This grant provides two years of continued support for production of National Public Radio’s Planet Money podcast. Grant funds will help produce in-depth economic content to be disseminated via the Planet Money podcast and blog and on NPR’s All Things Considered, Morning Edition, NPR One, and This American Life. Additional funds will support the production of multimedia pieces to supplement and enhance the broadcast content on the web, a series of interactive “sound walks” that explore economic history, and several experiments in participatory journalism.

Funds from this grant support a three-pronged initiative by PRX, public radio’s largest distribution marketplace, to expand science-themed audio for radio broadcast and podcasting. First, PRX will continue to expand its Open Call for STEM stories, which last year generated more than 100 submissions from reporters and producers with compelling science stories to tell. Second, PRX will develop and support five new radio shows featuring women scientists and produced by women. Finally, PRX will incorporate science- and technology-themed episodes into its existing portfolio of popular programs, including The Moth Radio Hour, 99% Invisible, Theory of Everything, and Blank on Blank, which collectively reach several million listeners. With the runaway success of Serial in the past year, podcasts have hit a tipping point, and PRX is well positioned to harness this new energy and excitement. This project has the potential to engage an entirely new community of science storytellers, while advancing public understanding of science among the next generation of listeners.

Funds from this grant provide support for a project by WNYC to produce a series of radio segments focusing on health care policy and the economics of the health care system in New York as viewed through the lens of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).  Using a mix of personal stories, stakeholder interviews, data news, enterprise reporting, and in-depth conversations on the impact of the ACA, WNYC hopes to make the health care system more transparent to consumers.  The idea is to use this historic, confusing, and still controversial health care Act as a teaching moment for the public and to get at the underlying economics and health care policy that few understand well.  Additional focus will be on advances in medical science and methods that motivate behavior change for healthier living.   WNYC will produce 100 short news reports about the ACA, health care, and health care policy in the New York region for broadcast on programs like Morning Edition and All Things Considered and for follow-up discussion in segments on WNYC signature programs.  They will also produce two one-hour series each year that delve more deeply into topics such as how health care reform is affecting the city’s most vulnerable populations.  In addition, WNYC will launch a new, weekly podcast aimed at prompting healthier consumer behavior and choices, create interactive graphics and charts to make complex health and economic data more accessible, and hold two public events that will allow members of the public to engage with WNYC and policymakers, practitioners, and other experts.

This grant provides support to Bari Scott and SoundVision Productions for the continued production of their popular and ambitious multimedia radio series on energy, BURN: An Energy Journal.  Using grant funds, SoundVision will produce an in-depth one-hour special The Adaptors about energy innovators, entrepreneurs, and average citizens and their creative adaptations to our energy future; a series of at least 12 five- to eight-minute features on energy to air on Marketplace, The World, and All Things Considered; 52 eight- to 15-minute podcasts about energy, distributed via iTunes and Soundcloud; a multimedia website with enhanced information, blogs, maps, infographics, and video science explainers; and 50 to 100 two- to three-minute videos on Soundcloud that will also be posted to YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, and Tumblr.

Funds from this grant support a project by PRX, an open content marketplace for independently produced radio programs, to develop new voices and fresh radio content about science and technology (S&T). Using grant funds, PRX will issue an open call for story driven audio content on S&T themes and will produce S&T content for their existing portfolio of signature shows and podcasts, including a one-hour S&T-themed production for the The Moth Radio Hour, three science-themed S&T episodes for 99% Invisible, three technology-themed episodes for Theory of Everything, and three video segments showcasing interviews with leaders of S&T for Blank on Blank.  PRX will also develop a new science-based podcast focused on women in science.

Neil deGrasse Tyson, an astrophysicist and director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History, is also creator and host of an innovative radio show called StarTalk, a program that uses comedy and celebrity star power to demystify science for the public. Tyson’s guests are a mix of distinguished scientists—Bill Nye, Brian Greene, Buzz Aldrin—and interesting nonscientists and celebrities such as Jon Stewart, Morgan Freeman, and GZA.   Increasingly the show has been videotaped and posted on YouTube and other video channels where it has attracted a sizeable audience and significant advertising.  This grant provides basic operating support for the continued production of StarTalk during a one-year contractual blackout imposed by Tyson’s decision to host the upcoming 13-part mini-series COSMOS, to air in primetime on FOX in the spring of 2014.  Contractually forbidden to appear on a “competing” video program, Tyson is seeking bridge funding to keep StarTalk funded until he can reappear on the program in 2015.  This grant provides these funds, ensuring that an innovative show devoted to advancing the public understanding of science can stay on the air.

Funds from this grant support the development of a new Healthcare Reporting Unit at New York City radio station WNYC.   The contemplated unit will use personal stories to spotlight issues in American healthcare with an emphasis on research and policy, taking a consumer-friendly approach that links lived experience to broader systemic issues in the health care system through documentary-style reports, banded segments for local and national news programs, hour-long specials, podcasts, and partnerships with leaders in healthcare journalism. The grant will provide funds for convening diverse panel of experts, assembling an advisory board, and conducting research for targeted reporting on healthcare policy in New York and surrounding states, including research on the impact of the Affordable Care Act on consumers.

This grant provides three years of continued support for the production and distribution of WNYC’s Radiolab, the popular award-winning radio show hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich. Each year for the next three years, the Radiolab team will use grant funds to produce 12 to 15 hours of original audio-based scientific content for broadcast on the show, including 10 hour-long episodes, 16 podcasts, 2 interactive “activities” for web audiences, and between 8 and 10 real-time science demonstrations to be used in the annual Radiolab live tour. Additional funds will allow expansion of the weekly Radiolab broadcast to include 500 radio stations.

This grant provides three years of support for WNYC’s award-winning radio show, Studio 360, hosted by Kurt Andersen, to continue its popular Science and Creativity series. Studio 360 features the latest research and findings in science and technology, relating these developments to arts, culture, and everyday life. Grant funds support a large, diverse board of science advisors for the program, a major planning meeting that flies in experts from around the country, a science-programming consultant, high-quality freelance reporting, and outside contributors who assist the full-time staff. Also supported are a series of live events which aim to engage a younger, more diverse audience than traditional radio broadcasts.

Funds from this grant provide salary and administrative support for a full-time on-air and online multimedia storyteller working at National Public Radio’s (NPR) Science Desk. The new position, originally funded with Sloan support in 2012 as a one-year experiment, is tasked with enhancing NPR’s scientific coverage by supplementing traditional reporting with original animations, blog posts, illustrations, infographics, and video content, bringing NPRs high-quality reporting to new, digital audiences. This grant provides two years of bridge funding for the position after which it is anticipated NPR will incorporate the position into its yearly operating budget.