Dear Crooked,
I have spent the past twenty years chasing a sound. I first found it on the public airwaves while driving around exurban South Florida on my learner’s permit. I pulled into a golf course parking lot to sit and listen. I was 16.
I caught this sound elsewhere on the dial: NPR shows, community radio, religious airwaves, and on unknowables drenched in the static of the AM band.
That sound—a sonic confluence of information and artistry—has been the driving force through my career.
I came up through community radio in Florida, then NPR member stations in DC and Baltimore, and eventually landed a job at the NPR mothership. At NPR, I worked on All Things Considered, helped pilot The TED Radio Hour, and got my first chance at crafting a new sound for a new show.
But it wasn’t long before I became entranced with an entirely new aesthetic from a “tiny radio show about design” hailing from the opposite coast. Somehow, I convinced Roman Mars to let me work with him out of his home to transform 99% Invisible, then a nights-and-weekends job for Roman, into a full scale operation. When I told my colleagues at NPR I was quitting to go work on a podcast—possibly becoming the first person to ever make this career choice—I was met mostly with looks of concern.
I moved to Oakland sight-unseen, and spent the next six years transforming 99% Invisible from a literal backyard production into an award-winning podcast with 3.5 million downloads per month.
In 2017, I felt called to finally attempt a new sound all of my own. I left 99pi to create Bellwether, a podcast of speculative journalism—narrative non-fiction told within the frame of a sci-fi radio serial. Bellwether released independently last September, and I would love for you to listen here.
Creating Bellwether forced me to master every single part of the production pipeline: from designing the decision criteria for choosing stories and how to report them; to writing fiction and directing actors; to steering the operational mission and managing microlevel logistics.
Also while developing Bellwether, I also got to launch numerous other new podcasts as well, most notably USA Today’s The City, a serialized investigative journalism podcast. Working closely with host Robin Amer, I co-lead efforts to muster a team, build show infrastructure, supervise reporting, edit scripts, and craft the overall sound. I also worked with Condé Nast, and taught and supervised a student-run podcast at Stanford University.
Last year, I began working as a senior producer (a management role) on the audio team at VICE News. It’s a great team full of talented people but—speaking candidly—rather limited in ambition; the mandate is repurposing the VICE’s visual offerings for audio broadcast.
What excited me about this position with Crooked is to get to be ambitious. I came to VICE with a year’s worth of reporting on the 100-year history of transgender medicine in the US, and the Guiness Book of World Records-holding cat parent who some say is completely reinventing transgender medicine—and others say is a complete quack. I came to VICE with the hope of getting this made; it’s been benched since day 1.
As 15-year veteran of the podcast and public radio space, I know of talent with stories to tell, and I would come in on day 1 with a full slate of shows to pitch. I’m also especially interested in what you’re currently developing, especially at the intersection of news and social justice-oriented commentary—I love the niche you have carved out, and would feel so refreshing coming from a purely “objective” journalism shop.
It would also be great to be colleagues with my good friend, Zevvy Smith-Danford, who told me about this posting. She’s had nothing but overwhelmingly positive things to say about the company.
Please find some links to my work below.
Yours,
Sam Greenspan
1. BELLWETHER
First in a four-part independent miniseries, telling narrative nonfiction inside a sci-fi radio serial. I am the host, and lead production in all aspects (fiction and non-), and also directed (and danced in) a visual trailer. For a full rundown on credits and everything else with this series, visit www.bellwether.show, and please listen from the beginning.
2. Kai & Kimberly: A Texas Family’s Fight, VICE News Reports
My best work with VNR to date. I (with associate producer Steph Brown) sifted through six years of interview tape between VICE correspondent Gianna Taboni and Kai and Kimberly Shappley, a transgender girl and her mom in Texas. I identified tape, wrote scripts, directed Gianna and host Arielle Duhaime-Ross, built the Pro Tools session, and scored it.
3. Life During War, VICE News Reports
The source material for TAL’s episode with Katia in Kyiv. I found Katia, set her up to do voice memos, sifted through tape, and put together this segment. We are still in touch, and she still sends me voice memos.
4. Half A House, 99% Invisible
I traveled to Constitución, Chile, to explore a strange approach to public housing: building people only half of one. I lead all interviews and production, with location fixing and interpreting by Martina Castro. Hosted by me and Roman Mars. Edited by Katie Mingle and Roman Mars.
5. Structural Integrity, 99% Invisible
Winner of a TCIAF Award for Best Documentary (Bronze), 2015. Reported by Joel Werner and me, produced and edited by me, with additional editing and hosting by Roman Mars.