Indian summer has made its way from coast to coast, laughing in the face of the swirling leaves and racks of Halloween candy (and Christmas decorations) at Costco, but here at Hub & Spoke, we’re here for the fresh pencil smell and crispness of both apples and air that the season promises. Even if a few of us slept with the air conditioning on last night.
Today is a slightly truncated newsletter, but what we lack in quantity we more than make up for in quality: events, episodes, oh, and a whole brand spanking new show in the collective.
See you in October for our next Radio Hour and a whole lot more. Hopefully we’ll be wearing sweaters by then.
Event alert for Beantown dwellers!
Co-ops. Collectives. Networks. How do we stand strong in the face of so much industry turmoil. In this volatile time for podcasting, is there an opportunity to figure out new ways to get shows made, strengthen the audio community, and exert more control of your career? How do you find your people? How do you even know who they are? What does it mean to be collectively independent?
You’ve got questions and we’ve got answers (or at the very least, anecdotes).
In this free, informal conversation, on Wednesday, September 18 @ 6:45pm ET, hear from Hub & Spoke board members Nick Andersen, Yooree Losordo, and Ma’ayan Plaut about the joys, perils, and opportunities that comes from going it together. This event is being held at the PRX Podcast Garage in Allston, MA, community space and Hub & Spoke birthplace.
Presenting the newest member of the Hub & Spoke family:
The Rabbis Go South is a seven-part narrative nonfiction podcast telling the little-known story of three dramatic days in June, 1964, when 16 rabbis answered the call of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to join forces with civil rights activists in St. Augustine, Florida. The rabbis would serve as foot soldiers in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s ongoing attempts to integrate the brutally racist city.
While praying with Black clergy, the rabbis were arrested and jailed. It was the largest imprisonment of rabbis to that point in American history. In jail, the rabbis composed the joint letter “Why We Went,” explaining that the Holocaust should give Jews reason to stand up against racial injustice in America.
Hear the trailer below. Full episodes will be released weekly starting today, Monday, September 16, 2024. Find them at hubspokeaudio.org, click the subscribe link below, or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
Meet the Creators and Hosts:
Amy Geller’s award-winning productions, PBS's “The War That Made America” (2005), “For the Love of Movies: the Story of American Film Criticism” (2009), and “The Guys Next Door” have screened at film festivals around the world. She was the Artistic Director of the Boston Jewish Film Festival, and is currently an Assistant Professor at Boston University. Geller produced and co-directed with Gerald Peary “The Rabbi Goes West” (2019).
Gerald Peary is the writer-director of the acclaimed feature documentaries, “For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism” (2009) and Archie’s Betty (2015). He was a long-time film critic for The Boston Phoenix and programmer of the Boston University Cinematheque. Peary wrote and co-directed with Amy Geller “The Rabbi Goes West” (2019).
Listen to the trailer:
A reminder that the Hub & Spoke Expo is our new showcase for limited-series podcasts. Are you a producer interested in pitching us an Expo show? Shoot us a note at info@hubspokeaudio.org.
Nocturne:
Tom and Savannah: An early tragedy led Tom Turcich to examine what he wanted out of life, so over the course of seven years, he and Savannah walked around the globe. Tom is the 10th man to walk around the world, and Savannah is the first dog.
Open Source:
Political Football: In the strangeness of mid-summer 2024, the cosmopolitan novelist Joseph O’Neill is our bridge between the Republican convention in Milwaukee and the Summer Olympics in Paris. He knows both sides of that gap: politics and global celebrity sports.
American Believer: The novelist Marilynne Robinson has a nearly constitutional role in our heads, our culture by now. She’s the artist we trust to observe the damaged heart of America, and to tell us what we’re going through.
In It to the Finish: Cornel West is our guest, the preacher-teacher in a tradition of black prophetic fire, as he puts it, the line of holy anger in American history, and this time on the presidential ballot in a variety of states.
The Harris Machine: How does Kamala Harris, after the Democratic convention in Chicago and for the rest of this campaign, come to look and sound presidential, even though no other president has ever looked like her?
Out There:
Running As Medicine: In May of 2022, Maria Ordovas-Montanes set out to become the fastest woman to run the Oxford Green Belt Way, a 55-mile route through the English countryside. She had always loved running, and this was an exciting challenge. But at the event, something happened that would derail her life — and lead to a shocking discovery.
The Gift of Silence: Ilana Nevins loved backpacking with her father. But after she was diagnosed with an eating disorder, their relationship became strained. She worried that hiking together would put her recovery at risk, because so many of her behaviors were modeled after him. This is the story of the difficult challenge she faced: how to prioritize her own well-being without wrecking her relationship with a loved one.
Print Is Dead. (Long Live Print!):
A Beginning and an End: A conversation with The New York Times’ Chief Creative Officer, Tom Bodkin, only the second art department head to have ever been listed on the prestigious Times masthead.
Vive la Créativité!: His enthusiasm is contagious. It’s actually his super power. And it’s a lesson for all of us. A conversation with designer Fabien Baron (Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue Paris, Interview, more).
Rumble Strip:
The World Under the World: This is a story about active drug addiction.
Revisiting Mark Utter’s Beautiful Mind: Mark Utter was born with a form of autism that makes it impossible for him to say what he's thinking. For the first thirty years of his life, Mark did not have access to the world of words, except as a listener. An observer.
Allison after the Flood: On the one-year anniversary of a 100-year flood, Vermont experienced another devastating flood. This is the story of one Plainfield, Vermont resident, who lost everything.
A final plea:
“These podcasts makes me feel more connected to and optimistic about humans, because there is so much honesty and vulnerability and humor and striving towards understanding in each episode. I want to support that kind of art.”
- a Hub & Spoke donor