YOUR HOSTS
Dr. Chioke I’Anson is a philosopher and founding Director of Community Media at the VPM + ICA Community Media Center at the Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University. He created RESONATE and has been heard on shows like Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, Everything Is Alive, Love + Radio, and The 11th.
KEYNOTE SPEAKER
PRESENTERS
Joni Deutsch is SVP of Marketing & Audience Development at The Podglomerate, the award-winning podcast services firm recently named “Best Podcast Marketing & Production Agency” by PR Daily. She’s overseen podcast audience growth for high-profile shows and brands including Netflix, The Boston Globe, PBS, NPR, Harvard, Stanford, CVS, and more.
Joni is an award-winning audio professional and NPR veteran with 15 years of outstanding experience as a producer, content manager, and marketer/audience growth specialist. She spent the first decade of her career innovating audio and community engagement at various public radio stations and as a national host with NPR Music.
Her work has been recognized by the Murrow Awards, Gracie Awards, and Webby Awards, in addition to the ONA’s Women’s Leadership Accelerator, Axios’ “30 under 30,” and Duke University TiP's Early Achievement Award.
Aaron Edwards is a writer, story editor, and director working across text, stage, and audio. His work has appeared at BAM, Lincoln Center, and the Tribeca Festival. He’s based in the Hudson Valley.
Isaac Kestenbaum is co-founder, along with Josephine Holtzman, of the audio production company Future Projects. Along with James Dommek, Jr., they created the podcast Alaska Is the Center of the Universe (2023) and Midnight Son (2019) for Audible Originals, the latter of which was recently adapted for Hulu as the documentary film Blood and Myth.
Isaac is also the director of the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies at the Maine College of Art & Design, as well as a 2008 Salt graduate. He is the former production manager at StoryCorps, and has also worked as a newspaper reporter and a commercial lobsterman.
Lesedi Mogoatlhe is the editor and host for the Radio Workshop podcast, with extensive experience training youth in podcasting and radio production across Africa. She has over 15 years of experience in TV and film, and holds an MA in documentary filmmaking from Sussex University. Lesedi also qualified as an Integral Coach from UCT School of Business, and uses storytelling principles in her Coaching Practice, Ditoro.
Eleanor McDowall is a radio-maker, curator, and one of two directors at the independent production company Falling Tree.
Julie Shapiro is a career listener, collaborator, and audio enthusiast. She co-founded Audio Flux with John DeLore in 2023. Before that she was Vice President of Editorial, PRX, and Executive Producer of PRX’s Radiotopia, where she co-founded and executive produced the Ear Hustle podcast, Over the Road, and Radiotopia Presents, among other award-winning shows. In 2000, she co-founded the Third Coast International Audio Festival, where as artistic director she shaped the Festival’s creative trajectory and nurtured a robust international listening culture.
Laura Ubaté (she/her) is a creative project manager, story editor, and audio storyteller. A former public radio journalist, her work has been featured in award-winning narrative nonfiction podcasts of Audible, Spotify, Adonde Media, and BBC World, among others. Laura has mentored more than 20 Latinx creators in five countries and founded Colombia’s first podcaster community, El Café Podcastero. Her podcasts Juventud Maldito Vacío and Viajes Inmóviles have been showcased in Colombia, Mexico, and Spain.
Laura is a 2025 AIR Media New Voices Fellow and the winner of the Diversity Fellowship from the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies in 2021. She has been a member of the jury for the Signal, IWPA, and IDA awards (US) and Premios Ondas (Spain).
PERFORMERS
This project was supported, in part, by the Virginia Commission for the Arts.