“The New Yorker Radio Hour,” Co-Produced by WNYC Studios and The New Yorker, Débuts the Weekend of October 24th and 25th

 (New York, N.Y. – October 19, 2015)—“The New Yorker Radio Hour,” a new national radio program and podcast co-produced by The New Yorker and WNYC Studios, will début October 24, 2015, as part of the weekend schedule of WNYC and other public-radio stations across the country.

Built around The New Yorker’s writers, artists, and editors, and hosted by the magazine’s editor, David Remnick, the one-hour weekly program will feature an original mix of profiles, storytelling, and provocative conversations—plus an occasional blast of comic brilliance, inspired by the magazine’s Shouts & Murmurs page. The première episode includes Remnick in conversation with the author and MacArthur “genius” Ta-Nehisi Coates, a personal story from the New Yorker staff writer Jill Lepore, and the New Yorker cartoonists Matthew Diffee and Drew Dernavich helping each other through the grind of the weekly cartoon-submission process.

Future episodes include interviews with the actress, comedian, and writer Amy Schumer, the musician and producer Robert Glasper, and the activist Gloria Steinem, among other leading voices from across the cultural and political landscape.

Audible and Squarespace, longtime supporters of innovative audio content, are the exclusive launch sponsors.

“This is not going to be an audio version of the magazine or our Web site. It will be its own special thing,” Remnick said. “Our goal is to take what our readers love about The New Yorker and create something absolutely new—alive to the possibilities of the medium. We’re so pleased to be collaborating with a partner like WNYC as we embark on this adventure of discovery.”

“I feel like we’ve just met exciting new members of the extended family,” said Dean Cappello, chief content officer for WNYC and head of WNYC Studios. “The New Yorker and WNYC share so many values, and ‘The New Yorker Radio Hour’ is an amazing fit for public radio listeners across the country and podcast audiences everywhere. It’s exciting to put a voice to the great journalism and humor found in the magazine’s writing every week.”

“The New Yorker Radio Hour” will air terrestrially on New York’s WNYC (on 93.9 FM: Saturdays at 10:00 A.M. E.T. and Sundays at 7 P.M. E.T.; on AM 820: Sundays at 2 P.M. E.T.). The program will also air on WGBH Boston and on Oregon Public Broadcasting (check local listings), with additional public-radio carriage to be announced in the coming weeks.

Listeners can access the program on demand in a variety of ways, including on newyorker.com, wnyc.org, and the WNYC app, as well as in the iTunes Store and wherever podcasts are available for download. A preview of the show is available online here.

Highlights from Episode One:

• David Remnick interviews the writer Ta-Nehisi Coates, author of “Between the World and Me.” Coates has been compared to James Baldwin, and yet he resists that description, telling Remnick, “James Baldwin is the James Baldwin of this generation.”
• Staff writer Jill Lepore tells the story of her search to locate her best friend's biological father, who was rumored to be close to Bob Dylan; part one of a three-part story.
• An adaptation from Shouts & Murmurs, “The Privileged Few,” by George Meyer, performed by the actress Allison Williams. What does it take to get on an airplane these days?
• Staff writer Kelefa Sanneh, a self-described “all-purpose music nerd,” spends time with the pop-punk band Spraynard, who just might be on the cusp of making it.
• Every Tuesday at The New Yorker, cartoonists line up to show their work to the cartoon editor, Bob Mankoff. On Wednesday, it’s back to the drawing board. Two veterans, Matthew Diffee and Drew Dernavich, compare notes at the start of the week.

The show’s theme music was composed by Merrill Garbus, of tUnE-YArDs. 

Follow “The New Yorker Radio Hour” on Twitter at @NewYorkerRadio. For more information, visit http://www.wnyc.org/shows/tnyradiohour/about/.

About The New Yorker
The New Yorker is a national weekly magazine that offers a signature mix of reporting and commentary on politics, foreign affairs, business, technology, popular culture, and the arts, along with humor, fiction, poetry, and cartoons. The New Yorker takes readers beyond the weekly magazine every day with groundbreaking reporting, authoritative analysis, and creative inspiration on newyorker.com and on mobile and tablet devices.

About WNYC Studios
WNYC Studios is the premier producer of on-demand and broadcast audio. Created by the team responsible for some of the most critically acclaimed and popular podcasts of the past decade, WNYC Studios is leading the new golden age in audio, with high-quality storytelling that informs, inspires, and delights millions of intellectually curious and highly engaged listeners across digital, mobile, and broadcast platforms. WNYC Studios creates some of the most beloved audio series, including “Radiolab,” “Freakonomics Radio,” “Death, Sex & Money,” “Here’s the Thing with Alec Baldwin,” “Note to Self,” “On the Media,” “The Takeaway,” and “Studio 360.” Its programs include personal narratives, deep journalism, interviews that reveal, and smart entertainment as varied and intimate as the human voice itself. For more information, visit http://wnycstudios.wnyc.org.

Media Relations Contacts:
Natalie Raabe, The New Yorker
natalie_raabe@newyorker.com
(212) 286-6591

Jennifer Houlihan Roussel, WNYC
jhoulihan@nypublicradio.org
(646) 829-4497