Season 4 of National Geographic's Overheard Podcast To Be Released on October 27th

  Season 4 kicks off on Tuesday, October 27th of National Geographic’s Overheard at National Geographic podcast.  

The trailer premiere was released on October 13 and features host Peter Gwin, Editor at Large at National Geographic, and co-host Amy Briggs, Executive Editor of National Geographic History magazine. The podcast invites listeners with real-life adventurers on an audio escapade of discovery beyond the magazine to “inspire the explorer in everyone.” 

“Just because we’re stuck inside for the time being doesn’t mean discovery stops,” says Co-Host Peter Gwin in the trailer for season four.

Guided by its yellow borders and north star that has imparted National Geographic’s (NG) iconic legacy for the last 132 years, the magazine and podcast provide a glimpse of life on the other side of the planet, in the deepest jungles, driest deserts and coldest terrains. Smuggled dinosaur bones. Man-made glaciers. An audacious quest to find the world’s southernmost tree.

Over an eight-week season, co-host Peter Gwin, Editor at Large at NG, and Amy Briggs, Executive Editor at NG History, put on their masks and dive into the curiously delightful conversations they’ve overheard at National Geographic’s headquarters, Zooms, Slack chats, texts, closet recordings sessions and all. Along the way, listeners will be introduced to explorers, photographers and scientists, who’ll share their engaging experiences from the field as we follow them to the edges of our big, bizarre, and beautiful world.

  In this season, Overheard continues to bring curiosity front and center by untwisting the world’s largest tornado, searching for history’s lost slave ships and the strange odyssey of a traveling circus in Central America stranded amid the coronavirus lockdown. Overheard also uncovers how reggae and the social justice movements have prepared one photographer and Storytelling Fellow to cover 2020’s historic civil protests in the U.S. while reflecting on the larger meaning of George Floyd’s death and the raw emotions unleashed after covering his funeral.

“For 132 years, National Geographic’s storytelling capability has been the core of our brand,” says Whitney Johnson, vice president and director of Visuals and Immersive Experiences at National Geographic. “Now Peter and Amy take us even further along in our commitment to bring Nat Geo’s fact-based storytelling to global audiences with another season of 'Overheard.'”

In an interview earlier this year about season three, Johnson noted, "At its core, Overheard is a podcast about science and exploration - about archeology, natural history, and human behavior. And while it's true that these topics resonate with our audience, that alone isn't enough. Each episode needs a story with a leading character, an element of surprise, and a narrative arc. Oh, and fun. Overheard is fun to listen to. We try to bring the excitement that the scientists feel to the listeners. And we want to keep it that way."

"Many legacy brands have entered the podcasting space with high hopes and strategies for brand extension," says podcasting consultant George Witt. "With Overheard, National Geographic has scored a win because they didn't just aim to make an audio version of their magazine. Instead, they took the time and effort to carefully curate a companion medium and extension of the brand that goes beyond photography and journalism, further exploring the magazine as a fascinating space and avenue for exploration."

“For decades, National Geographic's photography and journalism have been at the core of everything we create,” says Whitney Johnson. “Now co-hosts Peter Gwin and Amy Briggs bring the DNA of Nat Geo - our commitment to deeply-reported, immersive storytelling - directly to the next generation of smart, curious people.” 

"People think of National Geographic in its magazine and films as predominately visually focused," notes George Witt. "But if you watch any of their nature documentaries, you soon realize that they infuse so much energy in the sounds of nature -- ice falling from a glacier into the bay or birds harmonizing on a sunny fall morning or the pulsating hum of a beehive, you soon realize that the sonic world is as important to them as the visual world.

"That ability to be multi-sensory is what makes Overheard so compelling."