Nazanin Rafsanjani

Last updated
Nazanin Rafsanjani
Born
Iran
NationalityAmerican
OccupationProducer
Known for The Rachel Maddow Show , Gimlet Media
Spouse Alex Blumberg

Nazanin Rafsanjani is an American television and radio producer. She was the head of new show development for Gimlet Media until 2020, and before that served as Gimlet's creative director and a senior producer for The Rachel Maddow Show .

Contents

Education

Rafsanjani received her bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley and completed her master’s in journalism at Columbia University. [1]

Career

In 2006, Rafsanjani reported on the Caspian Sea region as a NPR-Bucksbaum International Reporting Fellow. [2] She was a producer at WNYC in 2010, [3] then worked for MSNBC as a senior producer for The Rachel Maddow Show. She has also contributed to This American Life. [4]

Rafsanjani was featured in the first season of Gimlet's podcast StartUp, [5] consulting with her husband Alex Blumberg as he launched a media company then called American Podcasting Corporation. [6] As the business grew, Rafsanjani elected to join the team to develop branded podcasts (podcasts produced by Gimlet on behalf of advertisers) as a source of revenue for the firm. [7] [8] Consequently, Rafsanjani left her position at MSNBC in 2015 to join Gimlet as the creative director. [9] [10]

The first branded podcast from Rafsanjani's four-person creative team at Gimlet was a six-episode series for eBay called Open for Business, which hit number one on the iTunes podcast chart. [11] She has been praised for the journalism and producing skills she brought to Gimlet's marketing projects, [12] hiring fellow journalists for her team at Gimlet Creative including Katelyn Bogucki from The Huffington Post and Frances Harlow from NPR's Planet Money . [13] Rafsanjani later became the head of new show development at Gimlet, [14] a role she continued to hold after Gimlet was sold to Spotify in 2019. [15] [16]

Rafsanjani has served on the board of directors of Human Rights First since 2021. [1] Additionally, she is a member of the 2022-23 editorial board of the Brooklyn Law Review. [17]

Honors and awards

In 2013, Rafsanjani was nominated for an Emmy Award, with The Rachel Maddow Show team, for Outstanding News Discussion and Analysis. [18]

In 2018, she was named one of Fast Company's "Most Creative People in Business." [19]

Related Research Articles

Human Rights First is a nonpartisan, 501(c)(3), international human rights organization based in New York City, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. Its work centers on four main issue areas: authoritarianism, extremism, systemic injustice and the abuse of technology. It closely works with lawyers, veterans and security experts, technologists, and allied advocates to further its policy agenda. In 2004, it launched an "End Torture Now" campaign. The organization also runs the Fighting Discrimination program which focuses on hate crimes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rachel Maddow</span> American television news host and political commentator

Rachel Anne Maddow is an American television news program host and liberal political commentator. Maddow hosts The Rachel Maddow Show, a weekly television show on MSNBC, and serves as the cable network's special event co-anchor. Her syndicated talk radio program of the same name aired on Air America Radio from 2005 to 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jonathan Goldstein (author)</span> American-Canadian author, humorist and radio producer

Jonathan Goldstein is an American-Canadian author, humorist and radio producer. Goldstein has worked on radio programs and podcasts such as Heavyweight, This American Life, and WireTap. Goldstein's work has been academically examined as representative of "the positioning of Jews and Canadians as potentially overlooked minorities in the late-twentieth- and early twenty-first-century United States".

The Rachel Maddow Show was a weekday radio show on the Air America Radio network hosted by Rachel Maddow. The show featured news items read by Maddow and her commentary on each of them as well as interview segments with politicians, newsmakers and pundits. Guests included presidential candidate John Edwards, author Eric Alterman, reporters from The Nation magazine and commentators from The Center for American Progress. Beginning September 8, 2008, she also debuted a TV version of the show on MSNBC of the same name with different content. Early in 2009 the show was moved to the 5AM timeslot and consisted almost entirely of the audio from the previous nights MSNBC broadcast of Maddow's television show. On January 21, 2010, Air America Radio ceased programming citing economic difficulties.

<i>Planet Money</i> Economics podcast

Planet Money is an American podcast and blog produced by NPR. Using "creative and entertaining" dialogue and narrative, Planet Money claims to be "The Economy Explained."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adam Davidson (journalist)</span> American journalist

Adam Davidson is an American journalist. He was a co-founder of NPR's Planet Money program. Previously he has covered globalization issues, the Asian tsunami, and the war in Iraq, for which he won the Daniel Schorr Journalism Prize. He and Adam McKay were former co-hosts of Surprisingly Awesome from Gimlet Media. Davidson worked as an economics columnist for The New York Times Magazine and in 2016 took a position at The New Yorker.

Connie Walker is a Pulitzer-prize winning Cree journalist.

<i>Reply All</i> (podcast) American podcast from Gimlet Media

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alex Blumberg</span> American radio journalist

Alex Blumberg is an American entrepreneur, radio journalist, former producer for public radio and television, best known for his work with This American Life, Planet Money, and How to Save a Planet. He was the co-founder and CEO of the podcast network Gimlet Media.

<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.

<i>StartUp</i> (podcast) Business podcast

StartUp is an American podcast from Gimlet Media hosted by Alex Blumberg and Lisa Chow. While the first two seasons follow stories of starting businesses – Season 1 about the starting of Gimlet Media itself, and Season 2, a dating company called "Dating Ring" – the third season follows one business per episode. Season 4 began by following Gimlet Media again, then aired episodes focusing on other companies. Season 6 followed the making of the TV series created about the podcast. The most recent season covers the founding of Success Academy Charter Schools in New York City. The final season of Startup premiered in late 2019 and covered the process of selling Gimlet Media to the streaming media company Spotify.

<i>The Ringer</i> (website) American sports and pop culture website

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kelly McBride</span> American journalist, educator, and ethicist

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<i>Science Vs</i> Science podcast

Science Vs is a science podcast created and hosted by Wendy Zukerman. The show takes a myth-busting approach to controversial topics and current events, with fact checking and research of the scientific literature, as well as interviewing relevant experts. A typical show will have over a hundred citations and involve background interviews of dozens of scientists in addition to the scientists who speak on the show.

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>Crimetown</i> True crime podcast

Crimetown is a serial documentary podcast hosted by Marc Smerling and Zac Stuart-Pontier and produced by Gimlet Media which looks at how organized crime has shaped particular American cities. The first season started in 2016 and focused on the city of Providence, Rhode Island.

The Gerald Loeb Award is given annually for multiple categories of business reporting. The "Video/Audio" category replaced "Broadcast" in 2014 and 2015. It was split into separate "Audio" and "Video" categories beginning in 2016.

Parcast is a digital media firm and podcast network, that specialized in producing both scripted podcasts as well as audio dramas. It was founded in 2016 by podcaster Max Cutler and his father Ron Cutler in Los Angeles California.

Kendra Pierre-Louis is an American climate reporter and journalist. She most recently worked at Gimlet Media as a reporter and producer on the podcast How to Save a Planet, featuring Alex Blumberg and Ayana Elizabeth Johnson.

Nicholas Quah is a journalist for Vulture and is the creator of the Nieman Lab newsletter Hot Pod News.

References

  1. 1 2 "Board Archives". Human Rights First. Retrieved 2023-04-20.
  2. ↑ "Iran's Pollution Worries Come by Air and Water". npr.org. 2007-01-30. Retrieved 2023-04-20.
  3. ↑ "Congress Weighs Laws Against Some Lawsuits". npr.org. 2010-04-02. Retrieved 2023-04-20.
  4. ↑ "Not Your Parents' Parent Trap". This American Life. 2017-12-12. Retrieved 2023-04-20.
  5. ↑ "Best Podcasts: October 19–25 - The Timbre". The Timbre. 26 October 2015. Retrieved 15 July 2016.
  6. ↑ Dean, Michelle (7 November 2015). "Alex Blumberg's podcast revolution is just beginning. NPR: this is your warning". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 July 2016.
  7. ↑ Pathak, Shareen (2 December 2015). "Latest in content marketing: brands make their own podcasts - Digiday". Digiday . Retrieved 15 July 2016.
  8. ↑ Owen, Laura Hazard (November 30, 2015). "How did the GE-branded podcast The Message hit No. 1 on iTunes? In part, by sounding nothing like an ad". Neiman Lab. Retrieved 15 July 2016.
  9. ↑ Levy, Ari (22 October 2019). "'Startup' podcast offers a rare fly-on-wall view of tech M&A after Gimlet's $200 million sale to Spotify". CNBC. Retrieved 2023-04-20.
  10. ↑ Dean, Michelle (2015-11-07). "Alex Blumberg's podcast revolution is just beginning. NPR: this is your warning". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2023-04-20.
  11. ↑ Mullin, Benjamin (20 June 2016). "Gimlet Creative, an early entrant to branded podcasting, is now open for business". Poynter. Retrieved 15 July 2016.
  12. ↑ Layton, Corey (January 20, 2016). "Podcast Pioneers: Where Audiences Choose to Listen to the Ads". AdAge. Retrieved 15 July 2016.
  13. ↑ Mullin, Benjamin (2016-06-20). "Gimlet Creative, an early entrant to branded podcasting, is now open for business". Poynter. Retrieved 2023-04-20.
  14. ↑ Dawn, Randee (2019-09-19). "Peak Storytelling Here as Podcasts, Short Form Ride New Wave". Variety. Retrieved 2023-04-20.
  15. ↑ Naomi (2019-09-26). "New Season of World-Renowned Therapist Esther Perel's 'Where Should We Begin?' Podcast to Launch on Spotify". Spotify. Retrieved 2023-04-20.
  16. ↑ Levy, Ari (22 October 2019). "'Startup' podcast offers a rare fly-on-wall view of tech M&A after Gimlet's $200 million sale to Spotify". CNBC. Retrieved 2023-04-20.
  17. ↑ "Brooklyn Law Review – 2022–2023 Editorial Board" (PDF). Retrieved 2023-04-20.
  18. ↑ "EMMY Nominations for 10 News and Documentary alumni - NYU Journalism". NYU Journalism. 22 July 2013. Retrieved 15 July 2016.
  19. ↑ "The most creative people in business in 2018". fastcompany.com. Retrieved 2023-04-20.
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