At the end of March, WYPR launched its new podcast, “The Daily Dose,” released Monday through Friday at 6 PM. Developed expeditiously in service to our community and in response to Maryland’s health disparities, the podcast provides insightful, succinct stories on the latest developments of the COVID-19 crisis and Maryland’s response to the ongoing pandemic. It summarizes WYPR’s daily news and local programming segments along with exclusive content on coronavirus and mitigation efforts underway, offering useful community resources and policy guidance on how to stay safe in the current environment. In June, with support from Report for America, the Anthony Brandon Fellowship Fund and the Transamerica Foundation, WYPR hired a new health reporter to keep up with rapid developments, further affirming our commitment to reporting on racial health disparities.
“The Daily Dose” serves our greater Baltimore community by leveraging the power of WYPR’s local programs produced to create relevant, reliable and accessible programming five days a week. WYPR’s six-person newsroom serves a large and diverse urban area, hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. The podcast further aims to highlight how Baltimore’s Black and brown communities have been disproportionately impacted by the virus spread resulting in increased levels of mortality for those infected with COVID-19. WYPR is committed to reporting on local implications of this health crisis in a way that reveals these stark disparities for an increasingly broader audience.
The podcast features original storytelling from members of our greater Baltimore community. Listeners are invited to leave a voicemail or send a voice memo with their thoughts, questions, and insights about everyday life. These are then featured by the host at the end of a podcast episode. One powerful example features a father singing a lullaby to his newborn about his hopes for the child’s future during the April 3, 2020 program.
WYPR’s ability to develop relevant and timely programming in response to a serious community issue serves as a model that we hope to replicate in our coverage of other broad-reaching developments beyond the COVID-19 threat. As the community adapts to life in the coronavirus era, the podcast content has been broadened to include topline local news along with highlights of special coverage and original local programming. The format and name of the podcast is flexible enough that WYPR is able to adapt the podcast to meet future needs of our greater Baltimore community.