Introducing a partnership for deep listening and adventurous podcasting between UNDO and Gilded Audio.
Pod Pod
Join us this fall for a 15-week opportunity for AUDIO MAKERS looking for a bit of motivation, peer support, collective production and a dose of inspiration for your personal project!
What is a Pod Pod?
We’re seeking twelve audio makers based in NYC to join us in person at UnionDocs from September through December. As an artist in the Pod-Pod, you’ll enter a space that offers supportive scaffolding, lots of feedback, and an engaged community to help you develop work of your own, as well as an opportunity to participate in an expansive collaborative project with your peers. Pod-Pod participants gain access to incomparable mentorship and guidance from some of the most exciting minds and talents in the audio world – not to mention access to recording equipment, professional development resources, and regular group hang-outs.
Applicants should arrive with a project in mind – ideally with some tape already recorded and ready to cut – that you’ll develop and hone over the course of the program. To help refine your project, you’ll meet regularly with our lead instructor, who will offer guidance as your independent work progresses. The program also offers support through a handful of experienced mentors, who will provide regular feedback on your project in group critiques and one-on-one sessions. We’ll also gather for a series of in-depth conversations with an assortment of experts from the audio field to spark inspiration and expand your audio practice.
It’s a simple premise, really: create a purposeful environment where people can feed off each other’s shared commitment and focus, take a break on the terrace to get unstuck, open their creative process, and link up as a group regularly.
A Collaborative Effort
We’ve often found that the best antidote for creative stagnation is a solid, supportive community to help nourish ideas and spur momentum. So, in parallel with advancing personal projects, we’re inviting the Pod-Pod to come together to produce a collection of collaborative pieces. This time, our focus will be hyper local: we’ll be developing stories that explore UnionDocs’ immediate surroundings and neighboring communities here in Ridgewood, Queens. This collaborative work will culminate in a night of live storytelling, where participants will present their work (with the guidance of an experienced event director) through a mix of readings and recordings for an in-person audience.
Where Do We Pod?
All of our meetings will take place here at UnionDocs HQ in Ridgewood, Queens! We’ll gather twice a week in the workshop space, and you’ll also have the opportunity to join us for weekly public events, screenings, and conversations in our building’s cinema space.
Please note: while we’ve offered residency options in the past, due to upcoming building renovations, the participants in this year’s program will be required to have their own housing in NYC.
The Pod Pod will provide you with…
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Access to UnionDocs’ expansive inventory of audio equipment
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A stellar lineup of 10 visiting audio makers and industry professionals for weekly conversations
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Regular check-ins on your individual project with our lead instructor
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Feedback in group critique and one-on-one settings with a small circle of experienced mentors
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Structured deadlines & support to advance your goals
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Participation in a collectively produced live storytelling event to premiere your collaborative project
With UNDO & Gilded Audio’s long-running partnership in making this kind of thing happen, it will be a time and place that both comforts and challenges you, where you can indulge your ideas and receive both the encouragement and the tools you need to bring them to life.
Dates + Deadlines
September 11th – December 18th, 2024
The Pod-Pod!
April 8th, 2024
Applications Open
May 2nd, 2024
11am ET
Pod Pod Information Session
May 12th, 2024
11:59pm ET
Early Deadline (No Application Fee)
August 25th, 2024
11:59pm ET
Final Deadline ($15 Application Fee)
Program Costs
Program Fee
$1500 ($500 deposit is due upon acceptance; remaining balance will be due at the start of the program)
Fees are subsidized with a generous contribution from Gilded Audio. They are offered as low as possible given costs associated with running the program, which include general operating, artists’ fees, and guest honoraria.
Scholarship & Crowdfunding
For each Lab, UnionDocs will offer the equivalent of full 2 scholarships prioritizing underrepresented artists or those coming from marginalized backgrounds. Applicants interested in this possibility should indicate in their application, though it will have no impact on their review.
[NOTE: As of August 2024, available scholarship funds have been allocated].
A private crowdfunding platform at donate.uniondocs.org is also available to accepted applicants, where they can accept tax deductible donations to offset their program fees.
Weekly Program Schedule at UnionDocs
Wednesdays from 6-9pm
Production Meetings
Sundays from 4-6pm
Artist Visits
Participation Requirements
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We estimate the program will require around 10 hours each week.
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There will be 2 meetings per week, scheduled on Wednesday evenings and Sunday afternoons, with production taking place on your own time.
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Twice throughout the program, participants will gather to present work and receive feedback in a group critique setting.
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Our work on the program’s collaborative project will culminate in a live storytelling event, held in early December.
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Applicants should have a solid grasp on the basic fundamentals of audio recording and editing.
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You should also have a project in its early stages – ideally with some tape ready to work with.
Pod Lead
Emmanuel Dzotsi is an award-winning journalist and podcast host. He’s reported stories on everything from backroom deals for political power, the strange phenomenon of white people sending Black folks venmo payments as reparations, to vast money-making phone scams hidden in plain sight.
As a co-host of the third season of Serial, Emmanuel spent a year embedded in Cleveland’s criminal courts investigating police misconduct, and chronicling the stories of hundreds of people whose run-ins with the justice system often didn’t make front page news.
Most recently, Emmanuel co-hosted the popular podcast about the internet, Reply All, and is now a producer at This American Life.
Pod Partner
Gilded Audio is an independent podcast production and creative audio studio. Our partners span film, publishing, brand media, and public arts. We make standout interview shows and award-winning narrative non-fiction, and – on occasion – we dabble in experimental storytelling. Gilded Audio is a proud partner of UnionDocs, through which we also support the Signal to Noise grant.
Past Guests have produced and contributed to...
Past Audio Guests
Benjamen Walker
Pejk Malinovski
Kristen Meinzer
Eleanor MacDowell
Sayre Quevedo
N’jeri Eaton
Maggie Taylor
Avery Trufelman
Kaitlin Prest
Andrew Leland
Cher Vincent
Lisa Chow
Ann Heppermann
Nick Van Der Kolk
Kara Oehler
Sharon Mashihi
Jorge Just
Sean Cole
Emmanuele Berry
John DeLore
Axel Kacoutié
Martina Castro
Joe Richman
Lu Olkowski
Mira Burt-Wintonick
Andy Chugg
Rikke Houd
Ariana Martinez
James T. Green
CC Paschal
Carter Conley
Isaac Kestenbaum
Alex Overington
Brittany Luse
Ike Sriskandarajah
Aisha Turner
Chloe Prasinos
Olivia Bradley-Skill
Megan Tan
Sruthi Pinnamaneni
Michelle Macklem
Mitra Kaboli
Julia Lowrie Henderson
Eleanor Kagan
Leila Day
Pat Walters
Sarah Geis
Crystal Duhaime
Josie Holtzman
Sean Rameswaram
Diane Wu
Alex Goldman
Adriene Lilly
Mooj Zadie
Jonathan Goldstein
Andy Chugg
Stephanie Kariuki
Carl Nellis
Harry Nelson
Corinne Gilliard Fisher
Laura Mayer
& many more
Explore some of UnionDocs Audio Related Programming on the UnionDocs Membership
Hear from Past Pod Pod Participants about their projects...
Watch Highlights from Past Pod Pod Live Productions
Pod Support
Christopher Allen
FOUNDER / EXECUTIVE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Christopher Allen is Founder/ Artistic Director of UnionDocs Center for Documentary Art in Brooklyn. The projects he has initiated, including Living Los Sures, Documenting Mythologies, Capitol of Punk and Yellow Arrow, have united hundreds of artists, documentarians and communities. He collaborates on live performances, such as Say Something Bunny! with artist A.S.M. Kobayashi.
Jenny Miller
CO-ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Jenny has worked as a producer/editor/organizer dedicated to community arts programming with a penchant for nonfiction for the past 12 years, working with a variety of cultural and community spaces—big and small— before finding home in the mighty DIY Spirit at UNDO. She brings curiosity, care, and a strong political stake in bolstering local arts communities through collaborative practice, open dialogue and diverse programming to her work here which spans across all threads of programming. She received a B.A. in English + Cinema Studies from Oberlin College with an interdisciplinary approach to her studies which centered documentary arts, artists’ books, pop culture and DIY publishing / exhibition practices.
Scott Limbacher
PRODUCER OF LABS
Scott Limbacher is a non-fiction film producer, archival researcher, and organizer. He recently served as an associate producer on the feature documentaries The Hottest August and Bulletproof for Walking Productions. Scott is currently based in Brooklyn, on unceded Lenape land, where he has lived for about a decade.
Alison S.M. Kobayashi
SPECIAL PROJECTS
Kobayashi’s collection of found objects inspire her videos, performances, installations and drawings. Her award-winning, multi-disciplinary work has been exhibited internationally at galleries and film festivals. She is University of Toronto graduate, a 2016 Yaddo and MacDowell Colony fellow.
