World Channel's Stories From The Stage: The Podcast returns this summer

Summer camp; indulgent food; first jobs. Memories made in the summertime are often the sharpest; the sunshine, family antics and vacations bringing people right back to those moments. Everyone has a story and Stories from the Stage: The Podcast, an offshoot of WORLD Channel’s original series “Stories from the Stage,” offers ordinary people the chance to tell their poignant and often extraordinary stories. 

This summer, WORLD Channel is releasing a playlist of tales told by storytellers from all different backgrounds, each with a unique moment to share. Comprised of the same great tales from the flagship series, these stories will accompany listeners on their own adventures during the long days and nights of summer.  

Stories from the Stage: The Podcast is a multicultural podcast offering listeners the opportunity to know people they may otherwise never meet while finding a sense of belonging in a divisive world. The summer series kicks off with Road Trip on Thursday, July 1, just before the holiday weekend. The series will drop new episodes weekly through September 1, including:  Summertime (July 7), Glorious Food (July 14), Game On (July 21), Missed Connections (July 28), Lost and Found (August 4), Growing Up Black (August 11), Surviving Childhood (August 18), Good Trouble (August 25, in honor of the 58th anniversary of the March on Washington) and Stand Up (September 1).

The Stories from the Stage experience is evocative, emotional and personal, so when co-executive producers and co-hosts Liz Cheng and Patricia Alvarado Núñez saw the chance to share these stories with new audiences, they gladly took it.

“Our storytellers needed to reach new audiences, and we thought, ‘What better way than through a podcast?’” Cheng said. “We have hundreds of stories that illustrate all aspects of humanity. While they might highlight our differences and even underscore deep conflict, they also focus on what we do have in common with extraordinary tales of everyday life. People hungry for memorable stories beyond their neighborhoods and backyards need look no further.”

Cheng and Alvarado Núñez also share behind-the-scenes aspects not seen in their TV production, produced by WORLD Channel in collaboration with public media producer GBH in Boston and in partnership with Tell&Act – extra time with storytellers, for example.

“With the podcast, we have the opportunity to hear more about the tellers, the motivations behind their stories and even what happened after the story is told on stage. Digging deeper enriches the storytelling experience,” said Alvarado Núñez.

When COVID-19 shut down traditional production methods the world over, Cheng and Alvarado Núñez were quick to pivot: Episodes of Stories from the Stage were taped virtually from the home of storytellers, including the juried Webby Award-winning episode ‘Growing Up Black.’ As

-more-COVID cases across the country decline and cities begin to reopen, they’re hoping summer 2021 is the perfect time to connect with listeners, wherever they may be this summer, through the power of storytelling.

From chuckle-worthy tales of road trips gone wrong and terrible-yet-hilarious summer jobs to heartbreaking yet rewarding stories of love and loss, “there are stories for everyone – a poignant one about a Black counselor from the inner city at an elite camp making a difference for a lonely Turkish girl, and another about an Olympic-level contender who survives a near-fatal accident to live a differently rewarding life,” Cheng previewed. 

In the end, Stories from the Stage in all its forms is about bridging the gaps that exist in every community and bringing people together in an unexpectedly personal way.

Stories from the Stage: The Podcast is produced by WORLD Channel in collaboration with GBH and in partnership with Tell&Act. Subscribe and listen to Stories from the Stage: The Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher and Pocket Casts. For more on Stories from the Stage: The Podcast, listen to the first season here. 

About WORLD Channel:

WORLD shares the best of public media in news, documentaries and programming. WORLD’s original series examine the issues and amplify the voices of those often ignored by mainstream media. The multicast 24/7 channel helps audiences understand conflicts, movements and cultures from around the globe. Its original work has won a Peabody Award, an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award, a National News and Documentary Emmy Award and many others honoring diversity of content and makers. WORLD is carried by 176 member stations in markets representing over 70% of US TV households. Funding for WORLD Channel is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Wyncote Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts and Artworks. WORLD is produced by GBH in partnership with WNET and is distributed by American Public Television (APT). Find out more at WORLDChannel.org.