2024 Annual Report

How do you make the perfect grilled cheese? Tomato soup? Iceberg salad? For home cooks who prep meals with podcasts in their ears, The Recipe with Kenji and Deb is the ideal kitchen companion. Co-hosts and co-creators Deb Perelman (Smitten Kitchen) and J. Kenji López-Alt (The New York Times, The Food Lab, The Wok) help home cooks become even better with a fun, light-hearted show from Radiotopia from PRX.

The Recipe with Kenji and Deb is the first original podcast from PRX Productions, our in-house audio production unit.

Working with top-tier talent — new to podcasting, but already renowned in their field — PRX helped conceive, produce, distribute, market, and support The Recipe from its inception. The show debuted at #1 on Apple Podcasts – Arts and had more than half a million downloads in its first six months.

Today, PRX Productions makes shows that consistently top charts and best-of lists, but more important than quantitative metrics is the quality of our output. PRX Productions has evolved from creating bespoke audio content for partners, to leading original content creation like The Recipe. This sustainable growth over the past several years has set us up as a model for other audio organizations, and has helped PRX diversify our revenue streams in a turbulent podcasting landscape. With PRX Productions as a marquee service, there is more opportunity than ever for PRX to say “yes” to leading the way for exceptional audio experiences.

Ear Hustle is uniquely adept at telling expansive stories from confined spaces as the first podcast created and produced in prison. Starting from inside San Quentin State Prison in 2016, Ear Hustle also shares perspectives from the outside, post-incarceration. Episodes have been downloaded more than 81 million times, and incarcerated people in prisons around the world can listen to the podcast.

Ear Hustle now also elevates stories from women’s perspectives at the California Institution for Women and the Central California Women’s Facility — the largest women’s prison in the world. In response to calls from educators, the team has started creating free and easily accessible curriculum guides — giving teachers resources to build empathy and understanding about mass incarceration in the United States.

Ear Hustle provides a means of both expression and skills-building from both the inside and outside, and underscores the value of all its contributors.

Ear Hustle celebrated its 100^th episode this year with the show’s first-ever cross-country live tour. Later, the hosts shared the stage with other inspiring figures at the Aspen Ideas Festival. Its latest seasons have brought listeners stories about mothers and daughters, facing the end of life while incarcerated, and from the new producing team at the Media Lab inside the recently renamed San Quentin Rehabilitation Center. An episode featuring the first stories reported by the new inside-team members was named a finalist for the National Magazine Awards — an achievement coveted by media professionals.

The World from PRX and GBH searches out new perspectives on the biggest international stories, while finding moments of joy that keep listeners connected across borders. This year, Carolyn Beeler joined Marco Werman as co-host, bringing her expertise as the show’s longtime environment correspondent and editor to the role. The World continued reporting initiatives to cover the intersection of religion and nationalism around the globe, and brought listeners insights into higher education and how countries beyond the US pay for it.

In April, Marco and a team of World journalists spent a week bringing the program to listeners from Israel — they were on the ground during an incoming missile attack from Iran. Earlier, The World’s Shirin Jaafari accompanied the Jordanian air force on an aid drop over Gaza — a reporting effort that took weeks to arrange and was approved just hours before departure. Jaafari managed to cross the Iraq-Jordan border in time to board the early morning flight and describe a rare view of the destruction in the Gaza Strip. Following the reverberating impacts of global conflict takes heavy investment in planning, preparation, and security training. Part of The World’s mandate is not just to cover what journalists refer to as “the bang-bang” — the daily exchange of hostilities — but also everyday life in war zones.

This type of intrepid, in-depth international reporting bringing listeners closer to the headlines is part of The World’s trademark journalism.

With correspondents on six continents and hosts on both coasts of the US, The World remains the premier nonprofit source for global news on public radio.

Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting, Mother Jones, and PRX, together with the Center for Public Integrity, brought a historically compelling multi-part series “40 Acres and a Lie” to public radio airwaves. Airing on more than 507 stations across the US and available to podcast listeners everywhere, the series uncovered the often-misunderstood government program that gave formerly enslaved people land titles in the wake of the Civil War — referred to as “40 Acres and a Mule” — only to take the land back.

Exploring a wealth gap that remains today, this special series also identified more than 1,200 people who received — but then lost — their land under the program and tracked down 41 living descendants, several of whom were unaware of the intergenerational wealth denied to their families.

Striking a nerve, the series prompted conversations across US public media and beyond, with reporters behind the series joining WNYC in New York, WDET in Detroit, Michigan, WUSF in Tampa, Florida, KUT in Austin, Texas, WABE in Atlanta, Georgia, NPR’s “Fresh Air,” PBS, CNN, and more to discuss their revelations.

It is this type of consequential content — reporting that sparks deeper reflection — that is central to PRX’s portfolio.

As America’s first weekly investigative public radio show and podcast, Reveal holds a special place in the public media and audio landscape, exemplifying our commitment as production and distribution partners to delivering high-value, high-quality storytelling to audiences.

Monumental — an original podcast from PRX, hosted by bestselling author Ashley C. Ford — considers the state of historical monuments across America. The podcast confronts what the US has celebrated and memorialized, exploring questions about the past and future. Inspired by findings from the Monument Lab in Philadelphia, PRX Productions assembled a team of journalists to learn what symbols are being challenged and remade in our public spaces, and to interrogate the political and personal costs. The 10-episode series garnered an exceptional 330,000 downloads in its first season, and stations in Wyoming and New Mexico and public radio program Latino USA broadcast episodes on air.

An initiative of PRX Productions supported by Mellon Foundation as part of the Monuments Project, Monumental embodies PRX’s drive to craft podcasts that consciously consider who is at the center of the stories we tell and who are the people who are listening. PRX is thoughtful about how our work impacts the audio industry — we think about what the status quo is in public media and podcasting, and how we can remake it for the better to include a broader range of voices and producers.

As a mission-oriented organization, PRX is deeply committed to expanding public media to be representative of the full American public.

With shows like Monumental, PRX provides audiences with well-made, consequential content that broadens our perspectives and deepens our empathy. We are proud to be an active part of the conversation shaping how we think about our society.

Snap Judgment, a quintessential show with a musical brand of storytelling, comes to the airwaves each week via PRX. Host Glynn Washington and producers draw in listeners with expert narrative and sound design. The teams behind the show shared insights into their pitch process and design in community workshops for the PRX Podcast Garage at KQED in San Francisco, giving fellow producers and fans a look behind the scenes and inspiration for telling their own stories.

PRX Podcast Garages are hubs where makers of all levels can gather together, learn new skills through workshops, and gain access to production resources like recording studios. They support creators like John Galante, who came to a recurring Garage workshop in Boston to explore ideas for a podcast. Galante went on to record episodes of Crossing Fronteras at the Garage, with the support of a producer he connected with through PRX resources. Helping facilitate this type of creator success is part of the driving ethos of the Podcast Garages. Over the past year, PRX Podcast Garages have hosted more than 45 workshops and events, reaching more than 1,500 people coast to coast.

Through the Garages and other training opportunities, we connect this star-power talent from our community to support local ecosystems of independent creators, helping seed and grow new podcasts far beyond those we formally represent.

The Big Dig dissects cynicism about American infrastructure through an infamous decades-long effort to rebuild Boston’s crumbling elevated highway underground. Recognized with a Peabody award, The Big Dig is GBH News’ first significant venture into limited series podcasting hosted by Ian Coss, a founding member of PRX Productions. The show and its radio version are made available to listeners and stations through PRX’s digital infrastructure — Dovetail and the Exchange.

Distribution and ad technology isn’t the most glamorous part of podcasting, but it is a critical factor in how creators bring their shows to market. It also plays an essential role in the future of PRX and digital audio. Dovetail from PRX is the only nonprofit podcast publishing platform for state-of-the-art distribution, metrics, and ad sales that matches the quality of commercial products — it is accessible for independent creators and local public media stations, but also powerful enough to attract national and global partners like the Smithsonian and Condé Nast.

PRX technology undergirds the success and sustainable growth of our broadcast and podcast portfolio.

By building our own privacy-forward infrastructure, PRX technology allows producers to maintain independence, be heard widely, and unlock new revenue potential. PRX’s expertise, reliable data, and genuine investment in our partner’s perspectives gives the organizations, stations, and producers we work with confidence in PRX support for their programming. Our platforms are the critical infrastructure protecting producers, the open podcasting ecosystem, and listeners — and PRX’s ethical technology is becoming an ever-more essential part of what makes media work.

Created and hosted by Hrishikesh Hirway, Song Exploder is a podcast where musicians take apart their songs and tell the story of how they were made. The show, a long-time member of Radiotopia from PRX, entered its 10th year crossing new terrain with standout episodes featuring musicians like Shania Twain, Rhiannon Giddens, Green Day, and Sam Smith, and a special partnership with The Toronto Symphony Orchestra to dissect one of the most famous modern classical compositions, Igor Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring,” in front of a live audience. Song Exploder has also expanded into the UK as part of a new PRX partnership with the BBC, and is now available in the on-demand app BBC Sounds and broadcast across BBC 6 Music. PRX’s Ear Hustle and The Science of Everything can be heard on BBC Sounds, too.

This year, Radiotopia also celebrated its 10th anniversary as a creator-led network.

With Radiotopia, producers have the power to make decisions that take their work in new directions. Acclaimed podcasts like Weight For It, new to the network, and trailblazers like The Kitchen Sisters Present and Radio Diaries, which have been at the forefront of audio predating podcasting, are proof positive of Radiotopia’s aspirations and mission to support incredible, independent talent.

As the podcasting landscape has gotten more crowded, it’s become harder to compete for the resources supporting independent, creator-owned work — listener support has become an evermore crucial part of the equation. A decade on, Radiotopia remains synonymous with premium content and collaborative partnership that helps our network shows standout in a crowded marketplace.

In Weight For It, a podcast from PRX’s Radiotopia, host Ronald Young Jr. unpacks the nuanced thoughts of fat folks, and of folks who think about their weight all the time. A Tribeca Official Selection in 2023, Weight For It has received some of the top accolades of the industry, including winning three Ambie Awards.

Young is the archetypal independent producer and was one of many industry leaders sharing insights at PRX’s Podcast Creator Summit this summer. PRX convened two multi-day gatherings in partnership with WAMU in Washington, DC, and WABE in Atlanta, Georgia. The summits, launched in the spirit of the PRX Podcast Garages, were designed for podcasters seeking to build supportive creative communities. Free to creators of all levels, the summits centered on seminars, training, and networking opportunities, offering support in the art, business, and production of audio.

Activating these types of spaces for audio creators and storytellers is a way to support and inspire burgeoning podcast ecosystems in creative “bright spots.”

When podcasting began, its low barrier to entry allowed new ideas to flourish. As the industry has grown more commercialized, independent creators find themselves pushed to the margins. Decentralizing professional organizations, keeping podcasting accessible to all artists, and serving as a launching point for new ideas and connections is part of our driving mission as a nonprofit. PRX believes in supporting creator independence with the knowledge, confidence, and community that the Podcast Garages and in-person summits can build.

Marfa For Beginners is a podcast about the romantic art town of the same name in the middle of the West Texas desert. The first podcast out of Marfa Public Radio, Marfa For Beginners features episodes with a distinct sound — from “The End of Tinder,” a story about love and loneliness and what happens when you swipe to the end of a dating app in a small city, to ‘The Longest Shortest Day,’ about how time functions differently in the desert. This year, the podcast was recognized for excellence in innovation with an national Edward R. Murrow Award.

Marfa For Beginners reaches listeners with the help of PRX infrastructure — hosted on PRX’s Dovetail and available to public radio stations via the PRX Exchange. It’s also a podcast championed by PRX from its beginnings. Our content development team worked closely as consultants with Marfa Public Radio to help develop and produce Marfa For Beginners and So Far From Care, a podcast about access to reproductive healthcare. PRX also supported the station’s general podcast and media strategy, helping Marfa Public Radio reconceptualize their work as a future-focused station.

Efficiency, innovation, and community engagement are key to becoming a station that is ready for the next generation.

With guidance from PRX, Marfa Public Radio has rethought how they serve listeners and exist as a free public service, responding to shortcomings in how public radio stations have operated in the past. PRX’s hands-on work with stations is part of how we are helping future-proof public media infrastructure. It’s also key to our mission — we want support for public media stations to be synonymous with PRX.

When Normal Gossip joined Radiotopia from PRX in 2023, the show sharing strange, funny, and utterly banal reader-submitted gossip was already a hit. Since joining the creator-owned network supported by PRX, the podcast — from the minds of Kelsey McKinney and Alex Sujong Laughlin — has exploded its reach, hitting more than 10 million downloads in the spring of 2023 and more than 20 million just a year later.

McKinney and Laughlin are part of Defector media, a worker-owned sports and culture website dedicated to letting talent flourish — an ethos that mirrors Radiotopia’s mission to let creators own the work they produce and its derivatives. When an audio producer sells their show to a corporate media outlet, the fate of their work is out of their hands. Radiotopia offers an alternative for creators — letting them own their own intellectual property while benefiting from a network effect to leverage sponsorship and community with other stellar programs. Retaining IP rights means that creators aren’t at risk of their great idea ending if corporate shareholders and executives decide to go a different direction.

In a tumultuous time for the industry, PRX is leading the way in supporting different types of business structures that keep power in the hands of creators.

Hosted by award-winning journalist David Green, Left, Right & Center is a weekly politics show that takes political debate back to civil discussion. Born at KCRW — Southern California’s public radio station — PRX now distributes the show to stations nationwide.

PRX was the only public media network to launch broadcast shows nationally in this year.

In addition to Left, Right & Center, we brought to market: The Ezra Klein Show from New York Times Opinion, a series of conversations on topics that matter; No Small Endeavor from Tokens Media in Nashville, which explores what it means to lead a good life; and Embodied from WUNC in North Carolina, which jumps into taboo personal topics including sex, relationships, and health. The portfolio we distribute to local radio stations gives these shows access to nationwide audiences through PRX Station Services, and helps stations expand their listenership.

PRX is a nimble leader in public media, capable of pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in audio through our curated programming and digital infrastructure. We facilitate an exchange of audio-based ideas, opening up a world of content for program managers at local public radio stations to air. This means compelling shows like Embodied and Left, Right & Center can break out beyond their local reach in North Carolina and California, and podcast-first programs can be heard on the airwaves nationally. In bringing new, often unexpected, shows to market, PRX helps solve a gap in experimentation in radio. While other networks might not feel the need to take risks in the audio space, PRX believes in the change and growth that feeds creativity in the syste