Archives to Earbuds: Podcasts for Cultural Institutions

As cultural institutions consider new ways to engage diverse patrons and better serve a wide range of communities and populations, podcasts emerge as an exciting tool for just such engagement. But there's a steep learning curve for institutions when it comes to the cost of both producing podcasts and developing audiences for them. Our moderator and panelists will share their insights and expertise on the challenges and opportunities of podcasting and how podcasts can serve the missions and programming needs of organizations in an increasingly competitive attention economy.

Jessica Alpert (Rococo Punch) moderates a panel of creatives and producers from firms including Antica Productions, Pod People, Capacity Interactive and Christine Ragasa Global on how cultural institutions have used podcasting to advance their missions.

Note: This event takes place online.

Presented by: LBI (Leo Baeck Institute) 

Online simulcast courtesy of: The Podcast Academy (TPA)

Participants

Moderator: Jessica Alpert

Rococo Punch

Our moderator for Archives to Earbuds: Podcasts for Cultural Institutions is Jessica Alpert, co-founder of Rococo Punch. Jessica is a producer and media entrepreneur. She started her work in audio storytelling as a Fulbright Scholar in El Salvador where she collected the oral histories of the country’s 60-family Jewish community. She later worked as managing producer of podcasts at the station, leading the teams behind Modern Love (with The New York Times), Last Seen (The Boston Globe), Endless Thread, Edge of Fame(The Washington Post) and more. In 2019, she co-founded Rococo Punch, an audio content creation company that specializes in premium audio storytelling for a wide range of audiences, including the original series The Turning, Welcome to Provincetown, and Queen of Hearts. In 2023, Rococo Punch launched RPLabs, a vertical dedicated to audio innovation within education with clients in healthcare, tech, and higher education.

Panelist: Racheal King

Pod People

Rachael King is Co-Founder and CEO of Pod People, a content and marketing studio for award-winning podcasts and social creative, working with clients like HBO, Netflix, Marvel, SoFi, Lattice, Chief, People, Vogue, and Bon Appetit. Rachael has spent nearly 20 years helping brands and organizations—from pre-seed startups to Fortune 500s—share their stories across every medium. Rachael is always at the front of any trend in content marketing, since beginning her career as a social media expert in 2007 during the early days of Facebook and Twitter. Rachael is also the Co-Creator of chart-topping fiction podcasts like Bone Marry Bury, Showmance and Vote for Love.

Panelist: Manda Martin

LaPlaca Cohen, SPACE on Ryder Farm, the TEAM and Culture Project

Manda Martin has worked with nonprofit cultural organizations for the past 15 years, in roles spanning producing, administration, external relations, fundraising, and strategic consulting. She is passionate about helping teams articulate their purpose and values, strategize for the future, and realize their most ambitious visions. Manda has led a wide range of creative projects in collaboration with both institutions and individual artists, and has previously held leadership roles at LaPlaca Cohen, SPACE on Ryder Farm, the TEAM and Culture Project.

Panelist: Stuart Coxe

Antica Productions

Stuart Coxe has been a producer for 30 years in Canada and around the world. Highlights include: executive producer of the National at CBC News; starting reality hits Dragons' Den and Shark Tank; dozens of award-winning documentaries from Love Shines to Gord Downie's The Secret Path. In 2008 Stuart founded Antica Productions, a Toronto-based production studio that produces non-fiction podcasts, films and series for a variety of clients including the Aga Khan Museum, Audible, Canadian Museum of History, Thomson Reuters Foundation and Leo Baeck Institute with which they produced the podcast Exile and LBI Presents.

Panelist: Christine Ragasa

Christine Ragasa Global

Christine Ragasa is the founder of Christine Ragasa Global, a communications and marketing firm. She brings over 20 years of PR experience in the fields of entertainment, lifestyle, health/wellness, media, news, publishing, business, sports, and technology. Some of the audio companies she has worked with include Rococo Punch, Gilded Audio, Pushkin Industries, Topic Studios, Entropy Media, and Night Vale Presents.

Panelist: Alison Goldberg

Capacity Interactive

Alison Goldberg is a Senior Consultant, Email & Digital Marketing at Capacity Interactive, the premier digital marketing consulting firm for culture and the arts. She joined the company after working in Development in non-profit organizations across theatre and film, including the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, DC and the Film Society of Lincoln Center.