Luminary releases six new premium podcasts, including new shows from female powerhouse creators

New York NY, USA—Luminary, a podcast technology and content company, announced 6 new podcasts launching this week on its premium content network. Luminary is a free podcast app and premium subscription content network, where Luminary Premium subscribers will have access to more than 40 podcasts from some of the most recognizable voices in podcasting, legendary entertainers, and diverse and emerging voices. The week’s newest podcasts include content from four female creators who are driving conversations around race and gender and who are helping listeners explore the world around us.

New shows launching this week on Luminary include:

• Sincerely, X from TED with Sarah Kay: Bringing its second season to Luminary with new host Sarah Kay, TED’s Sincerely, X provides a space to share powerful ideas anonymously - featuring stories that are too risky, painful, or controversial to be told on the mainstage. Using anonymity to facilitate honest conversation about difficult topics, these are the stories that deserve to be heard from people who need to remain hidden. (Monday, 5/6)
• Hear to Slay with Roxane Gay & Tressie McMillan Cottom: Hear to Slay, a new podcast that elevates black female voices, brings listeners compelling conversations with an intersectional perspective on celebrity, culture, politics, art, life, love and more. Each week, Roxane Gay, author of the New York Times best-selling essay collection Bad Feminist, and Tressie McMillan Cottom offer uncommonly incisive reads of the politics that shape the world we live in and the popular culture we consume. In their first episode, Roxane and Tressie share the genesis story of the podcast, address Joe Biden and Anita Hill, and even take listener questions. (Tuesday, 5/7)
• Celeste & Her Best with Celeste Barber: What happens when you move past the red carpet and manicured Instagram feeds and get real access to some of the world’s most famous people? On this podcast, you’ll be dropped into relatable conversations between some of the world’s biggest celebrities, such as Tiffany Haddish, Cindy Crawford, Miranda Kerr, Busy Philipps and the hilarious queen of Instagram herself, Celeste Barber. (Tuesday, 5/7)
• Lena Dunham’s The C-Word: The C-Word is a new podcast from Dunham, co-hosted by Alissa Bennett, offering a weekly deep-dive into the life and media coverage of women who have been deemed “crazy” by society. The C-Word unpacks the lives of messy, fascinating women with empathy and humor. (Friday, 5/11)
• A Very Fatal Murder from The Onion: After returning from over a year hiatus, The Onion’s wildly popular satirical true-crime podcast follows intrepid reporter David Pascall on his never-ending quest for truth, praise, and murder. The entire second season will be available on Saturday, 5/11.
• Telephone Stories**: What starts as a simple question of guilt or innocence turns into a searching chronicle as Brandon Ogborn relentlessly examines Michael Jackson through the interviews of those who knew him best. (Sunday, 5/12)**

In addition, consumers can listen this week to more than 25 new episodes from recently released shows ranging from leadership, to news and politics, scripted storytelling and female empowerment. Several shows have released new episodes, including On Second Thought with Trevor Noah, musical podcast Anthem: Homunculus from John Cameron Mitchell and Bryan Weller, _Guys We F**d_ from Corinne Fisher and Krystyna Hutchinson, Stoop Talks with Leila Day and Hana Baba, Karamo, Note to Self with Manoush Zomorodi and Bill Simmons latest pop-culture hit, The Rewatchables 1999**.

New episodes featured on Luminary this week include:

• Anthem: Homunculus: The next two episodes of John Cameron Mitchell and Bryan Weller’s Anthem will debut on Monday, with Cynthia Erivo making her first appearance as Joan the Baptist. (Monday, 5/6)

• Luminary listeners can get caught up on the first four episodes of Anthem: Homunculus on Luminary today.

• The Passion Economy: From Adam Davidson, the creator of Planet Money. The economy is bananas, even scary. But some people are thriving, and we’re going to figure out how. This week Adam interviews Kelly Moffat and her wife Laura Moffat who found confidence and pride in a pair of custom made, menswear inspired suits which turned into their wildly successful non-binary clothing brand, Kirrin Finch. (Monday 5/6)

• Note to Self**: Your guide to an accelerating world, with Manoush Zomorodi, from WNYC. This week Manoush and her guest, Kashmir Hill,** examine the implications of our browsers tracking us and why they asked in the first place. (Monday 5/6)

• Roads and Kingdoms’ The Trip: _"_The Trip is one of the most fun podcast interviews I’ve ever done. I’m still coming down from the high." —W. Kamau Bell. Join the late Anthony Bourdain’s partners at Roads & Kingdoms for interviews and drinks from around the world. (Monday 5/6)

• The Axe Files: From David Axelrod, former senior advisor to President Barack Obama, comes The Axe Files, a series of revealing interviews with key players in the political world. This week he interviews Jason Rezaian, covering his time as a prisoner in Iran, his experience as a journalist covering Iran, and how he sees the country vs how it’s portrayed. (Monday 5/6)

• Wisdom from the Top**: From Guy Raz, best known for How I Built This**, and the first person to have three podcasts on the top 20 chart, comes a chance to slide your chair into boardrooms, C-suites, and the quarters of top brass. Wisdom From the Top brings listeners into conversations with the leaders helming today’s most powerful corporations and organizations, offering direct access to the secrets, mistakes, and wins that define modern leadership. (Tuesday 5/7)

• I AM RAPAPORT: STEREO PODCAST: Actor/Director Michael Rapaport shares his strong, funny and offensive points of view on life, sports, music, film, and everything in between in two new episodes of I AM RAPAPORT: STEREO PODCAST this week. (Tuesday 5/7 and Friday 5/10)

• Now What? With Arian Foster: Follow Arian as he explores himself through conversation with a wide variety of people and topics ranging from current events to unexplored regions of our universe. We’re all walking through life guessing the best way we know how, and he’s decided to guess in front of an audience. (Tuesday 5/7)

• LGBTQ&A: From The Advocate magazine, Jeffrey Masters sits down with Amiyah Scott, actress on the hit musical drama series Star on FOX who breaks down the challenges of playing a trans character on primetime. (Tuesday 5/7)

• Hollywood & Crime from Wondery: Think Tinseltown is all glitz and glamor? Think again. Hollywood & Crime dives into the dark underbelly of Hollywood you thought you knew. (Wednesday 5/8)

• Karamo: If you’ve seen Queer Eye, you know that Karamo Brown’s onscreen appearance is your cue to break out the tissues. The charismatic star turns to podcasting to go deeper than deep on life’s thorniest issues with celebrity guests and personal friends. This week’s theme is “putting others first” where he spends the episode taking calls from his listeners and given them real advice. _(_Wednesday 5/8)

• The AM Archives from Lauren Shippen: This sci-fi series picks up where hit podcast The Bright Sessions left off. The original series followed a group of therapy patients with supernatural abilities as they uncovered the secrets of their therapist, Dr. Bright. (Wednesday 5/8)

• On Second Thought with Trevor Noah: This week Trevor digs into “Executive Pay,” exploring pay discrepancies between CEOs and employees working at the companies they run. The discussion will revolve around pay, the rich and the poor, executives and workers, and why these gaps exist and what can be done about them. (Wednesday 5/8)

• Players’ Tribune: The Podcast: The Players’ Tribune disrupts the conventional approach to athlete stories, focusing not only on players like Kobe Bryant and Stephen Curry but on the scores of athletes whose wins and losses have gone unnoticed. Now, TPT’s groundbreaking approach to storytelling is about to make a mark on podcasting. On this week’s episode, actorJocko Sims reads “The Pursuit Never Ends” by Taureen Prince. (Wednesday 5/8)

• The Ten from The Advocate: From The Advocate, the world’s leading source of LGBTQ news, and hosted by Editor-in-Chief, Zach Stafford, The Ten is a weekly look at news and culture through a queer lens. (Thursday 5/9)

• Poetics hosted by Omari Hardwick: Omari Hardwick, star of the hit series Power, presents Poetics, a new podcast that invites you inside the minds and lyrics of the biggest names in hip hop and the culture. Every show, Omari invites his guests to share an original poem or verse, before diving deep into the stories and history that gives every word its meaning. This week Omari hosts rapper, Big Daddy Kane who breaks down various rap battle strategies. (Thursday 5/9)

• The Rewatchables 1999: Featuring The Ringer’s Bill Simmons and a rotating cast from the Ringer universe, dissects the most iconic movies from 1999, an all-time great year in film. This week Bill Simmons explores the hit-comedy Big Daddy starring Adam Sandler and John Stewart. (Thursday 5/9)

• _Guys We F**d from Corinne Fisher and Krystyna Hutchinson:_** Hailed as changing the way society thinks about female sexuality, Guys We F***d continues to pave the way toward a healthier outlook on sex. Hosted by stand-up comedians Corinne Fisher and Krystyna Hutchinson, this critically acclaimed podcast will be your new best friend. (Friday 5/10)

• Handsome Rambler: Hannibal Burress is on the road, and he’s taking you along for the ride. Tune in for unfiltered observations on sports, sex, wrestling, relationships, philosophy, books, watches, other podcasts, bottled water reviews…anything can happen on Handsome Rambler. Hannibal’s show made its Luminary debut last Friday, 5/3. (Friday 5/10)

• Stoop Talks with Leila Day and Hana Baba: Stoop Talks podcast carves out a place for broad-minded conversations that embody the black diaspora. This week Leilia and Hana interviewQueer Eye star Karamo Brown about what it meant to come out as a black man at a young age in a Jamaican family, and what it meant in terms of his identity as a black father. Karamo also has a podcast on Luminary, airing on Wednesdays. (Friday 5/10)

• Locked Up Abroad from Wondery: What does it feel like in the split second when you realize you’re about to be locked up in a foreign country - possibly for life? In Locked Up Abroad, host Jim Clemente of Real Crime Profile brings you first hand accounts from people who lived this nightmare. (Saturday 5/11)

• Under the Skin with Russell Brand: Each week, Russell asks: what’s beneath the surface - of people we admire, of the ideas that define our time, of the history we are told. Speaking with guests from the world of academia, popular culture, and the arts, they’ll help us to see the ulterior truth behind our constructed reality. This week, Russell interviews Lena Dunham, whose podcast, The C-Word debuts on Luminary on Saturday, 5/11 as well. (Saturday 5/11)

• Love and Radio with Nick van der Kolk: Love and Radio features in-depth, otherworldly-produced interviews with an eclectic range of subjects, from the seedy to the sublime. Get inside the mind of a rogue taxidermist. Or find out what it’s like to experience a stroke firsthand. You’ve never heard anything like it before. (Saturday 5/11)

• Deep Background with Noah Feldman: Every story has a backstory, even in today’s 24-hour news cycle. In Deep Background, Harvard Law School professor and _Bloomberg View_columnist Noah Feldman will bring together a cross-section of expert guests to explore the historical, scientific, legal, and cultural context that help us understand what’s really going on behind the biggest stories in the news. (Sunday 5/12)

Luminary offers all listeners a one-month free trial of Luminary Premium, with a monthly subscription of $7.99 following the first month for U.S. subscribers. The free Luminary app is also available to download for listeners in Canada (CA$8.49/month), the U.K. (£6.99/month) and Australia (AU$7.99/month), also with a one-month free trial.

Podcast fans can listen on Luminary for free at luminarypodcasts.com or by downloading the free app on Apple and Android devices.

About Luminary

Luminary is a podcast technology and content company offering a free podcast app with simple user interface and smart content discovery, and a premium subscription network of top quality and premium podcasts available only on Luminary. Driven by the singular mission to improve the podcasting experience for both listeners and creators, Luminary is making it easier for podcast listeners to find great content and for podcast creators to do their best work. Luminary Premium will have more than 40 shows and more than 1,000 hours of premium originals available only on Luminary, featuring some of the most recognizable voices in podcasting, legendary entertainers, and diverse and emerging voices. The free Luminary app -- where listeners can listen to Luminary Premium shows and their favorites among hundreds of thousands of publicly available podcasts -- is available for free on iOS, Android, and web.

For more information, visit luminarypodcasts.com or follow @hearluminary.