Funds from this grant provide three years of continued operational and programming support to Science Friday, the only regular weekly slot on public radio—two hours long—devoted to all things science. Reaching more than two million people each week via his radio show, podcasts, blogs, online videos, mobile apps, and social media, award-winning host Ira Flatow targets the fertile intersection between science and the arts and has made the show a magnet for filmmakers, playwrights, authors, musicians, sculptors, painters, and digital artists who engage with science. In addition to providing operational support, funds support several new initiatives, including collaborative (audience) art projects, a Science Friday book club, a film viewing and discussion series, an artist of the month spotlight, and an annual remote broadcast about science and the arts produced in conjunction with the Foundation-supported Science and Entertainment Exchange.

Funds from this grant support a project by SoundVision Productions to produce an ambitious, multimedia series titled BURN: An Energy Journal. Joined by two major media partners-Marketplace and National Geographic-BURN will focus on energy literacy and teaching the public about our energy future, which will result in two in-depth, one-hour programs on public radio about energy efficiency and future directions in energy. Additional funds will support the creation of a new BURN desk on the popular Marketplace program that will air, for one year, a monthly series of five- to seven-minute pieces on energy-related topics. Partner National Geographic will also distribute BURN content across its many platforms. BURN will include a website that will include four one-hour specials on energy along with a series of podcasts, source lists, and resource links, blogs, and video science explainers from the series' popular host, Alex Chadwick. A partnership with the University of Texas will produce weekly blog entries by top scientists, policymakers, industry leaders, researchers, and other opinion leaders. Additional grant monies will support outreach efforts to minority and ethnic audiences through targeting media channels that serve ethnic and minority constituencies. The BURN project promises to improve the public's basic energy literacy, to take a level-headed look at our energy future, and to stimulate a more realistic and informed public discussion on this critical subject.

This grant funds a project by PRX Incorporated, public radio's largest distribution marketplace, to experiment with new ways to bring high-quality science-themed audio programming to new, younger audiences through the radio and the web. PRX will improve the sound, production, and general appeal of its hour-long science programming, while promoting these shows as specials and excerpting segments for short-term use on podcasts, remixes, blogs, web, and social media sites. In addition, PRX will create three new science podcasts for 99% Invisible, a short-form podcast that addresses creativity and innovation. PRX will also begin integrating existing science content into Public Radio Remix: an edgy, experimental mash-up that creates "a new flow of listening" aimed at younger listeners. Finally, working closely with science advisors, PRX will issue an "open call" for STEM programs and proposals-either identifying exciting new shows that may be off the traditional radar screen and helping them with enhanced production techniques to improve distribution, or taking previously aired or archival work that can be revised, edited, updated, or annotated to make it more timely and accessible for broadcast or streaming. This wide range of PRX initiatives aim to engage an entirely new community and to learn from them, while advancing public understanding of science.

This grant to L.A. Theatre Works supports its continuing efforts to produce and disseminate high-quality recordings of science-themed plays. Grants funds will support the recording and public radio broadcast of four science-themed plays produced or commissioned through the Foundation's Theater program, the addition of these recordings to L.A. Theatre Works online library collection, the distribution of two recordings to 3,000 schools nationwide along with the production of teachers' guides and other supplementary educational material, and the design and production of ten ebooks and ten smartphone apps adapted from existing science-themed plays in the L.A. Theatre Works corpus. This ambitious series of projects promises to significantly extend the reach of grantmaking in the Foundation's Theater program.

Funds from this grant to National Public Radio will support the expansion and improvement of business and economics coverage on Planet Money. Supported activities include the hiring of new Planet Money staff, production of twice monthly segments on economic issues for both Morning Edition and All Things Considered, two of NPR's most popular shows, and the creation of a set of "explainers" that explicate key economic concepts like inflation and GDP. Additional monies will support the expansion of Planet Money's online activities and outreach, funding the creation of a Planet Money iPhone and iPad app, and allowing the creation of a multimedia content team that will focus on bringing Planet Money stories to an online audience. Additional funds from this grant provide core support to the NPR science desk.

Funds from this grant provide three years of support for Studio 360, an hour-long weekly public radio show on culture and the arts, in its continuing efforts to include coverage of science and technology as a regular, integral feature of the show through its Science and Creativity Series. Studio 360 has developed a solid infrastructure for integrating science and technology into their arts show. They have assembled a core group of eight to ten scientists who work closely with producers and host Kurt Anderson to generate new ideas and vet existing shows. As of now, 13%-four hours out of an annual total of 30 hours of programming-are devoted to science and technology (S&T) subjects, making S&T a regular and recognizable part of the program. Grant funds will also support a brainstorming forum at the beginning of the grant to bring science advisers and other scientists together with radio producers to highlight the latest research and discuss new ideas for the series.

This grant to WNYC provides three years of renewed support for the production and distribution of Radiolab, the innovative, award-winning, and increasingly popular science series about "discovery and wonder" produced in conjunction with National Public Radio (NPR). Helmed by hosts Robert Krulwich and Jad Abrmarad, each hour-long episode centers on a core scientific theme (words, animal minds, tumors) and uses rich audio production techniques (musical, documentary, and illustrative) and a range of forms (conversation, theater, and story). In addition to core funding for three years, funds from this grant will support two new innovation strategies: one is to enhance distribution efforts by segmenting and customizing shows for educators and classrooms by using listener guides, by holding listening parties with live blogging, and by partnering with museums and planetariums; a second effort is aimed at developing additional revenue and getting Radiolab on a more solid financial footing.

The Science Friday Initiative requests three more years of support for Ira Flatow's award-winning radio program Science Friday and for its Sloan-initiated science-and-arts strand. Science Friday continues to be the most reliable two hours of radio broadcast-and increasingly, of podcast-time dedicated to talking intelligently about all things science in the United States. The show airs 52 weeks a year on over 300 stations through National Public Radio, reaching 1.3 million weekly listeners, and was downloaded in podcast form over 13 million times last year. This grant includes support for 12 segments a year on science and the arts plus support for the SciArts website, a portal that is reachable from the program's home page. Science Friday is an invaluable asset to Sloan's radio program and to the science community as a whole.

WNYC requests a one-year renewal for Radiolab, the award-winning science series produced in conjunction with National Public Radio (NPR), for the production and distribution of ten one-hour science-themed shows. WNYC's Radiolab, one of the most innovative public radio shows in the country, which Sloan helped launch, also produces ten feature science-based pieces that are broadcast on National Public Radio magazine shows Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Weekend Edition, and over 20 podcasts worth of additional material. Radiolab is unique, fresh, informative and inspiring-an exemplary radio show about science with the most original sound heard in many years that has found a large, receptive, and relatively young public audience. Radiolab continues to be an asset for Sloan's Program in Public Understanding of Science, Technology, Business, and Economics; it is a smart science radio series with an interesting sound whose popularity continues to grow.