Ragusea
Today we’re excited to raise a glass and toast the launch of our first podcast, The Pub. With new episodes posted every Thursday, The Pub will use our coverage of public media as a starting point for thought-provoking conversation and commentary, hosted by popular Current contributor Adam Ragusea.
Our first episode features an interview with Canadian podcaster Jesse Brown, who helped break the news of Canadian Broadcasting Corp. host Jian Ghomeshi’s alleged history of sexual assaults. You can find new episodes of The Pub here every week and on SoundCloud and Libsyn. The Pub will also be available in the iTunes Store shortly; in the meantime, you can “Subscribe to Podcast” in iTunes and use the link “http://currentpubmedia.libsyn.com/rss” (UPDATE: It’s now in the iTunes Store.)
We’ve talked about launching a podcast for some time, but who would host it? The answer came to us after Adam approached us last year with ideas for a few commentaries, which quickly proved to be a hit with our readers. Not only is Adam a funny and engaging writer, he’s also an experienced radio host and producer, making him an ideal anchor for The Pub.
“I think the name The Pub really gets at what we want to create — like a bunch of colleagues, all out for a well-earned beer at the end of a tough week, talking shop, maybe getting a little rambunctious,” Adam says. We hope you enjoy listening to The Pub as much as we’ve enjoyed putting it together.
Appearing on the inaugural episode, which goes live today, is Jesse Brown, the Canadian podcaster who helped break the news of Canadian Broadcasting Corp. host Jian Ghomeshi’s alleged history of sexual assaults against women. Adam also offers some suggestions for public radio drinking games and chats with our commentator Susanna Capelouto about local public radio news stories that get big social media buzz.
Look for these features on upcoming episodes:
- A surprisingly compelling argument from an oft-quoted expert source that reporters should start paying expert sources
- Veteran news director Judith Smelser explaining why public radio has a shortage of news directors and what to do about it
- A frank conversation with former Marketplace Money host Tess Vigeland about why she walked away from her dream job and why others should do the same
- Longtime NPR contributor Jacki Lyden on why public media doesn’t take fashion seriously, even though it should
- Jake Shapiro, executive director of Public Radio Exchange, discussing his revolutionary idea to — gasp — pay podcasters.
Adam is Journalist in Residence and Visiting Assistant Professor of Journalism at the Center for Collaborative Journalism at Mercer University in Macon, Ga. He’s also reported for public radio shows including Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Here & Now, Marketplace and The Takeaway. Before becoming a journalist, Adam studied music composition, and he creates all the music for The Pub.
Bottoms up!
I liked the extended explainer with Jesse Brown – the background on both the Canadian media scene and the Ghomeshi story was welcome and interesting. I liked the drinking games idea for a pledge premium item. I was interested to hear a bit of editorial comment at the end. I didn’t agree 100% but it’s nice to hear that kind of thing. Mike Pesca has done wonders with his Spiel on The Gist.
Unofficial drinking games for #pubmedia: PBS NewsHour has on occasion published bingo boards for specials. These could easily played sober or with some fine alcohol.