NEW YORK, Jan. 9, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Podcast industry
leader Midroll Media is partnering with boldface names from the
worlds of news, entertainment and popular culture to grow its
Stitcher podcast network and premium audio offerings.
Already home to hits including "Heaven's Gate" and "Katie Couric," Stitcher will debut two new shows
in coming weeks, available everywhere listeners access
podcasts:
- With "Unladylike," launching weekly episodes on
Jan. 23, hosts Cristen Conger and Caroline Ervin explore what happens when
women break the rules. Conger and Ervin, the creators and original
hosts of top-ranked podcast "Stuff Mom Never Told You," bring their
trademark obsessive research and a solid dose of delightful
feminist rage to cover topics including the economics of getting an
abortion, feminism's fraught relationship with domestic and care
work, and the growing business of witchcraft.
- "Who Is Franklin Jones?" is a first-person, narrated
documentary series in which host Jonathan Hirsch (NPR, Fusion Media, Vox)
explores the life of spiritual guru Franklin Jones and his followers. Jones got his
start with a spiritual experiment grounded in the ethos of the
1960s and 1970s, and later, under the moniker Adi Da, became the
source of multiple controversies and legal battles. The series
documents Hirsch's own quest to make sense of the community in
which he grew up. The seven-episode series launches Feb. 28; episodes will be available one week in
advance for Stitcher Premium subscribers.
Three of the Stitcher network's most popular shows return with
new episodes:
- Katie Couric's acclaimed
podcast – which has featured guests Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Ava DuVernay, Alec Baldwin and Martha Stewart – kicks off the new year with
a new episode every week, instead of twice monthly. In 2018, Couric
and co-host Brian Goldsmith
will interview some of the biggest names in news, politics and
popular culture, starting with the first guests of the year:
MSNBC's Joe Scarborough and
Mika Brzezinski for the
show's Jan. 11 episode. In addition
to the new weekly format, Couric and Goldsmith will host a series
of candid, unscripted conversations with newsmaking "wonder women,"
Maggie Haberman (The
New York Times), Kara Swisher (Recode), actress and comedian
Amy Schumer, Laverne Cox ("Orange is the New Black") and
more.
- Top parenting podcast "The Longest Shortest Time"
returns with new episodes — and a new host — on Jan. 24. Andrea Silenzi joins the
show as host while creator and longtime host Hillary Frank moves into the role of executive
producer and editor. Silenzi was previously host of the successful
podcast "Why Oh Why" and has been a guest on past episodes of "The
Longest Shortest Time." Silenzi will continue to report on the
topics of parenting and family in the show's edgy-with-heart style
while exploring her own story of finding a path to motherhood as a
single woman in her 30s.
- "LeVar Burton Reads" returns with a second season on
Jan. 16, featuring the beloved actor
reading stories from writers including award-winning author
Nnedi Okorafor and celebrated
novelist Joan Aiken.
Including new shows, Stitcher's owned-and-operated network now
boasts 11 podcasts. The brand's subscription-based Stitcher Premium
also continues its growth as it introduces three new shows:
- Building on her growing yoga empire, which includes a popular
blog and massive Instagram following, yoga instructor, writer and
body-positivity activist Jessamyn
Stanley makes her podcast debut on Jan. 17 with "Jessamyn Explains It All."
Focusing on the realities of living the yoga lifestyle in the 21st
century, the show features Stanley answering listener questions and
interviewing high-profile guests on such topics as yoga for
beginners, body positivity and issues of sexual and gender
identity. Eight episodes will be released weekly exclusively on
Stitcher Premium.
- On Feb. 7, Dan Pashman, host of award-winning food
podcast "The Sporkful," launches a live-taped spinoff
series, "Ask Mimi," featuring legendary 91-year-old food
critic Mimi Sheraton offering advice on food and life to
audience members, celebrity guests and live callers from across the
country. Three tapings take place at Brooklyn's Union Hall this month and feature
humorist Mo Rocca ("CBS
Sunday Morning"), comic Sasheer Zamata ("Saturday Night
Live"), chef Amanda Cohen
(Dirt Candy), comic Aparna
Nancherla ("Conan," "Inside Amy Schumer"), chef
Angela Dimayuga (formerly of
Mission Chinese) and more. Pashman will moderate. Get tickets for
the live tapings here.
- As previously announced, Stitcher and Marvel will release
"Wolverine: The Long Night," the first-ever Marvel scripted
podcast, this spring. The show follows agents Sally Pierce (Celia
Keenan-Bolger) and Tad
Marshall (Ato
Essandoh) as they arrive in the fictional town of Burns,
Alaska, to investigate a series of
murders and quickly discover the town lives in fear of a serial
killer. The agents team up with deputy Bobby Reid (Andrew
Keenan-Bolger) to investigate their main suspect, Logan
(Richard Armitage). The
10-episode series will be available exclusively on Stitcher Premium
until fall 2018, when it will see a wide release across all podcast
platforms.
With more than 8 million registered users, Stitcher is the
world's No. 2 podcast listening platform. In 2017 alone, users
logged 100 million hours of podcast listening.
About Stitcher
Stitcher is one of the world's most
popular podcast listening services, with a growing network of
original content and a premium subscription service. Stitcher is
part of Midroll Media, a leading podcast company that is also home
to the Earwolf network and its top-ranked comedy podcasts and the
Midroll advertising network, representing over 300 of the world's
largest podcasts. With offices in Los
Angeles, New York City and
San Francisco, Midroll was founded
in 2010 and is a wholly owned subsidiary of The E.W. Scripps
Company (NYSE: SSP).
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SOURCE The E.W. Scripps Company