Pineapple Street Studios (formerly Pineapple Street Media) is a podcast studio based in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. In August 2019, it was acquired by Entercom (now

Audacy, Inc. Audacy, Inc. is an American broadcasting company based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1968 as Entercom Communications Corporation, it is the second largest radio company in the United States, owning 235 radio stations across 48 media ...

). Pineapple's work includes multi-episode narratives, investigative journalism, branded podcasts, and talk shows. They've created series for companies like

Nike Nike often refers to: * Nike (mythology), a Greek goddess who personifies victory * Nike, Inc., a major American producer of athletic shoes, apparel, and sports equipment Nike may also refer to: People * Nike (name), a surname and feminine give ...

Hulu Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television serie ...

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

, and ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. In 2020, they led all podcast companies with two

Peabody Award The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Peabody, honor the most powerful, enlightening, and invigorating stories in television, radio, and ...

nominations, for ''The Catch and Kill Podcast with

Ronan Farrow Satchel Ronan O'Sullivan Farrow (born December 19, 1987) is an American journalist. The son of actress Mia Farrow and filmmaker Woody Allen, he is best known for his investigative reporting of allegations of sexual abuse against film producer Ha ...

'' and '' Running From Cops''. Twelve of their shows have reached #1 on

Apple Podcasts Apple Podcasts (known as simply Podcasts in Apple operating systems) is an audio streaming service and media player application developed by Apple Inc. for playing podcasts. Apple began supporting podcasts with iTunes 4.9 released in June 20 ...

History

Pineapple Street Media was founded in 2016 by former

BuzzFeed BuzzFeed, Inc. is an American Internet media, news and entertainment company with a focus on digital media. Based in New York City, BuzzFeed was founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti and John S. Johnson III to focus on tracking viral content. Ken ...

head of audio

Jenna Weiss-Berman Jenna Weiss-Berman (born 1983) is a podcast producer and co-founder of Pineapple Street Media. Formerly she was director of audio for BuzzFeed. Early life Weiss-Berman is a native of Massachusetts and graduated from Oberlin College in 2005. Caree ...

and Longform co-founder Max Linsky. In August 2016, Pineapple released ''With Her'', a commissioned podcast following

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...

presidential campaign President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese fu ...

(the first to be hosted by a candidate for president). Max Linsky co-hosted. In September 2016, in collaboration with ''The New York Times'', Pineapple launched '' Still Processing'', a culture podcast hosted by

Jenna Wortham Jenna Wortham is an American journalist. They work as a culture writer for ''The New York Times Magazine'' and co-hosts ''The New York Times'' podcast '' Still Processing'' with Wesley Morris. In 2020, with Kimberly Drew, Wortham published '' Bl ...

and

Wesley Morris Wesley Morris (born 1975) is an American film critic and podcast host. He is currently critic-at-large for ''The New York Times'', as well as co-host, with Jenna Wortham, of the ''New York Times'' podcast '' Still Processing.'' Previously, Mor ...

. Pineapple teamed with filmmaker

Dan Taberski Dan Taberski is a writer, director, and producer based in New York City. He is best known for hosting investigative journalism podcasts '' Missing Richard Simmons'', '' Surviving Y2K,'' '' Running From Cops'', '' 9/12'' and ''The Line''. Taber ...

on a series of investigative podcasts: '' Missing Richard Simmons'', '' Surviving Y2K'' and '' Running from Cops''. ''Missing Richard Simmons'' spent almost three weeks as the #1 series on Apple Podcasts. ''

Vulture A vulture is a bird of prey that scavenges on carrion. There are 23 extant species of vulture (including Condors). Old World vultures include 16 living species native to Europe, Africa, and Asia; New World vultures are restricted to North and ...

'' called it "brilliant" and "the strongest narrative podcast out there." In 2017, they helped in the production of the podcast for

Wormwood (miniseries) ''Wormwood'' (stylized as 'WORMWO0D') is a 2017 American six-part docudrama miniseries directed by Errol Morris and released on Netflix on December 15, 2017. The series is based on the life of a scientist, Frank Olson, who worked for a secret go ...

Errol Morris Errol Mark Morris (born February 5, 1948) is an American film director known for documentaries that interrogate the epistemology of its subjects. In 2003, his documentary film '' The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara ...

(the director) converses with multiple guests about the circumstances of

Frank Olson Frank Rudolph Emmanuel Olson (July 17, 1910 – November 28, 1953) was an American bacteriologist, biological warfare scientist, and an employee of the United States Army Biological Warfare Laboratories (USBWL) who worked at Camp Detrick (now ...

's death and

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...

involvement. Guests include:

Jon Ronson Jon Ronson (born 10 May 1967) is a British-American journalist, author, and filmmaker whose works include '' Them: Adventures with Extremists'' (2001), ''The Men Who Stare at Goats'' (2004), and ''The Psychopath Test'' (2011). He has been desc ...

(author of

The Men Who Stare at Goats ''The Men Who Stare at Goats'' (2004) is a non-fiction work by Jon Ronson concerning the U.S. Army's exploration of New Age concepts and the potential military applications of the paranormal. The title refers to attempts to kill goats by staring ...

Peter Sarsgaard John Peter Sarsgaard (; born March 7, 1971) is an American actor. His first feature role was in '' Dead Man Walking'' in 1995. He then appeared in the 1998 independent films ''Another Day in Paradise'' and ''Desert Blue''. That same year, Sarsga ...

(lead actor), Eric Olsen (son of Frank Olson). In October 2018, it was announced that

HBO Max HBO Max is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in the United States on May 27, 2020, the service is built around the libraries of HBO, Warner Bros., Cartoon Netw ...

greenlit a television adaptation of Pineapple and

Stitcher Stitcher is a media company that specializes in the creation, distribution, and monetization of podcasts. Stitcher creates original shows through networks such as Earwolf and Witness Docs. Stitcher provides ad sales and distribution services to ...

's podcast, ''Heaven's Gate''. '' Heaven's Gate: The Cult of Cults'', a four-part documentary series, premiered on HBO Max on December 3, 2020. Pineapple, in association with

Gimlet Media Gimlet Media LLC is a digital media company and podcast network, focused on producing narrative podcasts and headquartered in Brooklyn, New York. The company was founded in 2014 by Alex Blumberg and Matthew Lieber, who serve as the company's CEO ...

, produced '' The Clearing'', a docu-series about April Balascio and her father, serial killer Edward Wayne Edwards. It reached #1 on Apple Podcasts. ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' described the series as an "immense achievement." On December 18, 2019, ''

Deadline Deadline(s) or The Deadline(s) may refer to: * Time limit, a narrow field of time by which an objective must be accomplished Arts, entertainment, and media Comics * Deadline (DC Comics), a fictional villain * ''Deadline'' (magazine), a British ...

'' announced that a television adaptation was in the works with

Chernin Entertainment Chernin Entertainment is an American film and television production company founded and owned by former News Corporation president and chief operating officer Peter Chernin, also CEO and chairman of the company. Jenno Topping is the current Head o ...

and Weimaraner Republic Pictures. In partnership with investigative reporter

, Pineapple debuted ''The Catch and Kill Podcast with Ronan Farrow'', an audio companion to Farrow's bestselling book, Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators. It won the 2020 Edward R Murrow Award for Best Podcast. Farrow also won a 2020 Webby People's Voice Award for Best Host. With

Crooked Media Crooked Media is a progressive American political media company. It was founded in 2017 by Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, and Tommy Vietor, all former top Barack Obama staffers and former co-hosts of the '' Keepin' it 1600'' podcast. Dan Pfeiffer, also ...

and

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...

, Pineapple produced ''Wind of Change''. The series, hosted by writer and journalist

Patrick Radden Keefe Patrick Radden Keefe (born 1976) is an American writer and investigative journalist. He is the author of five books—''Chatter,'' ''The Snakehead,'' '' Say Nothing,'' '' Empire of Pain,'' and ''Rogues''—and has written extensively for many pub ...

, was selected as one of the best podcasts of 2020 by ''The Guardian'' (#1 overall), ''

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

'', ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'' and ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

''.

is adapting the podcast for television with

Alex Karpovsky Alexander Karpovsky (born September 23, 1975)Rick PorterAlex Karpovsky - Apple TV ''Apple TV'' is an American director, actor, screenwriter, producer and film editor. He is best known for playing Ray Ploshansky on the HBO comedy-drama series ''Gi ...

signed on to write and executive produce. The podcast explored the theory that the 1990 Scorpion's song ''Wind of Change'' was Cold War propaganda, written by the CIA. In August 2020, Pineapple launched ''Back Issue'', a look at formative moments in pop culture, hosted by writer Tracy Clayton and Pineapple producer Josh Gwynn. On the series, ''The New York Times'' wrote, "Tracy Clayton and Josh Gwynn use their encyclopedic memory of pop culture moments as a balm in trying times." It was featured on ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'' and ''The Atlantics lists of the best podcasts of 2020.

Shows

Original Podcasts

Podcasts for Brands and Editorial Partners

References

{{Audacy Organizations established in 2016 Organizations based in Brooklyn Podcasting companies Audacy, Inc. 2019 mergers and acquisitions