Lauren Spohrer

Last updated
Lauren Spohrer
Education Columbia University
Florida State University
Known for Criminal (podcast)
This Is Love (podcast)

Lauren Spohrer is an American radio producer, best known for co-creating and producing the podcasts Criminal and This Is Love.

Contents

Early career and education

Spohrer got her start in radio in 2003, when she began interning for Weekend Edition Saturday on NPR. [1] After working as a producer for several NPR shows, she began a Master of Fine Arts at Columbia University. [1]

Creation of Criminal and This is Love podcasts

Spohrer, who teaches essay writing at Duke University, [2] was working as the producer of The Story with Dick Gordon, when the show was cancelled in 2013. [3] This led Spohrer and two colleagues, Phoebe Judge and Eric Mennel, to create their own podcast. [4] [5] Spohrer proposed to Judge that they create a podcast related to true crime, and they released the first episode of Criminal in January 2014. [6] [3] [7] Spohrer and Judge went on to co-create another podcast, This is Love, in 2018. [8] Spohrer and Judge have been in discussions with United Talent Agency to turn their podcasts into scripted shows. [9]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ira Glass</span> American radio personality

Ira Jeffrey Glass is an American public radio personality. He is the host and producer of the radio and television series This American Life and has participated in other NPR programs, including Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Talk of the Nation. His work in radio and television has won him awards, such as the Edward R. Murrow Award for Outstanding Contributions to Public Radio and the George Polk Award in Radio Reporting.

True crime is a nonfiction literary, podcast, and film genre in which the author examines a crime and details the actions of people associated with and affected by criminal events. It is a cultural phenomenon that can refer to the promotion of sensationalized and emotionally charged content around the subject of violent crime, for the general public. Many works in this genre recount high-profile, sensational crimes such as the killing of JonBenét Ramsey, the O. J. Simpson murder case, and the Pamela Smart murder, while others are devoted to more obscure slayings.

<i>S-Town</i> American investigative journalism podcast

S-Town is an American investigative journalism podcast hosted by Brian Reed and created by the producers of Serial and This American Life. All seven chapters were released on March 28, 2017. The podcast was downloaded a record-breaking 10 million times in four days and had been downloaded over 80 million times by May 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zuri Hall</span> American entertainment reporter and actress (born 1988)

Zuri Hall is an American entertainment reporter, television personality, actress and producer. Hall serves as a correspondent for Access Hollywood on NBC. She is also the sideline reporter for NBC's primetime summer competition show American Ninja Warrior. Hall has hosted the beauty pageants Miss USA 2021, Miss USA 2022, Miss Universe 2022 and Miss Universe 2023.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Gantt</span>

Mark Willingham Gantt IV is an American actor, director, producer and writer. Gantt is best known for his role as Neal Bannen in the series The Bannen Way. Gantt grew up in Stockton, California, and comes from a law enforcement family; he drew upon those family experiences as part of the backstory for the title character in The Bannen Way.

<i>Serial</i> (podcast) American investigative journalism podcast

Serial is an investigative journalism podcast hosted by Sarah Koenig, narrating a nonfiction story over multiple episodes. The series was co-created and is co-produced by Koenig and Julie Snyder and developed by This American Life; as of July 2020, it is owned by The New York Times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gimlet Media</span> Digital media company

Gimlet Media LLC is a digital media company and podcast network, focused on producing narrative podcasts and headquartered in Brooklyn, New York. The company was founded in 2014 by Alex Blumberg and Matthew Lieber, who served as the company's CEO and president respectively until Lieber stepped down in 2022. In February 2019, Spotify announced it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Gimlet for $230 million. In 2023, Spotify announced that they were merging Gimlet and Parcast into Spotify Studios.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Radiotopia</span> Podcast network on Public Radio Exchange

Radiotopia is a podcast network founded by 99% Invisible host Roman Mars and run by the Public Radio Exchange. The network is organized as a collective of some two dozen shows whose producers have complete artistic control over their work. Since its launch, podcasts in the network have been downloaded over 19 million times per month.

<i>Invisibilia</i> Radio program and audio podcast

Invisibilia was a radio program and podcast from National Public Radio, which debuted in early 2015 and "explores the intangible forces that shape human behavior—things like ideas, beliefs, assumptions and emotions." The program's title comes from Latin, meaning "the invisible things." The Guardian ranked Invisibilia among "the 10 best new podcasts of 2015." In its seventh season, the program was hosted by Kia Miakka Natisse and Yowei Shaw; previous season hosts included Lulu Miller, Alix Spiegel and Hanna Rosin.

WNYC Studios is a producer and distributor of podcasts and on-demand and broadcast audio. WNYC Studios is a subsidiary of New York Public Radio and is headquartered in New York City.

<i>Criminal</i> (podcast) American true crime podcast

Criminal is a podcast that focuses on true crime. It is recorded in the studios of WUNC in Chapel Hill, NC, and is part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. The show describes itself as telling "stories of people who've done wrong, been wronged, or gotten caught somewhere in the middle."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phoebe Bridgers</span> American musician (born 1994)

Phoebe Lucille Bridgers is an American singer-songwriter. Her indie folk music typically centers around acoustic guitar and electronic production, with melancholic lyrical themes. She has received four Grammy Awards from eleven nominations.

Shereen Marisol Meraji is an American journalist, podcaster and educator. She is an assistant professor of race in journalism at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, and is an alum of the Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University. She was the founding co-host and senior producer of Code Switch, a critically acclaimed podcast covering race, culture and identity, one of NPR's highest charting podcasts in 2020.

<i>Ear Hustle</i> Audio documentary podcast

Ear Hustle is a non-fiction podcast about prison life and life after incarceration created by Earlonne Woods and Antwan Williams, both formerly incarcerated, and Nigel Poor, an artist who volunteers at San Quentin State Prison. In 2016, it was selected by the Radiotopia network as the winner of its Podquest competition, and the following year released its first season. It was the first podcast to be entirely created and produced inside a prison.

<i>Dirty John</i> (TV series) 2018 American true crime anthology series

Dirty John is an American true crime anthology television series, based on the podcast of the same name by Christopher Goffard, that premiered on November 25, 2018, on Bravo. Outside the United States, it was made available through Netflix on February 14, 2019. The series was created by Alexandra Cunningham also an executive producer alongside Richard Suckle, Charles Roven, Mark Herzog, Christopher G. Cowen, and Chris Argentieri. The series was initially given an order for two seasons. In May 2019, it was announced that the series will be moving from Bravo to USA Network, ahead of the premiere of the second season. The second season is titled Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story. A trailer for the season was released on March 25, 2020, featuring Christian Slater and Amanda Peet in the role of Betty Broderick. In April 2020, it was announced that the second season would premiere on June 2, 2020, with a sneak peek of the first episode of the second season airing on May 31, 2020.

<i>Casefile</i> Australian true crime podcast

Casefile is an Australian crime podcast that first aired in January 2016 and is hosted by an Australian man who remains anonymous. The podcast, produced by Casefile True Crime Podcast, is usually released on a Saturday for three consecutive weeks, with a bonus episode on the fourth week. The series deals with solved or cold criminal cases, often related to well-known murders and serial crimes. Unlike a number of similar podcasts, the series is fully scripted and narrated, while relying primarily on original police or mass-media documents, eyewitness accounts, and interview or public announcement recordings.

<i>This Is Love</i> (podcast) American true love podcast

This is Love is a podcast created by Phoebe Judge, Lauren Spohrer, and Nadia Wilson, producers of Criminal. The series investigates stories of love.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phoebe Judge</span> American journalist

Phoebe Valentine Judge is an American journalist, best known as the host and co-creator of the podcasts Criminal and This Is Love.

Martina Castro is an Uruguayan-American audio journalist, editor, producer, and educator. She is the CEO and founder of Adonde Media, a podcast production company and host of the Duolingo Spanish and The Vivo Songbook Podcasts. She co-founded and produced Radio Ambulante, the first Spanish-language podcast distributed by NPR.

<i>In Strange Woods</i> 2020 musical podcast

In Strange Woods is an American musical fiction podcast produced by Atypical Artists and created by Jeff Luppino-Esposito, Brett Ryback, and Matt Sav. The series is told in the style of a true crime documentary with an original folk-pop score.

References

  1. 1 2 "The Story". The Story. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
  2. Partin, Will (30 July 2014). "Three public radio veterans go independent with a podcast on the criminal mind". INDY Week. Retrieved 23 April 2020.
  3. 1 2 Douglas, Nick (16 January 2019). "I'm Phoebe Judge, Host of 'Criminal' and 'This Is Love,' and This Is How I Work". LifeHacker. Retrieved 20 December 2019.
  4. Werner, Sarah Rhea (24 January 2017). "How Criminal's Lauren Spohrer Was Able To Get Paid For Her True Crime Podcast". Forbes. Retrieved 7 January 2020.
  5. Rao, Sonia (1 November 2016). "'Criminal' podcasters will take to the stage in Somerville". Boston Globe. Retrieved 7 January 2020.
  6. Locker, Melissa (24 September 2015). "Criminal: the podcast that's a life of crime". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 January 2020.
  7. Eakin, Marah (13 October 2016). "Criminal's Phoebe Judge and Lauren Spohrer on pot, murder, and podcasting". AV Club. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
  8. Pruitt, Eryk (2 May 2018). "After Podcasting About the Dark Side of Human Nature with Criminal, Its Producers Step Into the Light with This Is Love". Indy Week. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
  9. White, Peter (22 February 2019). "'Criminal' & 'This Is Love' Creators Eye Scripted Adaptations As They Take Advantage Of Podcast "Explosion"". Deadline. Retrieved 7 January 2020.