Events & Information Sessions

Past Event:
An Hour with
Journalist & Podcaster
Susan Stone

Producer of The Dead Ladies Show which "celebrates ladies who were in some way fabulous during their lifetimes"

Past Event:
An Hour with
Cultural Scientist & Podcaster
Anja Krieger

Creator of the Plastisphere podcast on plastic, people and the planet & Co-producer of Life in the Soil, the podcast on soil ecology

Anja Krieger is a storyteller and podcaster, with a decade of experience as a journalist, reporting for radio, online and print media on the environment and science. Currently, she works as a science editor with the Helmholtz Climate Initiative. Her journalism is in German and English has been featured by PRI The World, Ensia, Vox News, Nature Outlook/Index, Deutschlandradio, Die Zeit, and others. She is the creator of the Plastisphere podcast on plastic, people and the planet and co-producer of Life in the Soil, the podcast on soil ecology. A Cultural Scientist by training, Anja completed the Knight Science Journalism Fellowship Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Past Event:
In Conversation - The Art of the Interview with Sumi Somaskanda

Independent Journalist & Senior News Anchor at DW News (Deutsche Welle), Germany's international broadcaster

Sumi Somaskanda is a freelance reporter, writer, editor, and news anchor living and working in Berlin for more than a decade. She covers politics, breaking news, immigration, and economics. Her reporting has taken her across Germany and Europe. Sumi is currently a senior news anchor at DW News (Deutsche Welle), Germany's international broadcaster. Sumi reports on Germany for various international publications, including The Atlantic, Foreign Policy, Washington Post, Al Jazeera, Global Post, Newsweek, PRI, and USA Today. She served as an editor at the Berlin Policy Journal, Germany's premiere English-language foreign affairs magazine.

She regularly moderates panels and conferences both in Germany and the US and lectures American university students at the CIEE Global Institute in Berlin. Sumi is an alumna of the Robert Bosch Foundation Fellowship program and part of the BMW Foundation Responsible Leaders Network. In addition to her native English, she speaks fluent German and Spanish, and conversational Tamil.

Past Event:
An Hour with Cristina Gonzalez

Executive Producer, Audio at POLITICO Europe

We talk with Cristina Gonzalez, Executive Producer, Audio at POLITICO Europe about her career in radio and podcasting on both sides of the Atlantic. Cristina is the Executive Producer of the podcast EU Confidential, "a weekly podcast and newsletter featuring keynote interviews, quotes, and weekend reads on the forces shaping Europe." Between 2019 and 2020 EU Confidential experienced a 66% percent increase in listeners and drew over a million downloads between the summers of 2020 and 2021.

In this session Cristina discusses how podcasting is changing the landscape of national and international politics and what can be done to assure fair and accurate reporting in our era of fake news. We will also talk about what it takes to produce EU Confidential with its special mix of information, personality and engaging conversation. Learn how Cristina and her team create lively and interesting reporting from Brussels on European politics in a way that keeps listeners coming back week after week.

Cristina Gonzalez is POLITICO Europe’s Executive Producer for Audio. In this role, she produces POLITICO’s existing podcasts as well as develops and oversees new audio products. Prior to this, Cristina was POLITICO Europe’s lobbying reporter, where she authored the EU Influence newsletter, and podcast producer. She previously worked for Cox Media Group as a Senior Producer for local and nationally-syndicated radio in the US. She was a visiting Robert Bosch Fellow (2015-2016) at SPIEGEL Online and ZDF Morgenmagazin in Berlin. She’s produced podcasts for POLITICO Europe, the American Academy in Berlin, Hertie School of Governance, Cox Media Group and other private clients. Her reporting, analysis and producing has appeared on/been published in POLITICO Europe, SPIEGEL Online, Deutsche Welle, ZDF, NPR Berlin, WSB Radio, Rare.us. Cristina holds a MSc degree in Communication Studies: Journalism and Media in Europe from Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and a B.A. in Journalism and Political Science from New York University (NYU).

Past Event:
PodFest Berlin Seminar:
Podcasting in the New Cave -
Tapping into the Primeval Power of Storytelling

In days of yore we sat in circles around fire to tell our stories.
But today we do not live in dirty caves any more! Or, do we?
Podcasting is now among us in this new age of the ear. So much has changed but the core tenants of storytelling remain the same. In this modern cave talk we explore the powerful role of the storyteller no mater whether they sit — whether under the stars, behind a microphone or right there in that strange and special space between your headphones. Plato, Marshall McLuhan and Judith Butler will be summoned into our midst. Join us in the circle, around the fire for a story or two.

Past Event:
Master Class with Ana González

“From a seed to a tree - Growing your podcast”

Ana González brings us through the podcast creation cycle — swiftly cultivating a topic from a seed into a story in full bloom, standing tall and leafy like a tree. You will explore the turning points of podcast production: idea - research - connecting with sources - recording — the mix. When you fold in two of Ana's secret podcasting ingredients, having fun and moving with speed, you discover why Ana's podcasting and storytelling work is gaining deserved attention.

Ana González is the host and producer of Mosaic, a podcast that explores immigration and identity in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, a region that traces its history of American immigration back to the early days of colonization. Proudly Puerto Rican and Irish, Ana has worked with the WHYY Media Labs in Philadelphia and ran her own video production company, EARF. In 2017, she produced and directed a feature-length documentary about hip hop history in Rhode Island, Almost Dope. Ana is a 2015 graduate of Brown University.