Serial Creators & Guests

Sarah Koenig is an American journalist, public radio personality, former Producer of the television and radio program This American Life, and the Host and Executive Producer of the podcast Serial.

Dana joined This American Life as the fellow in 2013. Before that, she covered education at NBC News and was a photo editor at National Geographic. She also works as a producer on Serial.

Nancy Updike is an American public radio producer and writer. She is one of the founding producers of the long-running radio program This American Life. Her work has been featured on other radio programs including All Things Considered, and has been published in The New York Times Magazine, LA Weekly, The Boston Globe, and Salon.com.

Julie Snyder is the co-creator of the Serial Podcast and co-creator & executive producer of S-Town, a 7-part non-fiction podcast.

Benjamin Chang Calhoun is a radio journalist and producer. Currently, he is executive producer of the New York Times podcast "The Daily."Previously, Calhoun produced for the public radio program "This American Life" and the podcast "Serial." He left "This American Life" from 2014 to 2017 to serve as Vice President of Content and Programming at NPR station WBEZ in Chicago. He has also taught at Loyola University Chicago, and prior to joining "This American Life," he was a reporter and deputy news director at WBEZ, where he covered politics and did documentary work.Calhoun's work has also appeared on "Morning Edition," "All Things Considered," "Day to Day," "Marketplace," WNYC's "The Takeaway," and "Radiolab."Calhoun received his B.A. in English from Oberlin College, where he was the station manager for the student-operated campus radio station WOBC-FM.

Jenelle Pifer is the producer at Pineapple Street and editor Longform podcast.

Rachel McKibbens is a poet. She also teaches and co-owns a literary lounge cocktail bar.McKibbens is known for her poetry, essays, and short stories. Her first book, the poetry collection "Into the Dark & Emptying Field," was published in 2013. Her second collection, "Pink Elephant," was published in 2016, and her third collection, "blud," was published in 2017.

Sophie Allison is the Nashville native singer-songwriter who performs under the name Soccer Mommy.

Phillips attended NYU and has lived in New York City ever since. He worked as a public radio producer and reporter for over 7 years but eventually left his position at NPR’s ON THE MEDIA to pursue his love of music and film. Phillips’s skills as a composer, producer, sound engineer and journalist work together in a complementary way that give him a unique ability to tell story through sound.Phillips is also the sole member of the indie-pop band Sono Oto whose latest album was released in 2017. He lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Phoebe Wang is an independent artist and audio producer.Wang has produced live events at The Moth, was a member of The Heart, and was Senior Producer of The Shadows podcast.

Emmanuel Dzotsi is a producer at Reply All. Before that, he produced and reported stories for WBEZ, This American Life, and Serial.