Lea Thau (born 1971) is a

Peabody Award The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Foster Peabody, George Peabody, honor what are described as the most powerful, enlightening, and in ...

-winning producer and director. She is the host and producer of the podcast ''

Strangers A stranger is a person who is unknown or unfamiliar to another person or group. Because of this unknown status or unfamiliarity, a stranger may be perceived as a threat until their identity (social science), identity and Character structure, chara ...

'' and the former Executive and Creative Director of

The Moth The Moth is a nonprofit group based in New York City, dedicated to the craft of storytelling. Founded in 1997, the organization presents a wide range of theme-based storytelling events across the United States and abroad, often featuring promine ...

Biography

Originally from

Aarhus Aarhus (, , ; officially spelled Århus from 1948 until 1 January 2011) is the second-largest city in Denmark and the seat of Aarhus municipality, Aarhus Municipality. It is located on the eastern shore of Jutland in the Kattegat sea and app ...

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

, Thau moved to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

at the age of 18, and then to New York at the age of 23 as a visiting scholar in Comparative Literature at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

. While living in New York as a graduate student, Thau discovered the then-fledgling live storytelling show ''

''. She began working for the organization in 2000 as a part-time employee, starting the organization's Community Outreach Program. In December 2001, she became the Executive and Creative Director, a position she held for a decade before departing in April, 2010. While in that position, she created the short-form ''Moth Podcast'' in 2008 and ''The Moth Radio Hour'' in 2009 with a broadcast launch to more than 70 public radio stations. The show won a Peabody Award in 2010. In 2011, Thau created the podcast ''

'', which she describes as "stories about people we meet, the connections we make, the heartbreaks we suffer, the kindness we encounter, and the frightful moments when we discover ''we'' aren't even who we thought we were". ''Strangers'' was started with the support of

KCRW KCRW (89.9 FM broadcasting, FM) is an NPR member station broadcasting from the campus of Santa Monica College in Santa Monica, California, where the station is licensed. KCRW airs original news and music programming in addition to programming ...

's Independent Producer Project in 2012, and it joined the Radiotopia podcast network in 2014. Strangers left

Radiotopia Radiotopia is a podcast network founded by Roman Mars (host of '' 99% Invisible'') and run by the Public Radio Exchange. The network is organized as a collective of some two dozen shows whose producers have complete artistic control over their wo ...

in December, 2017, to go independent. Thau lives and works in Los Angeles, California.

Awards and honors

* In 2014, ''

Slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

'' included ''Strangers'' on its "25 Best Podcast Episodes Ever" list. * In 2014, ''

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

'' named ''Strangers'' one of its "15 Podcasts to Add to Your Permanent Playlist" * In 2015, ''Strangers'' won the Public Radio March Madness Bracket Contest, beating out shows such as

This American Life ''This American Life'' is a weekly hour-long American radio program produced in collaboration with Chicago Public Media and hosted by Ira Glass. It is broadcast on numerous public radio stations in the United States and internationally, and is ...

and

Radiolab ''Radiolab'' is a radio program and podcast produced by WNYC, a public radio station based in New York City, and broadcast on more than 570 public radio stations in the United States. The show has earned many industry awards for its "imaginati ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thau, Lea Danish actresses American actresses Peabody Award winners 1971 births Living people 21st-century American women