{"id":587134,"date":"2017-09-30T10:00:36","date_gmt":"2017-09-30T14:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/joangarry.com\/?p=587134"},"modified":"2025-02-09T22:17:31","modified_gmt":"2025-02-10T03:17:31","slug":"ep43-storytelling-this-american-life-blumberg","status":"publish","type":"podcast","link":"https:\/\/joangarry.com\/podcast\/ep43-storytelling-this-american-life-blumberg\/","title":{"rendered":"Ep 43: Nonprofits, Storytelling, and \u2018This American Life\u2019 (with Alex Blumberg)"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

In this episode, I\u2019m honored and excited to have the opportunity to interview Alex Blumberg, a former producer of the uber-popular public radio show, This American Life<\/em> and the founder of Gimlet Media. The main topic of our conversation? Storytelling.<\/p>\n

Stories are core to what make us human. Mastering storytelling is certainly a primary key to becoming a successful nonprofit. And yet, when doing the research for my book, I discovered that the topic of storytelling was largely missing from most other books on nonprofit leadership.<\/p>\n

I think that\u2019s a mistake. So I decided to write an entire chapter on the subject.<\/p>\n

And so it was terrific to have an opportunity to discuss the power of stories with one of the great storytellers of our time. We discussed how important it is to be able to tell the story of your nonprofit in a compelling way that brings it to life for potential donors, advocates, and your own staff and board members.<\/p>\n

About Alex Blumberg<\/h2>\n

Alex Blumberg is the CEO and co-founder of Gimlet Media. Blumberg\u00a0is an award-winning radio journalist known for his work as a producer on the wildly popular podcasts\u00a0This American Life<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Planet Money<\/em>. Blumberg was a\u00a0co-founder of\u00a0Planet Money<\/em>\u00a0and hosted the first season of the podcast\u00a0Startup<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Prior to Gimlet, Alex had a long career in public radio where he learned the ins and outs of the nonprofit world.<\/p>\n

Blumberg\u2019s work has won every major award in broadcast journalism, including the Polk, the duPont-Columbia and the Peabody. His award-winning documentary on the housing crisis,\u00a0The Giant Pool of Money<\/em>, which he co-reported and produced with Adam Davidson, was named one of the last decade\u2019s top ten works of journalism by the Arthur L. Carter School of Journalism and New York University.<\/p>\n

Blumberg co-founded\u00a0Planet Money<\/em>\u00a0with Adam Davidson. Through podcasts, radio stories, documentaries, and blog posts, Planet Money\u00a0delivers economic journalism in a fresh, accessible, humorous and yet hard-hitting way. Blumberg executive produced the interactive project Planet Money Makes a T-Shirt, which won almost every major online award including an Emmy.<\/p>\n

Blumberg also served as executive producer on the television version of\u00a0This American Life<\/em>, which aired on the Showtime network. The show earned rave reviews from almost every major market television critic. It won three\u00a0Emmy Awards, including the award for Outstanding Nonfiction Series.<\/p>\n

Throughout his extensive career in audio journalism, Blumberg has done radio documentaries covering\u00a0such diverse topics as life aboard a U.S. aircraft carrier, teenage Steve Forbes supporters and prisoners staging a production of\u00a0Hamlet<\/em>. Blumberg has been a featured guest on\u00a0Meet the Press<\/em>\u00a0and other television programs. He lives with his wife and two children in Brooklyn, New York.<\/p>\n

In this episode:<\/h2>\n