In today’s podcast news roundup, Finneas leads the first season of the artist -led “Song Stories” podcast from iHeartRadio; sports journalist Tom Rinaldi told the story of MLB star Lyman Wesley Bostock Jr. on a new Fox Sports podcast; Production firm SALT hires Luminary’s Kenzi Wilbur and Spotify’s Robert Adler; etc.
DATE
Grammy-winning music producer and musician Finneas will be the feature actor in the first season of iHeartRadio‘s “Song Stories” podcast series, set to debut on July 20. Hosted by iHeartRadio writer and podcast producer Jordan Runtagh, the show will invite chart-topping musicians to tell the backstories of their songwriting process, production collaborations and live tours. In the inaugural season, Finneas (Billie Eilish’s older sister) will share her inner look at creating her debut album, “Optimist,” which was further shaped by events in 2020. The upcoming seasons of “Song Stories” are will feature a new artist in each dedicated season narrating the creation of their latest album and the tour that follows.
“My connection with my fans is very important to me, and I want to share my album with them,” Finneas said in a statement. “I am excited to work with iHeartRadio to take them through the intimate process of making an album through this podcast. It’s an important piece of me and I can’t wait for them to hear how it came together. ”
Fox Sports set July 18 for debut “Wesley,” its first serialized audio docu-series executive produced, written and hosted by Emmy-winning journalist Tom Rinaldi. The eight -part series tells the exciting and heartbreaking story of Lyman Wesley Bostock Jr., the activist turned athlete who became one of the best hitters in Major League Baseball, and was killed during the heyday of his career. The first four episodes of “Welsey” will be available next Monday on all major podcast platforms, including Apple and Spotify, as well as on FOXSports.com and the Fox Sports app.
SiriusXM’s mananahi announced “Rubirosa,” a documentary podcast produced and hosted by the actor, author and historian Christopher Rivas will air on July 27. Produced by Stitcher’s Witness Docs unit, the 10-episode series tells the story of Porfirio Rubirosa, the Dominican diplomat and playboy who may have inspired Ian Fleming’s iconic James Bond character. Rivas, a Dominican-American, examined how his life might have been different if James Bond-his hero as a child-had looked like him. “Rubirosa” was created and executive produced by Rivas, with additional support from Stitcher senior producer Abigail Keel and producer Kevin Tidmarsh; and executives produced by Workhouse Media, Amelia Baker, Mackenzie Munro and Ari Anderson. Kameel Stanley is the executive producer of Witness Docs. The story is edited by John DeLore, the technical direction is by Casey Holford and the original music is composed and performed by Wilson Torres, Yeisson Villamar and Marcos Varela. The theme song of the podcast is composed by Allison Leyton Brown.
to Hearst The Beauty of the House debuted Season 2 of “Dark house,” exploring America’s most haunted homes and the stories behind them, on Wednesday, July 13. The new season features cursed homes from around the country, including Ackley House (Nyack, NY), the Manson Family Murder House (LA), the Chop Chop House (Boise, Idaho), the Watcher House (Westfield, NJ) and the Conjuring House (Burrillville, RI). The podcast is hosted by Alyssa Fiorentino, director of brand strategy and audience development at House Beautiful, and senior editor Hadley Mendelsohn.
Content studio Project Brazen and public media organizations PRX announced “Kabul Falling,” an eight -part podcast that takes listeners on “a cinematic journey” through Afghans ’personal experiences about the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul in 2021, nearly 20 years after the Coalition Forces ousted them from power. Hosted by British-Afghan journalists Nelufar Hedayat and executive produced by Project Brazen co-founder Tom Wright at Bradley Hopethe first two episodes of “Kabul Falling” will be launched on Monday, August 1, with new episodes aired every Monday until the anniversary of the Taliban takeover until the eve of the anniversary of the terrorist attacks on September 11 .
EXECS
ASINthe LA -based studio behind podcasts including Dave Chappelle’s “The Midnight Miracle” for Luminary, has announced the acquisition of Kenzi Wilbur (bottom left), formerly with Luminary, as VP of partnerships and development, and Robert Adler (bottom right), former post-production supervisor at Spotify, as head of post production. Founded by partners Jamie Schefman, Noah Gersh and Nick Panama, SALT’s productions include “Blackout” and “Carrier” (QCode), “The Last Degree of Kevin Bacon” (Spotify), “Hit Job” (Broadway Video), and “Dr. Death Says: Miracle Man” (Awesome).
Public radio station WNYC announced that Ave Carrillo has been named executive producer of local podcasts. In the role, he will focus on expanding the newsroom’s audio storytelling capacity, which will involve setting the podcast strategy, building the production team and conducting piloting to determine the sound and direction of the station’s on-demand offerings. . Carillo will report to Sean Bowditch, director of audio strategy, and will begin later this summer. He joined the newsroom from WNYC Studios, where for the past seven years he has served as senior producer of “The New Yorker Radio Hour.”
DEALS
Michael Rapaport‘s “I am Rapaport: Stereo Podcast” has joined iHeartMedia’s iHeartPodcast Network, which will continue to distribute the show on all major audio platforms. Every Tuesday and Friday, listeners will hear the actor-director “share his strong, funny and offensive perspective on life, sports, music, film and everything in between,” according to iHeartMedia. Rapaport’s show featured her interview with guests such as Martin Scorsese, Shaquille O’Neal, Mike Tyson, Ice Cube, Charlamagne Tha God, Ellen Pompeo, Allen Iverson, Juliette Lewis and Method Man.
Streaming media company Curiosity Inc. reconciled with iHeartMedia to launch Curiosity Audio Network, who will develop and release several podcast projects throughout the year. The Curiosity Audio Network will feature original content as well as podcasts to complement programming from Curiosity’s streaming library of documentary films, shows and series. The “One Day University” podcast series is now live on the Curiosity Audio Network, featuring lectures delivered by professors from some of the world’s top colleges and universities. Later this year, Curiosity will release its first original podcast co-produced with iHeartMedia, a series that will mix pop culture, history, and real crime with a deep dive into the mystery surrounding the life and death of “Cold War Cowboy” Dean Reed. Also coming soon is “Untold History of Sports in America,” which examines the role of sports in shaping the American psyche.
ILUNTOS
Dysctopia, a podcast hosting and streaming service for independent creators, has launched a video podcast feature, which allows users to upload video podcasts and automatically add them to their Really Simple Syndication (RSS ) feed. The company said video podcasters on the Disctopia platform will also be able to access video-specific analytics, including listener location, daily number of listeners, daily downloads and engagement, via its True Play analytics dashboard.
