Crooked Media announces 2021-22 slate, including a Pod Save America spinoff interview series

Ambitious Deep Dive into History of Policing in America Led by Peabody Award-Winner Chenjerai Kumanyika Also Announced

Crooked Media - the progressive media company that delivers bold and entertaining content across news, politics and culture - announced today its newest development slate, which includes four original premieres, new seasons of fan-favorite podcasts, and a Pod Save America spinoff interview series, with more to be announced in the coming months. Since its founding in 2017, Crooked Media has grown far beyond its initial portfolio of political programming, expanding its content to provide expert analysis and engaging storytelling across entertainment, pop culture, true crime, social justice, and more.

New podcasts premiering soon include X-Ray Vision, a weekly deep dive into the internet’s favorite fandoms and the most talked about franchises across entertainment, from Middle-earth to Waystar Royco, helmed by Emmy-winning host and Crooked executive producer Jason Concepcion (Binge Mode, Takeline); an Untitled History of Policing Project, hosted by Peabody award-winning Chenjerai Kumanyika that will provide the first accessible narrative history of the police in American popular culture; and 544 Days, an autobiographical exploration of journalist Jason Rezaian’s political imprisonment in Iran, produced in partnership with Spotify’s Gimlet and A24. The nine-episode limited series will be available exclusively on Spotify in September.

Crooked will also introduce a weekly interview show that will premiere in the Pod Save America feed: a spinoff series titled Offline with Jon Favreau. Through one-on-one conversations with some of the brightest minds and biggest newsmakers, Favreau will explore the question of whether the internet is slowly breaking our brains, and what we can do about it. Offline with Jon Favreau promises to provide more of what audiences love about Pod Save America, including the fun, no-bullshit approach that has made it a top-5 weekly podcast for the last four years. Offline with Jon Favreau will premiere in the Pod Save America podcast feed and on Crooked’s YouTube channel this fall.

Unholier Than Thou, a fan-favorite that explores the intersection of the saintly and secular, hosted by journalist and editor Phillip Picardi, returns for season 2 this September. Over 10 episodes, Picardi will continue his introspective examination of the role of religion and spirituality in our daily lives. With a focus on post-pandemic “resurrection”, Picardi will be talking recovery, rediscovery, resilience, resolutions, and more.

Crooked has also found great success with digital video and is excited to add Crooked History to its lineup of YouTube-exclusive content. The show is Crooked’s first non-fiction narrative video series featuring Crooked network personalities, Ben Rhodes (Missing America, Pod Save the World), Erin Ryan (Hysteria), and Kaya Henderson (Pod Save the People). In Crooked’s signature style, the show will cover important lessons your history teacher may have skipped.

“Over the past year, we’ve worked hard to diversify our platforms and content in order to expand the brand while staying true to our core mission of providing sharp, entertaining social commentary,” said Sarah Geismer, Crooked Media’s Head of Creative Development and Production. “This year, we’re excited to unveil our largest slate of original programming to date with a mix of new voices, fan favorites, and our first-ever narrated video series.”

Crooked Media also announced its primary 2021 political campaign from Vote Save America, the company’s political action and voter engagement arm. The “No Off Years” campaign aims to re-engage voters following the success of 2020 via remote volunteer opportunities, targeted donations, and education on what’s at stake next year and beyond. “No Off Years” will be highlighted and promoted across the Crooked network.

The announcement around the company’s expanding slate follows recent news of several advertising and distribution partnerships widening Crooked Media’s reach, including through sharing sports content on Snap with Team Whistle; syndicating Lovett or Leave It, hosted by Crooked co-founder Jon Lovett, via Audacy; and delving into international sales for the first time with partner Acast last month.

In the last year, Crooked has grown its full-time staff 25% to 70 employees, with its content team—encompassing production, development and digital—expanding 43%. Crooked continues to deliver premium talk shows and narrative content across politics, news, entertainment, and pop culture, generating over 21M monthly downloads and consistently ranking at the top of the Apple Podcasts and Spotify charts.

Additional details about the newly announced products can be found below, but this isn’t all that Crooked has coming this year. In 2021 and beyond, listeners can expect many more bold stories from a fantastic line up of storytellers that includes exciting emerging talent and acclaimed audio visionaries

Crooked Media shows can be found on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Stitcher and wherever listeners listen to podcasts. For more information, please visit www.crooked.com

Upcoming premieres include:

• X-Ray Vision

• Host: Jason Concepcion (Takeline, ALL CAPS NBA)

• Launch: August 30, 2021 with new episodes airing weekly each Monday

• Description: From Emmy-award winner Jason Concepcion and Crooked Media comes X-Ray Vision. This new weekly podcast transcends pop culture and entertainment, taking listeners from Middle-earth to Waystar Royco, and everything in between. Hold on to your cape as we journey through the zeitgeist-iest (patent pending) of film, TV, and comics– guided by Jason’s one-of-a-kind analysis and expert guests. Test your fandom knowledge with panel discussions on the latest nerd news, casting, and show lore while staying tuned for deep dives into all of your favorite franchises. This is X-Ray Vision.

• Unholier Than Thou (Season 2)

• Host: Phillip Picardi (Journalist/Editor, Former Editor in Chief of OUT Magazine)

• Launch: September 2021 with new episodes airing every Friday

• Description: Some people came out of the pandemic with a new skill, new spouse, or new lease on life. Others came out with a divorce, a drinking problem, or an identity crisis. No matter how the last year has treated you, journalist Phillip Picardi is back to guide you through the spiritual conundrums that tend to crop up amidst global catastrophes. With the help of friends, strangers, and celebrities, Unholier Than Thou has risen from the dead and is back for season 2: Resurrection. We’re talking recovery, rediscovery, resilience, resolutions, and more. This season of Unholier Than Thou is all about the wisdom of everyday people falling down, getting up, and trying new things as they try to navigate a newish world. AND Phill will take listeners on the road as he drives from LA to Cambridge as his search for illumination takes him to Divinity School. Because he’s spiritually blonde, honey. So tune in. New episodes of Unholier Than Thou every Friday.

• 544 Days

• Host: Jason Rezaian (Prisoner, Washington Post)

• Launch: September 2021

• Description: Jason Rezaian spent 544 days as a hostage in an Iranian prison cell. 544 Days is the story of how he got there, how he survived, and how hard his family fought to set him free. Jason was the Washington Post’s Tehran bureau chief who was detained in the midst of the negotiation of a nuclear deal between the US and Iran. In Jason’s own words, the guards were just as surprised as he was that anyone would think he was an international super spy. Weaving together his own harrowing narrative and the story of the high stakes foreign policy that it took to get him out, the podcast will give listeners a glimpse into what it’s like to be caught in the middle of a war of words between two opposing countries… 544 Days is a partnership between Gimlet, A Spotify Company, Crooked Media, and A24.

• Offline with Jon Favreau (Available on the Pod Save America feed and on Crooked’s YouTube Channel)

• Host: Jon Favreau

• Launch: Fall 2021

• Description: Offline with Jon Favreau is an interview series hosted by Favreau that explores the question: why is the internet slowly breaking our brains, and what can we do about it? Jon will talk with people who can speak to different aspects of how our hyperconnected world is shaping the way we live now – writers, thinkers, scientists, media figures, political figures, celebrities, comedians, and others. Some episodes will be about the internet itself, and others will be about the age ushered in by the internet. The show will examine society’s online habits, have some fun interrogating our own, and try to reach for reasons to remain hopeful about our ability to shape the forces that have come to define our current reality. Episodes will be available this fall in the Pod Save America feed, wherever you get your podcasts.

• Untitled History of Policing Project

• Host: Chenjerai Kumanyika (Uncivil, Scene on Radio: Seeing White)

• Launch: Summer 2022

• Description: Hosted by Peabody award-winning host Chenjerai Kumanyika, the podcast will provide the first accessible narrative history of the American Police in American popular culture. From the first uses of the word “police” in Europe, to American slave patrols, to the invention of the detective, to the suppression of the labor and civil rights movement, to the exporting of American policing and torture across the globe via the Office of Public Safety, this history will highlight dramatic stories and inspiring - and infuriating - characters spanning centuries and continents. Each episode will be built around pivotal moments in the history of policing that upend its origin myth and connect to contemporary struggles. This narrative storytelling series will enthrall listeners while showing how police emerge as an apparatus designed specifically to surveil, exploit and repress poor, Black, Indigenous, Queer and otherwise oppressed communities in the building of American Empire. The show will invite listeners to confront the reality of policing through the lens of irrefutable historical evidence.

• Crooked History (Digital Video Series)

• Narrators: Ben Rhodes, Erin Ryan, Kaya Henderson, Jon Favreau

• Launch: September 2021 with new episodes releasing each Tuesday

• Description: We all know that US politics are broken - but how did they get this bad? Crooked History explores what your teacher might have left out to explain how we landed where we are now. Crooked Media’s FIRST non-fiction narrative video series will feature six episodes on the Crooked YouTube channel, exploring subjects such as Foreign Policy, Critical Race Theory, the Cold War, the Culture War and everything in between. Crooked History is produced, directed, and co-written by Yale Fried (Campaign Experts React) with co-writer Jordan Waller (Pod Save the World). The series’ supervising producers are Crooked Media’s Elijah Cone and Matt DeGroot.