Month: August 2020

Veritone One Subscribes to Neilsen’s Podcast Buying Power Service

~ jen

Neilsen announced that Veritone One, Inc. is now a subscriber to Neilsen’s Podcast Buying Power service. With headquarters in Costa Mesa, Calif., Veritone One is one of the world’s largest full-service performance-based audio advertising and media agencies.

As a new subscriber to Neilsen’s service, Veritone One will have access to podcast insights spanning 18 genres and over 150 individual podcast titles that can be cross-referenced among a variety of consumer purchase behavior patterns and services usage.

Currently counting over 12 major podcast companies a subscribers, Neilsen’s Podcast Buying Power Service allows clients to profile shows using program specific titles collected from subscribers in order to connect specific types of listeners with particular advertisers and specific program-level insights. It also features the same capabilities by genres and listening usage.

“As one of the largest podcast advertising agencies serving over 100 active clients across 15,000 podcasts, Nielsen’s research will help us refine our current placements and unlock market opportunities for new advertisers wanting to enter the medium,” said Conor Doyle, SVP of Strategy and Investment at Veritone One. “Access to consumption and audience data will attract brand advertisers who have been previously hesitant to enter the largely direct-to-consumer space. Integrating Nielsen’s unique insights along with our proprietary AI-based analytics and decades of experience will enable us to set a new industry standard in podcast advertising.”

Only Nielsen, with its extensive Scarborough category database, has this type of advertiser connection with podcasting. Nielsen Podcast Buying Power service has the ability to capture results for specific programs and tie them back with over 2,000 retail/plan-to-buy categories and hundreds of advertisers with specific brand names such as insurance companies, automotive, quick-service restaurants, home improvement retailers and more. These easy-to-use reports are generated from web-based software and have a two time per year data release.

The Good, The Bad & The Rugby has Launched

~ jen

The Good, The Bad, & The Rugby is a brand new weekly show with familiar fan favourites, Sky Sports presenter, Alex Payne, and former professional rugby players, James Haskell and Mike Tindall. Over the past two years, the trio have collaborated on the award-winning House of Rugby podcast and YouTube show that attracted almost 200,000 listeners and viewers per week, making it the biggest of its kind in the world.

The guys went beyond just being the faces of the show; they became it. For that reason, the team have decided to now go it alone and launch: The Good, The Bad & The Rugby.

The magic of the show is undoubtedly the dynamic that exists between the three hosts, its broad audience appeal, and the calibre of famous guests. This is a rugby show at its core, but offers so much more. There is no defining an episode, no silly gimmicks, it’s simply a collection of real and raw human stories, a rollercoaster of emotions slotted into an hour. Alex, James and Mike are now relaunching the show under new management, with a new name: The Good, The Bad & The Rugby.

Every week, the panel are joined by different guests, ranging from fellow rugby legends to TV and entertainment stars from around the world. Working together with the team at 21Six Sport, Alex, James, and Mike are planning to drive the show forward from being an exceptional sports podcast to a serious challenger for the number-one spot in the UK podcast ratings.

The first episode has launched and is set to be an absolute blockbuster, with England’s head coach, Eddie Jones, as the first guest. Each episode will go live on Wednesday afternoons, with rugby fans being able to listen on all major podcast platforms and watch the full episode on YouTube. Show highlights will also go out across the show’s Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram channels, and will be supported by live Q&As with the panel and exclusive rugby competitions and content.

Morally Indefensible Podcast has Premiered

~ jen

Sixty-five million people tuned into the 1984 television adaptation of journalist Joe McGuinniss’ smash best-selling book Fatal Vision to try to make sense of the unfathomable true-life horror story of Jeffrey McDonald, a military medical doctor accused and convicted of brutally murdering his wife and two young daughters. It was a scandalous crime that jolted the world and became a cultural moment that captured the public’s imagination and never let go.

Now, the highly anticipated new podcast Morally Indefensible from Marc Smerling (Crimetown, The Jinx, Capturing the Friedmans) and Truth Media, in partnership with Sony Music Entertainment, makes its debut focusing on the divisive backstory of McGinniss’ writing and reporting of the book that gave rise to the landmark TV series and MacDonald’s infamy.

Controversy surrounds Fatal Vision to this day. MacDonald enlisted famous journalist McGuinniss, who later became his friend, to write an account of his story that would prove him innocent, but the published book was not what he expected, and it has had lasting repercussions for both men.

In Smerling’s unique multiplatform approach to telling this layered and complicated story, Morally Indefensible launches as a lead-in companion to the premier of FX’s new five-part docuseries, A Wilderness of Error, based on the book of the same name by author and documentarian Errol Morris.

A Wilderness of Error tells the story of MacDonald, but from a different perspective, and premiers Friday, September 25 on FX, streaming the following day via FX on Hulu. The premier includes three episodes airing back-to-back-to-back from 8 p.m. – 11:30 p.m. ET/PT, with the final two episodes airing the following week.

Mark Smerling directs and executive produces alongside Blumhouse Television (The Jinx, The Loudest Voice, The Good Lord Bird) and UCP (Unspeakable Crime: The Killing of Jessica Chambers, Mr. Robot, The Act,) a division of Universal Studio Group, for FX Networks. Additional executive producers include Michael Jackson and Rachael Horovitz, who acquired the rights to the book; Jason Blum, Jeremy Gold, Marci Wiseman, Mary Lislo, Dam Olmstead, and Jessica Grimshaw.

Currently, MacDonald is still in prison, but maintains his innocence to this day. A new parole hearing is scheduled for later this year.

Listeners can subscribe to Morally Indefensible across all major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and more.

Broken Podcast Launches New Season on September 16th

~ jen

Broken, the acclaimed podcast from Three Uncanny Four (an editorially-independent joint-venture with Sony Music Entertainment) and Adam McKay’s Hyperobject Industries, returns on Wednesday, September 16th for its second season Broken: Seeking Justice.

Season two, is the follow up to Broken: Jeffrey Epstein and will focus on the ongoing journey for justice for many of the women who were assaulted by Epstein, and the fallout around the people who helped Epstein perpetrate one of the largest sex-trafficking rings in history.

August 10, 2020, marked one year since Epstein’s death in prison. In the upcoming season, the survivors share their stories and look to the criminal justice system in the hopes that alleged Epstein accomplice Maxwell and ultimately, all of his enablers, will be held accountable for their participation in the ongoing abuse. Maxwell is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, NY awaiting trial.

As this season’s host, investigative and political journalist Tara Palmeri will highlight first-hand survivor accounts, investigate new information, and spotlight Epstein’s alleged enablers as she tells the story of the women fighting for victims’ voices to be heard and explores who participated, aided and witnessed these crimes.

Broken is executive produced by Adam Davidson and Laura Mayer at Three Uncanny Four, Adam McKay and Kevin Messick at Hyperobject Industries, and Julie K. Brown from The Miami Herald. It has been profiled in The New York Times, selected as podcast of the week by The Guardian, named a monthly podcast pick by The New Yorker and named one of the top 50 podcasts of 2019 by The Atlantic. It has been downloaded more than three million times.

Listeners can subscribe to Broken: Seeking Justice on all major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher.

Get Ready for the Australian Podcast Awards

~ jen

The Australian Podcast Awards today announce the categories and entry dates for the Australian Podcast Awards 2020. Whether you’re recording in your bedroom of from your private yacht, they want to hear your best work from the past eighteen months.

There are new categories to choose from, and a new way to showcase your work – we’ve taken these decisions based on your feedback and from looking at similar shows around the world, so have a read before entries open on 1st September – when we will be revealing more details.

The key rule changes are:

  •  Audio entries will be compilations of 3-5 clips (there are exceptions for Best Interview, Best Fiction, & Moment of the Year)
  •  Audio should be taken from episodes released between January 2019 – July 31st 2020 inclusive
  •  To qualify, you should have published six proper episodes on your feed (and they should still be available at the end of 2020)

They have new Chair of Judges, responsible for selecting a judging panel that fully reflects the diversity of Australian podcasting. Sophie Harper is the host of the podcast Not By Accident and will be overseeing an expanded judging panel eager to hear your best work. Details on the panel will be released as entries open.

Judges will be looking for outstanding listens, with ideas, talent, formats and perspectives rarely heard in other media. The best podcasts are ones that engage their audience every episode, not just with a standout clip – so the Australian Podcast Awards wants your compilation to show that.

CATEGORIES 2020

Best True Crime Podcast
Whether it’s original investigations or pure storytelling, judges will be looking for well-researched programs, with evocative storytelling and human stories at its heart.  Outstanding entries in this category will have crafted a format around the material available, whether that’s archive, original interviews or other techniques, playing with this most established of podcast genres to create something unique.

Best Family Podcast
Recognising the shows that entertain children with either high quality storytelling, amazing facts or very silly jokes. OR: parenting podcasts that tell it like it really is, help us overcome those stressful times and give us fresh insights into modern family living.  Outstanding entries in this category will… educate their audience in an accessible and entertaining manner. Children’s podcasts should demonstrate how they engage listeners through format, casting and tone.

Moment Of The Year
The most impactful, visible, compelling single piece of audio produced this year and exclusive to a Australian podcast.  Outstanding entries in this field… will have kickstarted a national debate, got the social networks in a frenzy, or been widely shared to non-podcast audiences. Your written entry should include evidence of this.

Best Branded Podcast
Showcasing the best examples of advertiser-funded podcasts, where both the editorial and sponsor’s aims are seamless and beneficial… and, above all, make a great listen.  Outstanding entries in this category will demonstrate either added value to the brand’s established consumer base, or reach beyond to new audiences.

Best Comedy Podcast
Not to be confused with our entertainment category, this is for podcasts that aren’t just funny… but have finely crafted jokes inside*. From panel shows to parody, improv to sitcoms – and entirely new formats that only podcasts can create – judges have been instructed to reward the podcast that tickled the jury the most, not necessarily the one that appealed to everyone.

Make one judge laugh harder than any of the other entries, and you’ll walk away with the prize. Outstanding entries in this category will be markedly different from traditional radio formats, pushing boundaries that can’t be breached on FM.

Best Arts & Culture Podcast
Celebrating the arts across all cultures: the podcasts that encourage us to seek out new releases or forgotten classics – through reviews, interviews, discussion…. any or none of the above. Outstanding entries in this category will go beyond episode recaps or the typical ‘thumbs up/down’ critiques and give listeners fresh angles on the arts they love, with genuine and passionate presentation.

Best Fiction
Incorporating drama, readings, and ground-breaking new formats for storytelling.  Outstanding entries in this category will incorporate production that suits the story/stories and sound design that acknowledges an audience primarily of headphone users. New writing, new talent, new ways of looking at the world – these will be noted favourably. For Best Fiction you can submit up to 30mins of audio. This can be in the form of a single piece, or a selection of up to 5 clips. Please also note that you have to have released at least three episodes in the past eighteen months to qualify.

Best Documentary Podcast
From why we need bees to the intricacies of language – entries here should improve our understanding of ourselves and the world in an entertaining and accessible way.  Whether your thing is entertaining trivia or any number of gloriously niche subjects, you should make audiences smarter the longer they stay listening. Outstanding entries in this category will elevate the potentially driest of subjects to unmissable listening, making best use of podcasting’s unique qualities.

Best Radio Podcast
For shows that might have been lost in the schedule, but found a great home in podcasting. This category recognises the radio programs that appeal to podcast audience’s sensibilities, and the key aim of the Australian Podcast Awards: to recognise programming that honours fresh perspectives, new formats or alternative viewpoints unheard in mainstream media. Only podcasts where the content, in the majority, first aired on broadcast radio are eligible for this category.

Best Business Podcast
Inspiring the next generation of CEOs, COOs and other acronyms. You could be showcasing stories of great leadership, or helping listeners make every penny count. As with all our categories, we’re looking for shows that reflect the diversity of ideas, backgrounds and industry in our country. The best entries will need to be fresh-sounding, personable and inclusive.

Best Network or Publisher
This category is for companies that have a public-facing brand around a slate of shows. Your entry should include work from up to five podcasts in single clips, demonstrating the range and quality of content you’re producing. In addition, your written submission should detail your success this year, in whichever ways you define that success.

Best Wellbeing Podcast
New for 2020, we’d like to showcase the best self-help and improvement podcasts focusing on positive mental health. Your audio entry should illustrate how you tackle sensitive and sometimes traumatic issues with compassion, and/or provide a toolkit for listeners to apply to their own lives.
For the judge’s sake, please add any trigger warnings to your track-listing.

Best Lockdown Podcast
It’s been a hard year. This category celebrates the shows that have addressed this with their analysis and insight, or their ability to entertain and distract. Whether you’re a new show making sense of COVID-19 or an existing show retooled for the most challenging event of our age, showcase what you’ve done to get us through it.

Best New Podcast
We also want to champion the best launch of a show across any genre – if you have managed to start well and keep getting better, tell us how. To qualify, you will have started the podcast – and launched six episodes – since January 2019. Outstanding entries in this category will demonstrate the creative potential of the show, through new talent, writing or formats, rather than its current listener reach. Judges will want to label the winner ‘the ones to watch’ and forever claim they were listening from the beginning.’

Best Sports Podcast
Maybe you have incisive analysis, exceptional pundits and great access – or perhaps the discussion is merely a sideshow to the blossoming, unspoken romance between your contributors. Regardless, if you have a loyal audience and an entertaining show, you should enter. Outstanding entries in this category will be able to demonstrate a fanbase loyal to the podcast beyond the dreams of most sports clubs. Audience size is not a factor: making niche sports accessible to wider audiences would be as valued here as much as any show pegged to a major sporting tournament.

Best Interview
Incorporating interview formats across many topics: from books, to comedy, to health, to human interest. Whether your guests are super famous or just really, really interesting… perhaps they’re edited with a light touch, or cut down to size… either way, we want our judges to discover the finest, most compelling, incisive conversation produced this year. Unlike most other categories, entries can be one extract from a podcast published since January 2019, up to 15mins in length.

Best Current Affairs Podcast
Whether you are a business, news and current affairs show, publishing regular discussion formats or original journalism, we want to hear podcasts that have sought insight into our complex society.  Outstanding entries in this category will find new angles on recent events, beyond the headlines and 24-hour news cycles, retaining relevance with an audience beyond the week they were published.

Best Entertainment Podcast
Incorporating music shows, magazines, true storytelling and chat-based formats. If you put a spring in your listeners’ step, if you provide toe-tappin’, chin-strokin’, chuckle-inducin’ escapism… you should apply within.  Outstanding entries in this category will revel in their eclecticism, curating content or features that your subscribers unquestionably consume with open hearts and minds.

Best Sex & Relationships Podcast
Recognising the great work being done in sex education and relationship advice; representing a wider variety of sexual experiences than has previously been the case in mainstream media.
Outstanding entries in this category will have a high standard of research (whether in terms of guests or subject matter) and presentation that confronts taboos in an entertaining and accessible way.

SPECIAL AWARDS

The Creativity Award
Chosen at the discretion of the judges, this award recognises a single piece of audio so creatively dazzling that it deserves its own trophy. That could be the result of great storytelling, sound design, performance, editing… or any combination of the above. Just enter any judged category above to be considered.

Best Indigenous Podcast
We want to celebrate the great podcasts being made by First Nations producers and presenters. The podcast can be across any genre, and the nominees will form an essential playlist for all Australians.
To be considered for this award, enter any category above and use the opt-in tick box. This category is free to enter.

Listeners’ Choice
Our public poll involves getting your listeners to vote for you, for free, on our website. Last year over 180,000 individuals supported their favourite podcast, with those with the most passionate fans doing the best. Could that be your show? We’ll be opening up for votes when we announce our nominees.

Podcast Champion
We bestow this title on the person or company that has championed the podcasting cause this year. This award could honour a presenter, producer, app, critic, a newsletter… anything or anyone that aids listeners’ search for the right podcast. It is nominated by the nominees of this year’s awards and announced on the night.

The Spotlight Award
This is one for the big hitters out there: podcasts with sizeable audiences bringing the medium into the mainstream. But which of you is the best, according to our judges? Enter any category above and use the opt-in tick box. This category is free to enter.

The Bullseye Award
This category honours the podcasts that are producing exceptional listening experiences for niche audiences and those underrepresented in other Australian media.
To be considered for this award, enter any category above and use the opt-in tick box. This category is free to enter.

Podcast of the Year
The highest honour of the night, with the winner chosen from the Gold winners of the categories above – so anyone who wins their category has a chance of winning this most prestigious of prizes.
Outstanding entries in this category will have outstanding presentation, original research or writing, appropriately superb sound design and boundary-pushing material that showcases the very best of what Australian podcasting can achieve.

Shondaland Audio and iHeartMedia Announce Upcoming Lineup

~ jen

iHeartMedia and Shondaland Audio, a division of Shondaland, founded by award-winning television writer and producer Shonda Rimes, announced the division’s upcoming lineup.

Co-Produced with iHeartRadio, three new original podcasts will launch as part of the partnership, which was first announced and formed late last year. You Down? With Obama’s Other Daughters, Criminalia, and Go Ask Ali debut this month on iHeartRadio and everywhere else podcasts are available. As a result of GroupM’s sponsorship deal – the first iHeart and Shondaland Audio partnership – the largest global media investment network’s clients have exclusive access to the entire slate of original podcasts.

Shondaland Audio Shows Released in August of 2020:

“You Down?” with Obama’s Other Daughters – Hosted by four members of the all Black, all female comedy troupe known as Obama’s Other Daughters: Maame-Yaa Aforo, Ashley Holston, Yazmin Monet Watkins and Shakira Ja’nai Paye. These hilarious and opinionated friends come together for laughs and brutal honesty in this talk-show style podcast featuring fun, irreverent discussions as they offer unique perspective and comedic take on all things culture. It was released on August 11.

Criminalia – In this podcast, veteran Holly Frey (cohost of the award-winning podcast Stuff You Missed in History Class) and co-host Maria Trimarchi (writer, journalist and researcher) ask the question “what can we learn from the criminals and crimes of the past?” Criminalia is a dark, yet playful look at historical true crime. This podcast was released on August 18.

Go Ask Ali – Hosted by actress and New York Times best-selling author, Ali Wentworth who has become a comedic authority on wading through all the chaos that is modern life. Ali speaks with doctors, experts and friends about “How to grow a teenager in a pandemic” and “how to grow a relationship in a pandemic”. This podcast was released on August 20.

Upcoming Shondaland Audio Show Details Include:

#Matter – This scripted drama will be written, produced and directed by Dylan Brown (writer/producer, Rasing Kanan, Mac and Devin go to High School), and told through the lens of a reporter looking back at a case of police brutality, as a father intervenes in his teenage son’s beating and later find himself, his badly hurt son and a wounded cop barricaded in a nearby restaurant as they all struggle to stay alive. Set to launch this fall.

American Coup – A scripted series from writers Aaron Tracy (winter, Law and Order: SVU) and Andrew Lenchewski (co-creator Royal Pains) that explodes the incredible, untold story of Edith Wilson, the woman who hijacked the Oval Office. As a writing team, Aaron and Andrew have sold original TV pilots to USA Network, Freeform, Lionsgate, ans Alcon Entertainment. Set to launch this winter.

Black Girl Lost – This documentary-style podcast, produced by award-winning filmmaker and writer dream hampton and hosted by award-winning journalist Yesha Calahan, who looks at complexities behind the growing numbers of missing Black women and girls. Asking the questions who takes them and why? But most importantly, does anyone care about Black girls lost? The show will also feature thought-provoking interviews around a number of these unsolved missing persons cases. Set to launch early next year.

UK’s Audio Production Awards Goes Online for 2020

~ jen

AudioUK has announced that the winners of this year’s Audio Production Awards (APAs) will be announced online on Thursday 26th November. All the usual 20 awards will be included, plus an additional category to recognize content produced in reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The APAs, organized by AudioUK, celebrate the craft skills behind radio, podcast and audiobook production, with a ceremony normally taking place on London’s South Bank. Due to ongoing uncertainties resulting from the coronavirus pandemic, this year’s APAs will be adapted for an online celebration.

As always there will be awards for the best producer in comedy, arts, factual, podcasts, audiobooks as well as a range of best presenter/narrator awards, plus the special Gold award and the ‘Production Company of the Year’. Once again, the ‘Grassroots Production’ category will celebrate producers, teams and organizations working close to their communities, and this category will be free to enter, recognizing the particular challenges faced in that part of the sector.

In addition there will be a new ‘Life in Lockdown Award’, for innovative and/or creative production during the UK’s official COVID-19 lockdown period from 23 March to 10 May 2020.Unless specifically stated otherwise, every category is open to all forms of audio, which includes radio (broadcast via airwaves or online) and all podcast/downloadable/non-broadcast audio.

The APAs, which will accept entries from today until noon on Friday 18 September, are open to production talent from across the whole of the UK, with the entry fee frozen again at 2018’s price of £35+VAT for AudioUK members and £45+VAT for non-members.

Full details are at https://audioproductionawards.awardstage.com.

Cadence13 Partners with Obama White House Veterans for Pod is a Woman

~ jen

Cadence13, a premium podcast company and part of Entercom’s Podcast Network, announced the launch of Pod is a Woman a weekly show hosted by three Obama White House veterans: Alejandra Campoverdi, who served as White House Deputy Director of Hispanic Media; Johanna Maska, former White House Director of Press Advance; and Darienne Page, former White House Director of Veterans Outreach.

On Pod is a Woman, Campoverdi, Maska and Page will lead an unfiltered weekly conversation about politics and popular culture that is as relatable as it is real, joined by a roster of guests with backgrounds and perspectives as nuanced and eclectic as their own — politicians, organizers, tastemakers, journalists, and more. Looking at the race for 2020 and beyond, Campoverdi, Maska and Page will offer their firsthand insight and analysis, and a woman’s perspective, on the issues and the candidates, America’s leadership around the world, and what this election means for future generations. With dynamic hosts from profoundly different upbringings and paths to politics, Pod is a Woman infuses present day political commentary with voices sorely missing from the public discourse.

Pod is a Woman launched on August 10, 2020, with special guest Dr. Jill Biden on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, RADIO.Com and everywhere podcasts are available. New episodes will be available on Wednesdays beginning August 19, 2020. Dr. Biden will join Campoverdi, Maska and Page for an in-depth conversation on the race for the White House, key issues on the minds of voters, and more.

“Throughout our years working in the White House for President Obama, we saw just what was possible when people of all backgrounds come together under a common mission of equality and opportunity. We also experienced firsthand the leadership role women played in getting the job done. This moment will be no different,” said hosts Campoverdi, Page and Maska. “At this pivotal time for our country, we’re thrilled to partner with Cadence13 to create space for honest, unapologetic, and representative conversations that will cut through the political noise and bring the focus back to the issues that really matter.”

The iHeartPodcast Network Unveils There Be Monsters Podcast

~ jen

iHeartRadio, commercial podcast publisher globally, FlynnPictureCo., Psychopia Pictures, and UpperRoom Productions announced There Be Monsters, an original ten-part narrative sci-fi thriller podcast starring John Boyega (Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker, Detroit) and Emmy, Golden Globe and SAG award winner Darren Criss (American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versache, Hollywood, Royalties).

There Be Monsters, which is produced by Beau Flynn of FlynnPicture Co., Dan Bush of Psychopia Pictures and John Boyega of UpperRoom Production, will be available later this year on the iHeartPodcast Network.

In this new scripted thriller, Boyega plays Jack Locke, the mysterious hero with a vendetta who infiltrates a Silicon Valley body-hacking startup run by an cinematic CEO Max Fuller, played by Criss, whose highly secretive creations promise to enhance human biology in incredible ways – but every drug has a side effect.

iHeartRadio, FlynnPictureCo., Psychopia Pictures and UpperRoom Productions began developing There Be Monsters in November 2019 as part of an expanding slate of immersive “PodFiction” (PodFi) audio dramas. As the creative team was getting ready to fly to London, Atlanta and LA to record the actors in early 2020, the pandemic hit and they were shut down.

Despite the challenges of executing a scripted fictional podcast thriller with a full cast of actors remotely, the creative team was eager to move forward and broke new ground in podcast production in June 2020. The podcast creators and the iHeart team created a completely remote technological process and each cast member was sent a “Studio in a Box,” which included important materials from a professional studio microphone to tutorial videos. These materials enabled the cast to record studio quality “scripted” audio from the safety of their own homes, while still performing together as they connected virtually via teleconference across multiple continents and time zones.

The director, producers and actors would connect virtually daily for six hours to record – and over the course of two weeks the production captured over four hundred pages of material with twenty different actors.

There Be Monsters production just wrapped and is now in post production. The PodFiction series will be distributed by the iHeartPodcast Network which is home to more than 750 original podcasts with over 215 million downloads each month. iHeartRadio Original Podcasts span every category from business, sports, spirituality and technology to entertainment, family, comedy and true crime – and everything in between – making iHeartRadio the largest publisher of podcast content in the world.

PodTales 2020 is an Online Festival of Audio Drama

~ jen

PodTales 2020 is an online festival of audio drama and fiction podcasting. It will occur throughout the first three weekends of November. Culminating in the presentation of The Sarahs, The Sarah Lawerence College International Audio Fiction Awards.

Here is a portion of PodTales Diversity Statement:

PodTales is committed to inclusion across race, gender, age, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, religion, ethnicity, neurodiversity, and disability status. We aim to ensure every aspect of our show adheres to that commitment, including the assembly of our programming, showcases, pod grants, and anything else that comes into planning this show. We recognize the ongoing oppression of white supremacy and the vital importance and necessity of committing to antiracism, as an organization and as individuals. We aim to host a show that is inclusive and equitable for all who partake, including our attendees, exhibitors, and guests. PodTales is for everyone.

Each day during throughout the month of November, the Podcast Showcase will spotlight a different episode of a different audio storytelling podcast submitted by the creators in the PodTales 2020 dedicated podcast feed. Members of the showcase will also be highlighted on their website.

Podcasts submitted must fall within the art form of imaginative audio storytelling, including audio drama, audio fiction, and real play podcasts. Podcasts must be an original work created and owned by the person or team submitting them.

Podcasters can fill out the PodTales 2020 Podcast Showcase Application if they would like to participate. The application deadline is September 18th at 11:59 PM to be considered.