Slow Burn

Slow Burn Podcast to Become a Docuseries

~ jen

Premium network EPIX has greenlit Slow Burn, a six-episode docuseries based on the hit podcast of the same name. From Nixon and Watergate to Clinton’s impeachment, host Leon Neyfakh excavates the strange subplots and forgotten characters involved in the downfall of a president – flashing back to politically tumultuous times not so far removed from today.

Slow Burn is produced by Slate. The docuseries will be produced in partnership between Left/Right, a Red Arrow Studios company, and Slate.

Season one of EPIX’s series adaptation will mirror that of the podcast, looking back on the Watergate crisis and exploring its parallels with the present.

“With Slow Burn, Leon Neyfakh took a profound and compelling journey through some of the most unforgettable times in political history,” said Michael Wright, President, EPIX. “As huge fans of the podcast, we’re thrilled to work with our partners at Slate, Left/Right and, of course, Leon, to further explore what he so brilliantly brought to the fore.”

Slow Burn is executive produced by Leon Neyfakh, along with Ken Druckerman and Banks Tarver for Left/Right and Dan Check, Julia Turner and Gabriel Roth for Slate.

Neyfakh started his reporting carreer at the New York Observer before joining The Boston Globe as the staff writer for the Ideas section covering the world of academia. At Slate, he reported on the criminal justice system and the Justice Department before co-creating Slow Burn with Andrew Parsons.

Most recently, Neyfakh launched an independent podcast studio, Prologue Projects, and this spring will launch a new podcast called Fiasco. The first season will focus on the 2000 election, and the second – following later in 2019 – on the Iran Contra affair.

Leon Neyfakh is Leaving Slate

~ jen

Leon Neyfakh announced in a thread of tweets that he will be leaving Slate “to start something new”. He is the host of Slate’s Slow Burn podcast. It appears that the “something new” will be a podcast called FIASCO.

The description of Slow Burn on Apple Podcasts says:

Leon Neyfakh excavates the strange subplots and forgotten characters of recent political history – and finds surprising parallels to the present. Season 1 of Slow Burn captured what it felt like to live through Watergate; Season 2 does the same with the saga of Bill Clinton’s impeachment.

There is not a whole lot of information in the thread of tweets about FIASCO. Leon Neyfakh described it this way: “It will be about the past – why the history we half-remember played out the way it did, and what marks it left on the world we live in.”

Also according to the thread of tweets, Andrew Parsons will be the executive producer of FIASCO. Andrew Parson was the person responsible for sound on Slow Burn. Michelle Kaplan will become an assistant producer of FIASCO. She served as a researcher on Slow Burn Season 2. Leon Neyfakh says that Slow Burn “will continue to evolve and flourish under Slate’s care.”

The first season of FIASCO will arrive in the first half of 2019. It will be about Bush v. Gore and the battle over the 2000 election. The second season of FIASCO will appear later in 2019. It will tell the story of the Iran-Contra scandal. To me, it sounds like fans of Slow Burn will probably enjoy listening to FIASCO.