podcast
A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...
s and
audiobook
An audiobook (or a talking book) is a recording of a book or other work being read out loud. A reading of the complete text is described as "unabridged", while readings of shorter versions are abridgements.
Spoken audio has been available in sch ...
s. It was started in 2018 by
Malcolm Gladwell
Malcolm Timothy Gladwell (born 3 September 1963) is a Canadian journalist, author, and public speaker. He has been a staff writer for ''The New Yorker'' since 1996. He has published eight books. He is also the host of the podcast ''Revisionist ...
and
Jacob Weisberg
Jacob Weisberg (born 1964) is an American political journalist, who served as editor-in-chief of The Slate Group, a division of Graham Holdings Company. In September 2018, he left Slate to co-found Pushkin Industries, an audio content company ...
. As of 2021, it hosts over 25 podcasts.
History
The company was co-founded in 2018 by Malcolm Gladwell and Jacob Weisberg, based on an idea by Weisberg. The two worked together on Gladwell's podcast '' Revisionist History'' at Panoply Media and after Panoply exited the medium, the two wanted to do more projects together and started Pushkin.
In 2019,
Tim Harford
Timothy Douglas Harford (born 27 September 1973) is an English economic journalist who lives in Oxford.''Cautionary Tales'' on the network. That same year, Pushkin began producing audiobooks, beginning with Gladwell's '' Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don't Know''.
Among other books, it published ''Miracle and Wonder: Conversations with Paul Simon,'' co-written by Gladwell and based on interviews with the musician
Paul Simon
Paul Frederic Simon (born October 13, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter known for his solo work and his collaborations with Art Garfunkel. He and Garfunkel, whom he met in elementary school in 1953, came to prominence in the 1960s as Sim ...
. Gladwell's '' The Bomber Mafia'' was written and conceived of as an audio production with sound effects and music. Only after the script was complete was a book produced.
Pushkin Industries won "Podcast Network of the Year" at the 2021 Adweek Podcast Awards.
In July 2022, Pushkin Industries agreed to buy the podcast studio Transmitter Media, marking the company's first acquisition.
In September 2023, Pushkin laid off 17 employees, comprising more than 30% of its staff. As part of the reorganization, former Transmitter owner Gretta Cohn became CEO, while Weisberg took the title of executive chair. The change came amid significant layoffs in the podcast industry, including at
Spotify
Spotify (; ) is a List of companies of Sweden, Swedish Music streaming service, audio streaming and media service provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. , it is one of the largest providers of music streaming services ...
and
Sony
is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...
. In November 2023, the company's producers and staff voted to unionize and joined
Writers Guild of America, East
The Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) is a trade union, labor union representing writers in film, television, radio, news, and online media.
The WGAE and the Writers Guild of America West (WGAW), though independent entities, jointly brand the ...
.
, the company's most popular podcasts include Gladwell's ''Revisionist History''; Harford's ''Cautionary Tales''; ''The Happiness Lab'', hosted by
Laurie R. Santos
Laurie Renee Santos (born 1975) is an American cognitive scientist and professor of psychology at Yale University. She is the director of Yale's Comparative Cognition Laboratory, Director of Yale's Canine Cognition Lab, and former Head of Yale's ...
; and ''Against the Rules with
Michael Lewis
Michael Monroe Lewis (born October 15, 1960) Gale Biography In Context. is an American author and financial journalist. He has also been a contributing editor to '' Vanity Fair'' since 2009, writing mostly on business, finance, and economics. ...