PRX Launches Project Catapult, A Podcast Training Program For Public Media Stations

PRX Podcast Garage

PRX has launched PROJECT CATAPULT, a podcast training project for public media stations, made possible by a $1 million grant from the CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING. The project initially intended to include five stations, but will now total seven.

“The final pool of applicants was so strong, we found a way to expand the first CATAPULT class to seven station teams,” said PRX CEO KERRI HOFFMAN.

The stations are located across the U.S, have varying market sizes and represent diverse production teams and topics. They’ll kick things off at the PRX PODCAST GARAGE in CAMBRIDGE, MA in JANUARY with a podcast bootcamp, and will continue an intensive production sprint for 20 weeks.

THE CATAPULT process will create "a professional network of diverse talent across the country, and help the podcasters hone skills in digital content development, audience engagement and monetization." At the end of the curriculum, each station, in co-production with PRX, will launch a new, or re-launch an existing, podcast.

PRX has hired ENRICO BENJAMIN as CATAPULT's Project Director. He is an EMMY-winning producer with a background in video and digital production, most recently KING-TV in SEATTLE. During his time at STANFORD UNIVERSITY, BENJAMIN was exposed to design thinking, a method that will guide PROJECT CATAPULT.

Commented CPB VP/Radio ERIKA PULLEY-HAYES, “Through this innovative program, we’re pleased to help more stations increase their multimedia production capacity and increase the diversity of voices heard in public media. We hope the new podcasts that these stations produce will lay the groundwork for more multimedia content that connects with a broad range of audiences.”

“PROJECT CATAPULT is an ambitious first step,” said PRX CEO HOFFMAN.  “We are investing in station capacity so they can make digital content that is sustainable and relevant, both locally and beyond.”

PROJECT CATAPULT will culminate in an open listening session in BOSTON in MAY to show off the work and progress to date. The first seven participants include:

• KALW/SAN FRANCISCO: "Inflection Point": Extraordinary women leaders tell their stories.
• NASHVILLE PUBLIC RADIO "Versify": Local poets travel to neighborhoods across the city, hear stories from people they’ve never met, and then capture them in verse.
• WEST VIRGINIA PUBLIC RADIO/CHARLESTON, WV: "Us & Them": Stories of people on either side of the fault lines that divide AMERICANS.
• ST. LOUIS PUBLIC RADIO, "We Live Here": Untangles policy and systems so you can better understand how race and class influence everything from what we learn to how long we live.
• WNIN/EVANSVILLE, "Que Pasa Midwest": A rich journey of discovering El Sueño AMERICANO, the many definitions and faces of the AMERICAN Dream.
• WYPR/BALTIMORE, "Out of Blocks": A collage of life-stories from a single city block fused with an original musical score. 
• KUOW/SEATTLE, "Second Wave": THANH TAN takes the listener on a quest to better understand her VIETNAMESE-AMERICAN identity and to explore the heartbreak and triumph of refugees who fled SOUTHEAST ASIA en masse 40 years ago after the VIETNAM WAR to pursue new lives in the U.S.

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