Stitcher continues rapid growth with content from Katie Couric, Jessamyn Stanley and more

NEW YORK, Jan. 9, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Podcast industry leader Midroll Media is partnering with boldface names from the worlds of news, entertainment and popular culture to grow its Stitcher podcast network and premium audio offerings.

Already home to hits including "Heaven's Gate" and "Katie Couric," Stitcher will debut two new shows in coming weeks, available everywhere listeners access podcasts:

• With "Unladylike," launching weekly episodes on Jan. 23, hosts Cristen Conger and Caroline Ervin explore what happens when women break the rules. Conger and Ervin, the creators and original hosts of top-ranked podcast "Stuff Mom Never Told You," bring their trademark obsessive research and a solid dose of delightful feminist rage to cover topics including the economics of getting an abortion, feminism's fraught relationship with domestic and care work, and the growing business of witchcraft.

• "Who Is Franklin Jones?" is a first-person, narrated documentary series in which host Jonathan Hirsch (NPR, Fusion Media, Vox) explores the life of spiritual guru Franklin Jones and his followers. Jones got his start with a spiritual experiment grounded in the ethos of the 1960s and 1970s, and later, under the moniker Adi Da, became the source of multiple controversies and legal battles. The series documents Hirsch's own quest to make sense of the community in which he grew up. The seven-episode series launches Feb. 28; episodes will be available one week in advance for Stitcher Premium subscribers.

Three of the Stitcher network's most popular shows return with new episodes:

• Katie Couric's acclaimed podcast – which has featured guests Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Ava DuVernay, Alec Baldwin and Martha Stewart – kicks off the new year with a new episode every week, instead of twice monthly. In 2018, Couric and co-host Brian Goldsmith will interview some of the biggest names in news, politics and popular culture, starting with the first guests of the year: MSNBC's Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski for the show's Jan. 11 episode. In addition to the new weekly format, Couric and Goldsmith will host a series of candid, unscripted conversations with newsmaking "wonder women," Maggie Haberman (The New York Times), Kara Swisher (Recode), actress and comedian Amy Schumer, Laverne Cox ("Orange is the New Black") and more.

• Top parenting podcast "The Longest Shortest Time" returns with new episodes — and a new host — on Jan. 24. Andrea Silenzi joins the show as host while creator and longtime host Hillary Frank moves into the role of executive producer and editor. Silenzi was previously host of the successful podcast "Why Oh Why" and has been a guest on past episodes of "The Longest Shortest Time." Silenzi will continue to report on the topics of parenting and family in the show's edgy-with-heart style while exploring her own story of finding a path to motherhood as a single woman in her 30s.

• "LeVar Burton Reads" returns with a second season on Jan. 16, featuring the beloved actor reading stories from writers including award-winning author Nnedi Okorafor and celebrated novelist Joan Aiken.

Including new shows, Stitcher's owned-and-operated network now boasts 11 podcasts. The brand's subscription-based Stitcher Premium also continues its growth as it introduces three new shows:

• Building on her growing yoga empire, which includes a popular blog and massive Instagram following, yoga instructor, writer and body-positivity activist Jessamyn Stanley makes her podcast debut on Jan. 17 with "Jessamyn Explains It All." Focusing on the realities of living the yoga lifestyle in the 21st century, the show features Stanley answering listener questions and interviewing high-profile guests on such topics as yoga for beginners, body positivity and issues of sexual and gender identity. Eight episodes will be released weekly exclusively on Stitcher Premium.

• On Feb. 7, Dan Pashman, host of award-winning food podcast "The Sporkful," launches a live-taped spinoff series, "Ask Mimi," featuring legendary 91-year-old food critic Mimi Sheraton offering advice on food and life to audience members, celebrity guests and live callers from across the country. Three tapings take place at Brooklyn's Union Hall this month and feature humorist Mo Rocca ("CBS Sunday Morning"), comic Sasheer Zamata ("Saturday Night Live"), chef Amanda Cohen (Dirt Candy), comic Aparna Nancherla ("Conan," "Inside Amy Schumer"), chef Angela Dimayuga (formerly of Mission Chinese) and more. Pashman will moderate. Get tickets for the live tapings here.

• As previously announced, Stitcher and Marvel will release "Wolverine: The Long Night," the first-ever Marvel scripted podcast, this spring. The show follows agents Sally Pierce (Celia Keenan-Bolger) and Tad Marshall (Ato Essandoh) as they arrive in the fictional town of Burns, Alaska, to investigate a series of murders and quickly discover the town lives in fear of a serial killer. The agents team up with deputy Bobby Reid (Andrew Keenan-Bolger) to investigate their main suspect, Logan (Richard Armitage). The 10-episode series will be available exclusively on Stitcher Premium until fall 2018, when it will see a wide release across all podcast platforms.

With more than 8 million registered users, Stitcher is the world's No. 2 podcast listening platform. In 2017 alone, users logged 100 million hours of podcast listening.

About Stitcher
Stitcher is one of the world's most popular podcast listening services, with a growing network of original content and a premium subscription service. Stitcher is part of Midroll Media, a leading podcast company that is also home to the Earwolf network and its top-ranked comedy podcasts and the Midroll advertising network, representing over 300 of the world's largest podcasts. With offices in Los Angeles, New York City and San Francisco, Midroll was founded in 2010 and is a wholly owned subsidiary of The E.W. Scripps Company (NYSE: SSP).

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SOURCE The E.W. Scripps Company

Media contacts: Kari Wethington, The E.W. Scripps Company, 513-977-3763, kari.wethington@scripps.com