"Serial" and the podcast explosion

Sarah Koenig, David Carr, & Others Explore the Digital Medium's Popularity

February 5, 2015 at 8 pm in New York

serial

 

NEW YORK (Jan. 15, 2015) -On February 5th, the Journalism + Design program at The New School’s Eugene Lang College will host an in-depth panel discussion about the creative explosion currently taking place in the podcasting industry, marked recently by the runaway hit, “Serial.”

New York Times columnist David Carr will moderate the discussion with “Serial” host and executive producer Sarah Koenig, “Planet Money” cofounder and Gimlet Media CEO Alex Blumberg, Benjamen Walker, host of “Theory of Everything” and cofounder of Radiotopia, and Alix Spiegel, a founding producer of “This American Life” and co-host of the new NPR series “Invisibilia.”

While digital podcasting first developed over a decade ago, increased accessibility and profitability have led to a recent surge that has brought podcasting into the mainstream media. The first season of “Serial,” about a murder investigation that took place in 1999, ran for twelve episodes between October and December 2014. The program quickly became the most popular podcast in the world, reaching over 5 million listeners per episode.

“At Journalism + Design, we’re always interested in the new ways that people are telling stories and reaching audiences,” said Program Director Heather Chaplin. “The behavior around ‘Serial’ indicated that something has changed — mass audiences have taken to podcasting, which means a potential new model for creative and smart journalism to flourish.”

The panel will discuss recent trends and potential trajectories. Sarah Koenig, a Peabody award-winning journalist and producer, has worked for “This American Life,” since 2004. “Serial” is its first spinoff series. Alex Blumberg is the creator of the podcast mini-series, “StartUp,” which documented the process of creating Gimlet Media, a company he founded in 2014. A former producer of “This American Life,” Blumberg produced “The Giant Pool of Money,” a highly regarded episode about the 2008 sub-prime mortgage crisis, which was a precursor to the NPR show “Planet Money.” Benjamen Walker hosts the podcast “The Theory of Everything” and is one of the founding members of Radiotopia, the podcasting collective sponsored by Public Radio Exchange (PRX). He has also created radio pieces for NPR, WNYC, the BBC, and the Third Coast International Audio Festival. Alix Spiegel co-hosts NPR’s new series, “Invisibilia,” and is one of the founding producers of “This American Life.” She has worked on NPR’s Science Desk for ten years, covering psychology and human behavior. David Carr, who serves as the Lack Professor of Media Studies at Boston University and has written extensively on the subject, will guide the conversation.

Held at the Auditorium at 66 West 12th Street, Alvin Johnson/J.M. Kaplan Hall, the event is free and open to the public. The panel discussion will be streamed live online at https://new.livestream.com/TheNewSchool. Members of the media should RSVP to Kasia Broussalian, [email protected]. For more information, visit The New School’s event website, and follow #Serial and #JournalismDesign on Twitter.

Journalism + Design is an interdisciplinary program at The New School in New York City, merging design thinking with time-tested journalistic principles and practice. The program is a collaboration between Eugene Lang College and Parsons at The New School and is generously funded by the Knight Foundation.

Eugene Lang College The New School for Liberal Arts is a seminar-style liberal arts college located in New York City that was established in 1985. Remaining faithful to its founding philosophy, Eugene Lang College grew out of a highly progressive freshman-year program developed at The New School in 1973. Lang offers intensive liberal arts study as well as a faculty committed to teaching undergraduates in an interdisciplinary context. Areas of study include religious studies, urban studies, social inquiry, interdisciplinary science, culture and media, literary studies, the arts, philosophy, psychology, economics, and environmental studies. For more information, visit http://www.newschool.edu/lang.

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Media Contacts:

Kasia Broussalian,
The New School
212-229-5667 x. 3990
[email protected]



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