A New Gig: R2 Studios

I have a new title: head of studio. At RRCHNM we’ve just spun off a new unit, which we’re calling R2 Studios. Its purpose is to create deeply researched historical audio stories, which you might call “history podcasts.”

As the person at the Center with the most podcasting experience, I’ve been tapped to lead this effort. I’m very excited for all of the opportunities this new studio will bring to folks at the Center, particularly graduate students.

So what is my actual job? Most of it is doing what I already do: produce and create podcasts. Consolation Prize is still going (new episodes out at the end of October), and I’m also helping to produce a new show, The Green Tunnel, about the history of the Appalachian Trail.

Thankfully, I’ll be leaving behind some of the tasks I currently do: the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has given RRCHNM a large grant, a portion of which is going to hire someone to work with me on podcast production and someone else to do marketing and community engagement. Hopefully that means that I’ll be able to hand off some of the technical work and almost all of the marketing (which I’m very bad at). That will free up my time to focus on making the very best stories we can make.

I also get to help bring new shows into the studio. We’re open to pitches for shows from both folks internal to the center and outside the center, and I’m hoping we’ll be able to greenlight some great new shows in the coming months.

All shows that we greenlight will get lots of hands-on training, much of which will either be taught by me or facilitated by me.

I’m sure I’ll have a lot more to say about the studio in the upcoming weeks and months. You can check out our website, and soon we’ll have more ways that you can support our efforts. In the meantime, the best way to support R2 is to go and listen to our shows!