Katherine Wells Joins Vox As Editorial Director of Explanatory Audio

 

 Most people, even podcast fans, don't read stories about executive hires in a podcast network. Stories about podcast hosts, new podcasts, or podcast content attract the lion's share of the media attention. For good reason. For podcast fans, it's fascinating and illuminating.

But building a successful podcast team means everyone must contribute. So, these "exec" announcements do matter. 

Especially with Vox.

There's not another podcast network that has worked so diligently -- and often behind the scenes -- to build a strong podcast team for its entire network. 

Sure, Vox won't wow podcast fans with press releases on big-name signings. For Vox, grooming talent is a long process -- much like distilling bourbon -- that takes time, patience, an eye for talent, a nose for team dynamics, and an ear for compatibility.

That's why it's significant that Vox VPs Allison Rockey and Liz Kelly Nelson have announced that Katherine Wells is joining the network as editorial director of explanatory audio, a new role. 

Wells will oversee all of Vox’s narrative shows, including Unexplainable and The Impact, as well as lead efforts to pilot and develop a new crop of narrative explanatory shows in 2022. These shows will build on Vox’s mission of giving context to the news and world, providing clarity to listeners while sparking curiosity. Wells starts her new role in October.

“We’ve long admired Katherine’s work and when we spoke with her I sensed a real joy from her in learning something new. That kind of curiosity is contagious, and exactly what we were looking for in our new editorial director. We have an ambitious plan, and we can’t wait to dig in with Katherine and get started,” said Rockey.

“With the launch of Unexplainable earlier this year, we discovered our audience’s appetite for more aurally-rich evergreen explanatory podcasts. Katherine will be leading efforts to pilot and launch a growing slate of shows to build out that category with care and creativity,” said Nelson.

 Wells joins Vox from The Atlantic, where she was the executive producer of podcasts. At The Atlantic she developed several new shows, including The Experiment and the Peabody Award-winning series Floodlines. Prior to that, she oversaw the launch of Gimlet Media’s Every Little Thing. She has also been a producer for Radiolab’s More Perfect, Freakonomics Radio, Science Friday, and many other shows.

So, you may never hear the name Katherine Wells again as you listen to Vox's podcasts. But that doesn't mean that her imprint won't be stamped on what you will hear and how you will hear it.