You can get Episodes 1 ("The Alibi") and 2 ("The Breakup") here or on various audio platforms, including iTunes (subscribe here) that day at 10am ET. :). Stowe joined This American Life in 2018. Would we ever relate to each other as siblings? Ira Glass started working in public radio in 1978, when he was 19, as an intern atNPRs headquarters in D.C. Over the next 17 years, he worked on nearly every NPR news show and did nearly every production job they had: tape-cutter, desk assistant, newscast writer, editor, producer, reporter, and substitute host. Goldstein and Condon hit it off, and nearly two years later they decided to get married. This is your moms life.. Miller & Condon on KXnO on Apple Podcasts. Gilmer and Mr. Hyde, No Coincidence, No Story, Switched at Birth, and Habeas Schmabeas, a Peabody Award-winning show about Guantanamo Bay. } OConnor is now a producer of NPRs All Things Considered in Washington, D.C. Coles MOis the same for all the weddings. Hes the best there is at this sort of thing. Natalie professed that she didnt do anything., A little while later, Goldstein asked again, Steve, do you have anything you want to thank Natalie for?. In an Uptown apartment, my mom held hands with a coven of her friends and asked the sinister toy two questions. . Shes a very religious person, a devout Catholic like my mom, and she didnt see the world this way. He didnt think we needed a podcast in order to find her. He has another interesting sideline that employs his abilities as a poet and radio producer: As an Internet-ordained clergyman, he has married 19 couples over the last 15 years. The dotted rectangle at the top is the pull-off, where they found a bunch of shell casings and made a tire impression cast. Thats when Glass realized he could send Goldstein anywhere and he would come back with a good story. Alaa Mostafa is an audio producer and writer based in Oakland, CA. We're funded by your subscriptions, your donations, advertising, and a generous grant from the Wyncote Foundation. Last week, when I saw the news that Judge Martin P. Welch granted Adnan a new trial, I happened to be on Skype with our Executive Producer Julie Snyder, and both of us did exactly the same involuntary thing of sucking in our breath and then putting our hands over our mouths. (Well duh, Mom: Youre at a burger joint surrounded by your husband and kids.) My brother and I would joke about it. Podcast Republic is one of the most popular podcast platforms on the world serving 1M+ podcasts and 500M+ episodes worldwide. Two years later, at another wedding weekend, in New York, I ran into Goldstein again. :), Best of luck to all the happy couplesbut they should double check to see if their wedding was legal. In November 2017nine years after my Aunt Cindy spilled the beans around the campfire and nine months after my mom wrote that letter in the kitchenmy older sister returned my moms overture with a note of her own. Host and executive producer Sarah Koenig invites listeners to join her as she tries to piece together the complicated puzzle. Your email address will not be published. Current. Instead, during a court hearing via Zoom, Baltimore City prosecutor Becky Feldman told the judge that her office was dropping all the charges against Adnan. Or, more excitingly, that these graphs were code for some top-secret information too dangerous for him to send in a letter. Julie Snyder is the co-creator of Serial and S-Town. I called her back immediately, fearing the worst. Seth joined This American Life as production manager in 2006. And you can often tell from an email submission if somethings too raw or the person has a real blind spot. The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance. Elna Baker is a writer and comedic storyteller. I rushed out to the entryway and, finally, told her about Goldstein and his podcast. Every day, he said. Cole is hoping his ordination in the Universal Life Church passes muster in the Great White North. Zoe joined the show in 2015. He isnt gregarious or overly comfortable in space. My mom agreed to talk to Goldstein, but she didnt want to upset my dad. Elna Baker Producer Our familys episode of Heavyweight will come out this December. The fantasies of an urbane hipster like myself arent that different from yours. Youll be at a dinner party and itll be like, Universal Life Church? There were awkward class differences and personality types that bordered on incompatibility: the good Catholic girl from the city meets the pistol-packing hellion from small-town Staples. She has received numerous awards for broadcast excellence, including five Peabody Awards. The arts and entertainment blog. I think I mustve had that letter in me the entire time, she said. As host, Goldstein has cast himself in the Columbo role: an unassuming detective with sly comic timing. After a stint on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Goldstein moved from Montreal to Chicago to work as segment producer for Ira Glasss This American Life. And I was guilty about not telling you kids. Prior to that, he produced and mixed the investigative comedy podcastDead Eyesat Headgum Studios. Will we invite Natalie over to my house and tune in togetheror is that weird? First she tried it longhand. If I listen with my dad, will he switch off the podcast, like I always switch off Rush on the way up to the gun club? Often Cole includes a blessing for the couple in the form of an original poem he writes, sometimes on the day of the wedding. "That was our hopeful number we were working toward. Cole played a matchmaking role in this one. Last winter, Blumberg sold his podcast startup to Spotify for $230 million. Having run through her history, feeling vulnerable again to everything shed experienced back then, she explained why she hadnt written the letter yet. Goldstein seemed strangely official with all his radio gear, as if David Attenborough from BBCs Planet Earth were operating as a one-man band. But then someone else ends up dead, sparking a nasty feud, a hunt for hidden treasure, and an unearthing of the mysteries of one man's life. At one point, when we were talking about what my childhood was like, he reached up to show Goldstein a .45 automatic that he had hidden on the top of a cupboard. Rae has a background in sound for film, live audio, and documentary editing. It keeps you on your toes. Prior to joining This American Life as a producer three years ago, Cole had worked at several of public radios top producing organizations WBUR in Boston, where he started as a newsroom intern; American Public Medias Marketplace; the CBC and WNYCs RadioLab. So when you listen each week, the truth is that youre actually not all that far behind us. A couple of days after the wedding, Maggie and I were eating Mongolian barbecue when I butt-dialed Natalie on Facebook Messenger. "Serial" is a podcast where one nonfiction story is told in weekly chapters. 2014 - 2023 Serial Productions, a New York Times Company And Goldstein seemed genuinely intrigued. Emmanuel Dzotsi was a fellow at This American Life before joining Serial. Within a few months, my secret sister would read my moms letter and respond. But I was alarmed to see instead an entire screenful of missed calls from my sister. In the social media and reality TV era, I understand that sharing details from your private life can feel like youre trading on your emotions for the attention of an audience. A very special thanks to Emily Condon. And so I went back and listened to every episode of Heavyweight and each of his This American Life segments. . Weve added two graphics to the site today that might be helpful as you listen to the rest of the season, although theyre especially relevant to Episode 5. She used to work with literature. Just a note to help you navigate the calls, Jay testified to making the ones to Jenn, Patrick and Phil. Theres been a development in Adnans caseto me, the most interesting one Ive seen. The seventh episode was released this week. Click on the image to see a larger version of the timeline. View the profiles of people named Emily Congdon. I dont know if I wouldve found her., My mom is deeply happy to have Natalie in her life. I want to write a letter to her dad because they did such a marvelous job., She reflected back again on that day in 2017, with Goldstein in her kitchen, when she handwrote that letter, filling two pages in 10 minutes. Megan, at some point, had scored the scoop, and it involved a Ouija sance my mom had conducted sometime in the late 1960s. But my mom admits they needed the help. Correction:An earlier version of this story mischaracterized how Cole and Kara Oehler met. Before coming to This American Life, Aviva worked at NPR's Planet Money. He brought the same approach to a CBC show called WireTap, typically soliciting appearances from his friends and family in Montreal. And despite my dads Abrahamic emotional silence, I suspected he wanted to find her more than anybody, perhaps driven by an even deeper guilt than my moms. You can read through Asia's letters and her affidavit in the Maps, Photos, Etc. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, and she published a memoir called The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance. How could she tell Natalie about the podcast, and would she have to talk to Goldstein again? The condom and condom wrapper were just down the road from the pull-off, and across the street is where they picked up two Blockbuster cases and some more shell casings. My dad didnt say anything at all. She was hyperventilating through the snot-choked sounds of tears. Their story was never quite a fairy tale. Not for one extraordinary case; instead, Serial wanted to tackle the whole criminal justice system. In August of 2018, my sister Natalie felt ready to meet her siblings for the first time. But my mother was alone when the nuns took Leisha away. Heavyweights production values sound so lusha seemingly inordinate amount of time and technical skill and writerly thought go into the showthat the term podcast doesnt feel adequate. var myStringArray = mp_global.tag; Read More, Last spring, Adnan sent me a letter about something, I cant even remember exactly what. I sat across from Natalienow, all of us were wearing the stupid studio headphonesspeaking into Goldsteins expensive microphones. I dont know what it is, but it opened up these feelings in me.. He was nominated for a Tony Award in 2014. Love this podcast! It only seemed appropriate to ask Sean to marry us, said Condon. In the summer of 2018, my parents met Natalie and her husband for the first time at a family restaurant near Minnetonka. Or the NYTimes? SusanBurtoncame to This American Life as a producer in 1999 and rejoined the show in 2016. As I write this, in fact, Sarah is re-writing Episode 5. 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. Part of it is because hes a little bit of an uncomfortable presence in the world, he said. So like every story Jonathans ever done?, For his part, the meaning of the title has morphed for Glass into a reflection on Goldsteins creative process. The weirdest thing about the ask was that Im supposedly a professional journalist myselfyou know, somebody whos supposed to be able to solve his own mysteries. Most recently, Sarah was the Senior Producer forThe Nod. She is a graduate of NYU's Gallatin School of Individualized Study and The New School's MFA Program in Nonfiction Writing. If either one were a possibility, I wanted Natalie to be there. His job on the stand was to decode cell phone data that AT&T had handed over to the detectives. But Asia writes about a school divided over whether or not Adnan is guilty. Alisha?. What was it again? Required fields are marked *. Our theme song is by The Weakerthans courtesy of Epitaph Records. He also mixed and sound designed Nice White Parents and the third season of Serial. I would interview Natalie in his Longfellow podcast studio, while he helped guide the conversation. We agreed that once they got back home, we would all get together as a family to talk it through. Current (https://current.org/2016/10/producer-sean-cole-relishes-the-beautiful-feeling-of-performing-weddings/), Radio producer Sean Cole, center, presides at the wedding of Jonathan Goldstein, left, and Emily Condon. It gave me heartburn to request anything more from her. I guess you could say we didnt get all our work done ahead of time. I froze. Seth Lind also runs operations for This American Life. Miki Meek interned and freelanced for the show before joining the staff in December 2012. I didnt have any problem talking to Jonathan, she said. And throughout that fraught decision, my mom and dad kept their secret. With an assist from a Minnesota native, a new podcast from the creators of "This American Life" is a hit. He asks a reporter to investigate the son of a wealthy family who's allegedly been bragging that he got away with murder. Cole grew up in the Unitarian Church but got his credential to officiate at weddings through the Universal Life Church, which makes it easy and cheap. Holt reports they recorded over 20 hours of tape, spread out over nearly three years, which they now need to log, prune, and piece together. You can also find the podcast on Stitcher, RadioPublic or the podcatcher of your choice. Inside these ordinary cases we found the troubling machinery of the criminal justice system on full display. His question for the bride: Will you take this opulently bearded huge-brained goofball cutie as your husband? Meanwhile, it became harder to even remember Leishas name. About 'Serial' Season One: A high-school senior named Hae Min Lee disappeared one day after school in 1999, in Baltimore County, Maryland. These couples recognize that Coles not good at the God stuff, as he says. She's also a graduate of the Transom Storytelling Workshop in Wood's Hole. She found a new job at a temp agency and wore a fake wedding ring to work, telling her new colleagues that her husband was serving in Vietnam. We drove together to my parents house in White Bear Lake. Later that fall, she took a nasty spill on an icy sidewalk and started hemorrhaging. Chana won a Peabody Award for her coverage of education andourshowson school segregation. I wasnt frustrated with my mom. Mine. I wasn't familiar with the show at all, but I was very familiar with its subject, the fantasy writer Piers Anthony. One of her joke titles for this show about healing old wounds between friends and family: Jonathan Goldstein, Medicine Woman. She also cohosts a podcast calledThirst Aid Kit. In addition to credits in magazine and book publishing, he has worked as a researcher and fact-checker for This American Life, S-Town, and Serial. Amy Paige Condon wrote her first short story as a first grader in Mrs. Henry's class at Lee Britain Elementary in Irving, Texas, and won a poster in the class contest. And Id run immediately into barriers. Shes appeared on This American Life, A Prairie Home Companion, The Moth Radio Hour, BBC Radio 4, All Things Considered, WTF with Marc Maron, and Studio 360, among other shows. Producer Sean Cole relishes the beautiful feeling of performing weddings. With no explanation. { customEventsOnLoad(); Phia was a fellow atThis American Lifein 2013. Weekly podcasts are available online for download at serialpodcast.org or search for "Serial" on iTunes. When I excused myself for a cigarette along the waterfront in Battery Park, Goldstein asked if I had a spare. Music by Christine Fellows, John K Samson, Michael Hearst, the Jacobi Family Band, Podington Bear, and Bobby Lord. Join Facebook to connect with Emily Congdon and others you may know. The couple met soon after Ahearn took a job as an environment reporter at KUOW in Seattle. Sean describes people and understands people, Ahearn told Current. She got her start in radio on KALX 90.7 FM where she co-hosted a public affairs show and DJed under the name Feather in Air. And how should we listen to it? Glass believes Goldstein discovered his tone and approach in a 2002 story about a long-lost answering machine message that Goldsteins friend Josh heard while going to college at Columbia University. You can also find the podcast on Stitcher, RadioPublic or the podcatcher of your choice. I only do it for dear friends, Cole told Current. When I thought about the weight in my own familys story, it was all loaded into the baggage of not knowing what my sisters life was actually like. No packed courtroom, no crying, no cheering. This graphic lays out the details of those differences. Read More. He has a Ph.D. in particle physics. But she worried about how Natalie would perceive the way we had pursued her. As director of operations, he heads up sponsorship, partnerships and distribution. Previously, she worked as an online producer and editor at National Geographic and The New York Times. View the profiles of professionals named "Emily Condon" on LinkedIn. She also works as a freelance stage manager for various theater companies around NYC. Lisha? Some news on the legal front: The Maryland Court of Special Appeals has agreed to hear arguments about why Adnan should either get a new trial, or some other remedy. Cole gestures in joy as Shapins, center, and Oehler tie the knot after a six-year engagement. At Goldsteins gentle urging, she recounted the story she had first told us at the picnic table seven years earlier. In acceptance speech, NPRs Scott Simon reflects on the state of journalism, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/05/fashion/05marry.html. Jauan told them that sometime after Hae went missing, he and Adnan had gone to the Best Buy parking lot to smoke weed. In 2015, he created and hosted the podcast festival Cast Party, beamed live into 500 movie theaters. She sees Emron (probably Adnans friend Imran) and says that he looked like crap. She concludes that most people think he'sinnocent. Before that, Alaa freelanced/interned for KQED Public Radio, Alaska Public Media, NPR, and KALW. At their June 2015 wedding, Cole read emails that Goldstein and Condon had sent to him during the early days of their courtship. I definitely caused her to be really late getting back to work. Special thanks to Whitney Dangerfield, Starlee Kine, Ben Phelan, Seth Lind, Lyra Smith, Matt Tierney, Emily Condon, Elise Bergerson, Julie Whitaker, Kimberly Henderson, Tracey Chan and Khoi. They married some three years after that birth and adoption, and then struggled a bit getting pregnant again. I remember how gentle and embarrassed she sounded, as she explained that, yes, she had given birth to a baby girl seven years before I was born. Natalie dismissed this idea. So Waranowitzs interpretation of those cell records underpinned the states entire case against Adnan. For Ahearn and Murrays big day in Olympic National Park, Cole used excerpts from an interview Ahearn did with her husband to be. Before that she reported, produced and edited stories forReply All,ResistanceandRadiolab. The first episode would investigate why his father and his uncle hadnt spoken in decades. The podcast has stimulated conversations across social media platforms, such as Reddit, Twitter and YouTube. And for more than two hours, I asked her all about her life. What jokes will Goldstein write to tie the segments together? You mean Ayn Rand, defender of Tsarist aristocracy? (Spoiler: The musician is Moby.). Think about how bizarre that hypothetical is. Sitting shotgun, I asked him if he remembered what he was feeling when he gave up his firstborn daughter for adoption. "I recognize that the process of designing a space is very personal and emotional. As Condon explained over tea at a Tibetan restaurant in south Minneapolis, Hes just obsessed with the past. But I also dont think we ever would have found Natalie without an investigation. Did Dad have a heart attack? My mom started to duck Goldsteins calls. Ok,Ive made you wait long enough for the secret. Megan was regaling the stragglers with a story about a Ouija board. Cole also officiated at the wedding of Michael Murray and Ashley Ahearn, who had been Coles intern at WBUR before she went off to work at Living on Earth. But after setting up all his equipment, he listens intently and without judgment, and you feel compelled to share. In the near decade since, she produced stories for WNYCsRadiolab, then NPRsPlanet Money, and finally Gimlet MediasReply All, where she worked as the shows supervising producer. Two years later, at another wedding weekend, in New York, I ran into Goldstein again. Emily Condon Podcast consultant and strategist; editor and writer Minneapolis, MN. He has also served as VP of Content and Programming for WBEZ, and contributed to Radiolab, NPR, and Marketplace. Id noticed this about Goldsteins presence in my parents kitchen. Adnan got his cell phone two days before Hae went missing, on January 11th. He asks Brian to investigate the son of a wealthy family who's allegedly been bragging that he got away with murder. Abraham Waranowitz. Elise Bergerson. She explained what it was like being a single pregnant lady in 1969. When that show ended after 11 years, Goldstein moved to New York to develop a new podcast with Alex Blumberg, an old colleague from This American Life. Cole began the service by declaring, Finally!, He got even more laughs when he declared by the power vested in me by the Universal Life Church of Modesto, California.. As her accent suggests, she is British. Price of tea at C-Mart, This was curious. This negotiation about access with my new sister felt stressful. Id relentlessly lobbied for one, at one point getting my mom to admit that something happened to her, in the distant past, with a Ouija board. Thats really where we started, I think.. I try to share a little bit of my personality on my Instagram so potential clients can get to know me a bit better beyond just my designs! Previously, she worked at WNYC, BuzzFeed, and Doctors Without Borders. Might Cole be tying the knot himself any time soon? | Mom agreed in the coming weeks that she would start what could be a reunion process. Shes completed three NYC marathons and the Boston Marathon. When Condon, production manager for TAL and Serial, invited Cole to a small dinner party, Cole asked if he could bring Goldstein. My little sister had an actual beef. Was it the best of luck that upset you? The role of journalism is to tell people the facts of whats happening, not what they want to hear, Simon said upon accepting an award for distinguished achievements in American journalism. Read More, This seems like a good time for a primer on cell tower technology. Valeriya, who also goes by Valerie, came to This American Life from her Fulbright to Ukraine, which she spent in Poland. We worked with animators at Moth Studio to create the Cleveland settings for each episode, and then we commissioned illustrations from muralists and artists to go in those scenes. Alix was one of the founding producers of This American Life back in 1995. I was born in 76, followed by Kevin in 77 and Megan in 81. Jauan told them he thought Adnan and Hae used to go there to have sex. And it comes from, of all people, the cell phone expert who testified at Adnans trial. Producer Bim is a journalist and playwright who has written for BuzzFeed News, the Guardian, Vogue and many other titles. And he did. And, White girl Stacie just mentioned that she thinks you did it. I was emotional, and I cant remember the precise specifics of what we talked aboutanother reason Im happy to have turned this story over to somebody who records everything. Shame compelled her to quit her office job at the Star Tribune. But I do remember one question that Goldstein kept asking: Steve, do you have anything you want to thank Natalie for?. Various, +5 more The New School, +1 more Emily Condon Scientist at Cell Carta Greater Montreal Metropolitan Area. "The story itself is really interesting and obviously one reason we were drawn to it we saw it could work in this format," said Condon, who at one point ran the Oak Street Cinema near the University of Minnesota's Minneapolis campus. In 2008, my parents had been together for 36 years (today, the number is 47). Sarah Koenig was a newspaper reporter for ten years, before joining the staff of This American Life in 2004. But then, a month later, he had another idea. The crux of it involves The Little Mermaid, a missing school notebook, and a California mom with a filthy mouth. You can also read more about the story directly below this post. Ken Miller and Trent Condon are on Monday - Friday from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm on Des Moines Sports Station, 1460 & 106.3 KXnO. The authors parents take the top down on a 70s road trip. Most of these lovebirds have at least one member who is or was gainfully employed in public radio. Previously, Emanuele worked as a public radio reporter in Michigan and Missouri. I heard tales of birth mothers repeatedly flaking on that first meeting, brothers who were so angry they cut off all contact. Megan described the entire campfire going silent as Cindy realized what she had just said. Mike joined the show in December 2021.