iHeartMedia and Pushkin Industries Announce Partnership

iHeartMedia announced a co-production and distribution agreement partnership with Pushkin Industries, the audio production company co-founded by Malcolm Gladwell and Jacob Weisberg, that will make iHeartMedia Pushkin’s exclusive sales partner for its catalog of premium podcasts including Revisionist History, Broken Record, The Happiness lab with Laurie Santos, and many others.

As part of this deal, iHeartMedia and Pushkin Industries will co-produce a slate of new, original podcasts over the next two years.

Pushkin Industries has quickly become a highly esteemed startup, creating a host of award-winning audio content since its founding in 2018. Notable shows such as Gladwell’s Revisionist History, Michael Lewis’s Against the Rules, and Tim Hartford’s Cautionary Tales, have built sizable audiences, garnered widespread media attention and driven cultural conversation. Partnering with iHeartMedia will enable these unique and singular shows to reach even more listeners.

“We started Pushkin to share the joy Jacob and I have found in creating and producing podcasts,” said Malcolm Gladwell. “Working with the team at iHeart will allow us to spread this joy at an even bigger scale.”

“Conal Byrne and the team at iHeart have been instrumental in popularizing podcasts,” said Jacob Weisberg. “We’re looking forward to working with them to push the boundaries of what’s possible in audio even further.”

In addition to the expansive slate of podcasts that will join the iHeartPodcast Network, the companies today also announced two new Pushkin shows releasing in March 2021:

Double Date is an interview show hosted by American icons Marlo Thomas and Phil Donahue, who have been married for 40 years. The two will sit down with other celebrated power couples for fun, sexy, poignant conversations about what really makes a marriage last. Guests will include Viola Davis and Julius Tennon, Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka, and Sting and Trudie Styler. The first season will include 10 episodes.

Lost Hills is an investigative true crime series from The New Yorker’s staff writer Dana Goodyear. It tells the story of the 2018 murder of scientist Tristan Beaudette, who was shot in the head in front of his two daughters while camping in Malibu Creek State Park. Lost Hills is a tragic true crime story played out against the sometimes ridiculous backdrop of Malibu. The first of three planned seasons will include 8 episodes.