Werk It: The Podcast

You Can Grow Your Audience...Without Going Batsh*t Crazy

In the ever-expanding podcast universe, there are SO many tools that you can use to find and grow your audience. NPR’s Mathilde Piard shares insights won from helping grow their podcasts and tactics for finding new ears that can work for indies and network shows alike. Hosted by Dessa, Werk It: The Podcast is the ICYMI version of the live event. Both the festival and the podcast are produced by WNYC Studios and are made possible by a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting with additional support from the Annenberg Foundation. Event sponsors for Werk It 2019 include Luminary, Spotify, Spreaker, Acast, Himalaya, and the Women’s Foundation of California.

Who Are You Making This For?

If we can agree that it’s imperative to identify a target audience before making a new podcast, why do things still get so fuzzy when we talk about reaching “diverse” audiences? Cristina Kim, producer of Truth Be Told; Tonya Mosley, host of Truth Be Told and co-host of Here & Now; Kameel Stanley, Senior Producer of The City; and Berry Syk, the creator of Podcasts in Color have experiences that span decades, coasts, cultures and mediums. Their candid conversation is filled with lessons learned and strategies to intentionally make podcasts for and by people of color. Hosted by Dessa, Werk It: The Podcast is the ICYMI version of the live event. Both the festival and the podcast are produced by WNYC Studios and are made possible by a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting with additional support from the Annenberg Foundation. Event sponsors for Werk It 2019 include Luminary, Spotify, Spreaker, Acast, Himalaya, and the Women’s Foundation of California. 

Using Your Podcast to Create Community IRL

Diosa Femme and Mala Muñoz have used their podcast Locatora Radio to create community in East LA. They explain how to take a podcast out of the studio and into real life and why it’s well worth doing with your listeners.Diosa and Mala’s podcast is about creating a safe space for survivors of sexual assault, so they’ll mention that in this episode. Hosted by Dessa, Werk It: The Podcast is the ICYMI version of the live event. Both the festival and the podcast are produced by WNYC Studios and are made possible by a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting with additional support from the Annenberg Foundation. Event sponsors for Werk It 2019 include Luminary, Spotify, Spreaker, Acast, Himalaya, and the Women’s Foundation of California.

How They Made It: Man in the Window

There are a lot of reasons why Man in the Window wasn’t an easy show to make. It is about a serial rapist and murderer in California. There were tons of characters and thousands of documents to sift through. And the main character was “Society” with a capital S. LA Times Investigative Reporter Paige St. John and senior producer and editor Karen Lowe explain how this unwieldy print journalism project became a compelling hit podcast that pushes the boundaries of the true crime genre. Hosted by Dessa, Werk It: The Podcast is the ICYMI version of the live event. Both the festival and the podcast are produced by WNYC Studios and are made possible by a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting with additional support from the Annenberg Foundation. Event sponsors for Werk It 2019 include Luminary, Spotify, Spreaker, Acast, Himalaya, and the Women’s Foundation of California.

Abandon Your Plans

Avery Trufelman, producer of 99% Invisible and host of Articles of Interest and Nice Try! endeavors to answer the age old question: Where do you get your ideas from? What comes next after you have an idea and feel that buzzy spark? Avery breaks down how one of her favorite episodes of 99% Invisible, “The Pool and the Stream”, came to be plus all the twists and turns along the way.Hosted by Dessa, Werk It: The Podcast is the ICYMI version of the live event. Both the festival and the podcast are produced by WNYC Studios and are made possible by a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting with additional support from the Annenberg Foundation. Event sponsors for Werk It 2019 include Luminary, Spotify, Spreaker, Acast, Himalaya, and the Women’s Foundation of California.