolio of broadcast productions, podcast partners, and its Radiotopia podcast network have received recognition from the Peabody Awards, the Tribeca Festival, the International Documentary Association, the National Magazine Awards, and more, including in 2022 when Futuro Media and PRX won a Pulitzer Prize. Visit PRX.org for more.
