Introducing a partnership for deep listening, intentional living and adventurous podcasting between UnionDocs and Gilded Audio.

Pod Pod

Help us inaugurate our new building with our first ever lab in the space: a three-month opportunity for AUDIO MAKERS looking for a bit of motivation, peer support, collective production and, perhaps, a dose of inspiration for their personal projects this Spring!

You might have heard that, after 18 years in Williamsburg, UnionDocs was recently forced to pack up and find a new home. Well, we’ve landed on our feet in a beautiful new space in Ridgewood, Queens, and couldn’t be more ready to welcome folks back for a creative boost of energy in the world of audio.

What is a Pod Pod?

We’re looking for ten active podcasters to join us in person at UnionDocs from April through June. About half the group will live here in our artists’ residency, while locals can commute in from home. Whether you’re living under our roof, or joining from elsewhere in NYC, you’ll enter a space that promises regular group hangs with low key structure, access to equipment, production and finishing resources, along with mentorship and guidance from some of your favorite minds and talents in the world of audio.

Our hope is that you’ll arrive with a project in mind – maybe even something you’ve cut some tape for already – that you’ll develop and hone over the course of the program. To help refine your project and pitch, you’ll meet regularly with our virtuosic lead instructor, audio producer Neena Pathak, for feedback and support. We’ll also gather for a series of in-depth conversations with an assortment of veterans 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 focus, take a break on the terrace to get unstuck, open their creative process, and link up as a group regularly for a shared commitment.

Pod up here.

A "Joint" Venture

If there’s anything we’ve learned from the past few years, it’s that the best antidote for creative stagnation is a solid, supportive community to help nourish ideas and spur momentum. So, in parallel to advancing personal projects, we’re inviting the Pod Pod to take on an intrepid mission; to come together to produce a collaborative piece. The idea is to explore the city’s recent proliferation of corner smoke shops. It’s a vibrant, but not-quite-legal trend whose future is being thrown into question by the recent launch of NYC’s first regulated cannabis storefronts. We’ll attempt to map the contours of what seems to be a historic hinge point, assembling a patchwork of neighborhood testimonies that sketch an economic ecosystem in flux. The project will culminate in a night of live storytelling, where participants will present their work through a mix of readings and recordings for a rapt audience.

Where to Pod?

The past few months, UnionDocs has been making a new home in a three story building in Ridgewood, Queens at 352 Onderdonk Ave. The first floor hosts our office and event space, while the artist residency can be found on the top two floors, typically reserved for participants in our labs.

There’s a big group kitchen and lots of common space. There are single, private bedrooms for each resident and access to the resources that UnionDocs has to offer, like our screening room, production equipment and space, an expansive outdoor terrace complete with a grill and pizza oven (all in all, a great place to let off steam and maybe catch a sunset over the Manhattan skyline). We are located two blocks from the beautiful Grover Cleveland Park, around the corner from many fantastic bars, cafes, restaurants and some of the best music and night life in NYC!

The Pod Pod will provide you with…

  • Access to top of the line audio equipment

  • A stellar lineup of visiting guests for inspiration & critique

  • Regular feedback from a designated mentor

  • Structured deadlines & support to advance your goals

  • Post-production support on your project

  • Organized engagements with groundbreaking documentary

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 + Program Details

April 3–June 25, 2023

Program Dates

Jan 26, 2023

Applications Open

Feb 9, 2023
3PM [ EST]

Pod Pod Information Session

Feb 12, 2023 [11:59p]

Applications Deadline

Feb 14, 2023

Interviews

Feb 28, 2023 

Residency Notifications

Early March

Non-Resident Notifications

Program Costs for Non-Residents

$900 ($300 x 3 months)

Program Costs for Residents

$3,825 ($1,275 x 3 months includes Residency Cost + Program Fee)

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. Residency fees cover utilities, and WiFi.

Learn more about requirements for participation due to Covid-19

Participation Requirements

  • We estimate the program will require around 10 hours each week. Meetings will be scheduled on evenings and weekends, and production is on your own time.

  • There will be 1-2 meetings per week scheduled as well as some structured social time.

  • Applicants should have a solid grasp on the basic fundamentals of audio recording and editing.

  • You should also have a project in its early stages – ideally with some tape ready to work with.

Pod Partner

Gilded Audio is an award-winning podcast production creative audio studio that works collaboratively to bring digital audio projects to life. A good-natured, trustworthy team that thoroughly enjoys creative, technical and journalistic processes. Since 2013 we’ve been, we working diligently to prove that audio is the world’s most powerful medium.

Lead Mentor

Neena Pathak

Neena Pathak (she/her) is the Supervising Editor of Invisibilia at NPR. Pathak came to NPR from The New York Times, where she produced The Daily. Her work was part of the Times’ pandemic coverage that won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize in Public Service. She also produced Still Processing (NYT) and show-ran Another Round (BuzzFeed), and her work has been honored by the Third Coast and Hearsay Festivals. She got her start at the Transom Story Workshop.

Supporting Mentor

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Andy Chugg is the founder and Managing Director of Gilded Audio. His experience across development, journalism, advertising, music production and engineering has helped Gilded Audio establish itself as a premier independent creative powerhouse in the podcasting industry. His recent accolades include: Webby Awards, NYT & Pitchfork Albums of the Year, SPIN Top Songs of 2022, and Adweek Awards.

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
Stephanie Kariuki
Andrea Silenzi
Mitra Kaboli
Julia Lowrie Henderson
Eleanor Kagan
Leila Day
Pat Walters
Sarah Geis
Crystal Duhaime

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
Josie Holtzman
Sean Rameswaram
Diane Wu
Alex Goldman
Adriene Lilly
Mooj Zadie
Jonathan Goldstein
& many more

Pod Support

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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.

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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

Scott Limbacher

PRODUCER OF LABS

Scott Limbacher is a non-fiction film producer, archival researcher, and abolitionist 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.

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Alison S.M. Kobayashi

SPECIAL PROJECTS

Alison S. M. Kobayashi is an award winning interdisciplinary artist whose hybrid work mixes documentary and fiction through video, performance, installation, interactive and illustration. Her performance Say Something Bunny! received critical acclaim heralded as “The best new theater experience in town” by Vogue, was a NYTimes critics’ pick, was listed in Time Out’s 2017 top ten productions and BOMB’s Best of Performance list in 2018. Kobayashi has received nominations for a 2018 Drama Desk award and 2019 United Solo Special Award and is the recipient of the 2006 TSV Artistic Vision Award. Her video work has been exhibited internationally at both museums, performance and film festivals including; Bilbao International Film Festival, The Western Front (Vancouver), The Power Plant (Toronto) and Pace Digital Gallery (NYC) and Les Subsistances (Lyon). She was a fellow at Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony, and a guest artist at the 2008 Flaherty Film Seminar. Since 2012 she’s been producing Special Projects at UnionDocs Center for Documentary Art. There she collaborated on expansive documentary projects like Living Los Sures which New York Film Festival described as “one of the most comprehensive, incredible and in-depth interactive projects that we at the film society have ever seen” and was founding art director of the documentary journal, World Records. Kobayashi grew up in Mississauga, Ontario and is currently based in Toronto and New York City.