5 Great Columbia-Made Podcasts to Listen to Now
Whether heading out on a summer road trip or looking for some audio accompaniment on your commute, we've got you covered with great podcast storytelling.
As the days grow longer and summer road trips are on the horizon, it is time to amp up your podcast playlists. Enter a fantastic array of new and returning Columbian-made sonic selections to listen to while driving, riding the train, sitting at the beach, cooking, commuting, or wherever you enjoy your podcasts.
We’ve identified five podcasts below with recent seasons or episodes you should try. From the interior lives of Pulitzer Prize winners to short, sonic audiograms from across New York City, take a listen to these podcasts and come away a smarter, more well-informed listener.
Not finding something up your alley here? Check out the plethora of Columbian-made podcasts on our repository here.
Pulitzer on the Road
Launched this spring, the Pulitzer on the Road podcast, a production of the Pulitzer Prize Board at Columbia University, pairs fascinating authors and artists together with recent winners of the Pulitzer Prize in Journalism and Books. In 30-minute to hour-long episodes, you will learn the stories behind some of the most talked about journalism and literature today.
A standout episode from this first season is an interview between Pulitzer Board member Emily Ramshaw, chief executive of nonprofit news site The 19th, and Barbara Kingsolver, whose sweeping tale Demon Copperhead won the 2023 Fiction Prize. The interview takes place at Kingsolver’s home in Appalachia, offering a level of intimacy to her storytelling.
Not to be missed, too, are a conversation between 2023 Fiction winner Hernan Diaz and Pulitzer Board member and 2016 Fiction winner Viet Thanh Nguyen as well as a visit to Brookside, Alabama, where 2023 Local Reporting winners John Archibald and Ashley Remkus revisit their reporting about police corruption in this small municipality.
Onomatopoeia
There is something to be said about the difficulties of editing short, and we are pleased to report that the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism's Onomatopoeia podcast, in production since 2021, does just that with serious aplomb.
In short anecdotes, the podcast introduces us to the characters that make up the city of New York—all done in a 3- to 10-minute timeframe.
“Onomatopoeia is when something’s named after the sound it makes,” the podcast trailer goes. “What is the sound of New York City? That’s what we’re going to find out. In each episode of Onomatopoeia, we’ll take you to the places and introduce you to the people that sound like New York.”
In this new season, you’ll meet a tap dancer who helps those tap despite mobility challenges, the owner of the Potluck Club in Chinatown, NBC pages, and a “rookie cowboy,” among other snippets.
Pursuing the Public Good
Join Teachers College President Thomas Bailey as he explores the different work in higher education that aims to improve our world with Teachers College’s new podcast Pursuing the Public Good.
Episodes will cover teacher education, mental health and wellness, digital innovation and play, and sustainability, but also introduce you to some of the most interesting people at the forefront of this work who are based out of Teachers College, the oldest and largest graduate school of education.
We often hear about how technology contributes to mental health challenges, but one of the most interesting episodes in this season shows how technology might be used to offer just in time interventions to people dealing with mental health issues like anxiety.
Views on First
The Knight First Amendment Institute’s flagship podcast “Views on First,” launched in 2023 by inviting leading legal scholars, practitioners, tech policy experts, and others to conversations about some of the most pressing First Amendment issues in the ever-shifting expressive landscape of the digital age. It is hosted by Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the institute.
Season two, launched this spring, became even more timely with a focus on “War & Speech,” not shying away from a variety of viewpoints and discussions about the coverage of Israelis and Palestinians as well as campus protests.
All of the episodes in this season speak directly, and helpfully, to the moment we find ourselves living in, but one of the most insightful legal episodes just published, discusses the tensions between anti-discrimination law and the First Amendment.
Capital For Good
The Tamer Institute for Social Enterprise and Climate Change at Columbia Business School launched its Capital For Good podcast in 2021, as the world was coping with the COVID-19 pandemic and all the systemic failures it laid bare.
In season three, the podcast still asks: “Can business be a force for good?” From leaders in women’s health to housing and development, the leaders interviewed in this podcast make the case for optimism.
Hosted by Georgia Levenson Keohane, a seasoned executive in the private and nonprofit sectors and an adjunct professor of social enterprise at Columbia Business School, this season features a lineup of fascinating guests across the private, nonprofit, and public sectors who champion social and environmental change.