Lulu Miller and Latif Nasser Become Sole Hosts of Iconic Podcast Radiolab as Creator and Co-Host Jad Abumrad Departs After 20 Years
Abumrad earned “Genius” title for his innovative approach to audio storytelling
(New York – January 26, 2022) – Radiolab, one of the industry’s most influential and beloved podcasts and public radio shows, today announced that Lulu Miller and Latif Nasser will become sole hosts. Creator and co-host Jad Abumrad shared today that after 20 years, he is departing as host of the show; his last episode will be released on February 18, 2022.
“For the last few years – since 2016 really – I’ve told myself that there’d come a point when the team would be ‘ready’ for me to leave. When they might even need me to. I wasn’t sure when that would be or how I’d know, but I made a pact with myself to stay watchful, to create space rather than filling it, and to listen rather than talk…. We’re at that point,” Abumrad said in his statement.
“The two of us have spent countless hours with Jad: first as producers learning and making, and in the last few months in our secret co-host lair, thinking about the future,” said Miller and Nasser in a statement. “And we’re so excited.”
Abumrad created Radiolab in 2002, pioneering an approach to audio storytelling that revolutionized the sound of public radio and podcasting. The show first began as a three hour local radio show that featured short audio documentaries from around the world, but also drew upon Abumrad’s background in music composition and film scoring. In 2005, legendary television correspondent Robert Krulwich became co-host, and the two forged a sound that combined interviews with experts and first-person storytelling with sound design, creating a deeply layered sonic aesthetic The Guardian likened to “a symphony” and the Washington Post proclaimed is “Not your grandfather’s NPR!” For his pioneering work, Abumrad was named a MacArthur “Genius” in 2011. Radiolab has since been honored with numerous awards – including two George Foster Peabody Awards, duPont awards, the Silver Gavel, Third Coast awards, among many others. Today, the show is one of the top podcasts in the world, and airs weekly on over 575 public radio stations across the country.
Miller and Nasser – both of whom got their start in audio at Radiolab – were first named co-hosts in September 2020. Miller was hired as Radiolab’s first-ever producer in the mid-2000s, going on to become the creator and host of NPR’s Invisibilia before returning to Radiolab; Nasser started as Radiolab’s Director of Research and hosted the show’s critically-acclaimed, duPont-Columbia award-winning serialized mini-series, The Other Latif.
Miller and Nasser continued: “You can expect Radiolab to stay itself because you can expect all of us on the team to do what we’ve always done, what Jad taught us to do: play, experiment, challenge ourselves, and above all, take us to the edges of what we think we know…..We know this is a moment in the world full of crises too wonky to easily comprehend but too serious to ignore. We’ll continue to approach the big issues of our time with big honest questions and diligent reporting. And we’ll continue to honor the complexity and humanity that facts alone don’t capture.”
“In Radiolab, Jad created what may be the most influential podcast of the last 20 years, inspiring a generation of audio makers,” said Andrew Golis, Chief Content Officer, WNYC. “With Lulu and Latif at the helm of one of the most talented teams in the industry, we can’t wait to see what they do for the next 20 years. WNYC Studios is proud to be their home.”
About WNYC Studios
WNYC Studios is the premier producer of on-demand and broadcast audio, and home to some of the industry’s most critically acclaimed and popular podcasts, including Radiolab, On the Media, The New Yorker Radio Hour, Death, Sex & Money, Dolly Parton’s America, The Experiment, and The United States of Anxiety. WNYC Studios is leading the new golden age in audio with podcasts and national radio programs that inform, inspire, and delight millions of curious and highly engaged listeners across digital, mobile, and broadcast platforms. Programs include personal narratives, deep journalism, revealing interviews, and smart entertainment as varied and intimate as the human voice itself. For more information, visit wnyc studios.org.
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