Jesse Baker - Podcast Producer of Esther Perel's 'Where Should We Begin?"

Angle on Producers with Carolina Groppa

Jesse Baker is an award-winning journalist and producer who most recently led a large team of creative makers as Audible's vice president of original content.

At Audible, she produced and developed a number of the company's most successful original series, including West Cork and three seasons of Esther Perel's Where Should We Begin?

As a huge fan of the iconic couples therapist Esther Perel, I was curious to learn what it's like to create such an intimate podcast. I tried to kept my fangirling to a minimum!

We recorded this episode 8 weeks into quarantine, right when they were gearing up to launch season 4 of Where Should We Begin? and finishing a special "Lockdown" series of the show.

Jesse began her career in public radio in her early 20s. She was a producer on major NPR news magazines including All Things Considered and Weekend Edition. In many ways, NPR raised her.

She later created the popular NPR weekly trivia program Ask Me Another. Jesse also produced The Culture Gabfest while at Slate and worked for ESPN producing The Sporting Life with Jeremy Schaap.

With deep roots in the radio, audio, and now podcast world, we nerd out about the godfather of the art form; Ira Glass. She admits he'd hate being called that.

She reveals how Ira helped launch Where Should We Begin? thanks to his deep roots in the world of psychology. His mother, Shirley Glass, was considered one of the world's leading experts on infidelity. The New York Times once called her "the godmother of infidelity research."

This week, Jesse shines a light on meeting Esther for the first time, how the podcast market has evolved since 2014's smash SERIAL, and how being laid off from Audible led to tremendous growth.

Can't wait to hear what you think of this week's episode!

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