Park City Institute presents Sarah Koenig and Julie Snyder, Creators of Peabody-Award-Winning SERIAL Podcast, 4/1

Park City Institute presents SERIAL: NPR's Sarah Koenig and Julie Snyder, on the Eccles Center Stage, Saturday April 1, at 7:30 PM. The creators of NPR's groundbreaking podcast will take audiences behind the scenes of their pioneering podcast, in their talk, "Bingeworthy Journalism."

"Serial revolutionized the podcast format, while simultaneously reinvigorating long-form investigative reporting," says Teri Orr, Executive Director of the Park City Institute. "By taking a deeper look into the nuances of a murder case where convicted killer has adamantly proclaimed his innocence, or the issues of loyalty, resilience and the complexities of military service, as in Season 2's Bowe Berghdal story, Koenig and Snyder have made us think differently about the stories that are often told in sound-bites in mainstream media."

In "Bingeworthy Journalism," Koenig and Snyder will give the audience an opportunity to learn, first-hand, how the format revolutionized the way we look at news, and what the future of journalism and storytelling may be."

"And, with any luck, we'll get a hint or two about Serial Season 3," says Orr. "We are looking forward to hearing more about the Serial team's projects with their new Production Company, including the just-released S-Town, a story based in a small town in Alabama."

Launched in 2014, Serial is credited with bringing mainstream attention to the podcast format and has been downloaded more than 175 million times, making it the most listened-to podcast in the history of the form. Among other honors, Serial won the 2014 Peabody Award, the first time the award has been given to a podcast.

Sarah Koenig is the host and co-creator of the award-winning podcast Serial. Sarah Koenig began her career as a newspaper reporter - her first reporting job was at her weekly hometown paper. She lived in Moscow, Russia for several years, where she worked for The New York Times, and once she returned, went to work for the Concord Monitor in New Hampshire. She did stints as a crime reporter and then as a political reporter - the same beats she'd go on to cover at the Baltimore Sun.

In 2004 Sarah Koenig became a producer at the radio show This American Life. She has guest-hosted This American Life several times, most memorably for the "No Coincidence, No Story" show; she has also produced and reported some of the show's most popular episodes, including "Switched at Birth," "Dr. Gilmer and Mr. Hyde" and "Habeas Schmabeas," a Peabody Award-winning show about Guantanamo Bay. In 2015 Koenig was named one of Time Magazine's "The 100 Most Influential People."

Julie Snyder has been the guiding force behind two of the most successful ventures in audio broadcasting: co-creator of the podcast Serial, and as the senior producer of the public radio show This American Life, which is heard by more than 4 million listeners each week.

Julie Snyder began working at This American Life in 1997 - almost from its inception - and along with host Ira Glass, has set the editorial agenda for the program, winning four Peabody Awards along the way. She has produced many of This American Life's most entertaining and memorable episodes, including "24 Hours at the Golden Apple," and "Notes on Camp." In addition, she has also headed the program's most ambitious and topical programs, notably episodes covering the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, health care reform, and urban violence in Chicago.

Tickets for "Bingeworthy Journalism," start at $29, and are available at ecclescenter.org, or by calling the box office at435-655-3114. Students in Summit County may purchase tickets of $5.

Park City Institute is a non-profit organization, dedicated to bringing world-class performances and new ideas to the community. Since 1998, PCI has presented internationally renowned and cutting edge musicians, actors, authors, comedians, dancers, speakers and film at The George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Center for the Performing Arts (a joint-use facility with the Park City School District). The organization will embark on its 14th season of headliner concerts at Deer Valley Resort next summer. PCI is dedicated to introducing young people to the arts through free student outreach workshops, shows and demonstrations. Since 2010, PCI has offered a free after-school literacy program to students in grades one through 12 at the thinky and engaging retail-fronted tutoring hub, the Mega-Genius Supply Store and IQ HQ (located at 435 Swede Alley in Old Town). The organization continues to illuminate with Curiosities evenings and the Saints and Sinners Ball.

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