Mike Russo [00:00:02] All right, everybody, let's go ahead and just kick it off, I think we're here, we're at capacity. Well not capacity. We're at our, a good attendance or a quorum, I think is the word. So hello, welcome to the Ready To Learn FAQ for the Podcast Accelerator that we're going to do. I would love it if if people kind of told us where they're from. So if you haven't set your chat over to everyone and you wanted to just type in where you're joining us from, where you're watching this from. Love to kind of just see all the representation from across the country, we are... so this is the podcast accelerator program we are presenting this with... this is a program presented in partnership with PRX, PBS and CPB, and it looks like we have lots of... We have Georgia. Whoa, it's all coming in Washington, Rhode Island. Kentucky, KET, wow, OK, cool. St. Louis, I am actually in Missouri right now in Kansas City. I'm getting eight inches of snow. I don't know who else is getting their snow serving today, but I know it's different all across the country. So I am Mike Russo. I am the Project Manager of Ready To Learn. I was the project manager for the first cohort and I'll be the project manager for the Station Collaborative, Cohort Two. I'm joined by Stephanie.

Stephanie Kuo [00:01:36] Hi everyone, I'm Stephanie Kuo, the Director of Training at PRX, I've been involved in and managed podcast accelerators like Ready To Learn for the past several years, including Project Catapult for public radio stations. Some of you may have... are aware of that, as well as the Google Podcast creator program for international audio makers. And we're just... we had such a great time in year one working with independent producers, and so we're so excited to be able to extend this program to our partners in public media as well.

Mike Russo [00:02:04] Totally, so we are also joined by Devon Tutak. You may know from CPB. Hey, Devon. Devon is around for any CPB questions and all of... and learning neighborhood questions, all things like that. And we also have Toni Carlson, who is the Manager of Training from PRX who's doing a bunch of behind-the-scenes things and all of that kind of stuff. So we are recording this webinar, if that's OK, and we will eventually include it on the FAQ sheet for you to go back and look at it. And if you have any questions today because it's a smaller group, you could put it in the chat or raise your hand and we can try to integrate them in between all of our lecture, I guess. But if you just want to hold off for the Q&A at the end too, then we can do that as well and kind of get to everything. Well, we'll definitely make time to clear up any questions there are about the application process today. Toni, can we go to the next slide. OK, so this is the website to write down, to know and kind of the place for everything that you will need to know about this accelerator program. It has the FAQ on it. It has the RFP available on it. It has a link to the application, which is probably the most important part. And then other info about Ready To Learn. So you being stations that are involved in Ready To Learn, probably know a lot about Ready To Learn. But if you need quick links for all of that, it is all there. You will need this link because it will be the link that will get you the application portion. So next slide, Toni. The application due date, just to put it upfront and center, is March 25th at 5:00 p.m. Eastern. That's the website you'll go to apply to submit all of it through Submittable. And yeah, so just keep it up front and around.

Stephanie Kuo [00:04:21] All right, so many of you may know PRX and have loved our work, and you may be partners with us already, but just to give you some quick background about who we are. We are a nonprofit audio media storytelling company, and our vision of public media goes beyond its initial broadcast inception. As you know, we're really in the market of making podcasts and really bringing stories that impact people and are the best they can be and really serve audiences where they are. We believe utmost in supporting creators and that podcasting should remain an open and accessible ecosystem, and part of our training program really exists under that ethos. And we like the train, we want to train, we're excited to train audio creators because we believe that through training and through education, through resource sharing, through peer-to-peer learning can we continue to make podcasting an open ecosystem for all creators. So we distribute both broadcast and podcast shows. Many of you may be familiar with the Takeaway and Latino USA. And since the training team's inception a few years ago, we run a variety of podcasts accelerators, including Project Catapult, which I mentioned for public radio stations, the Google Podcasts creator program for independent audio creators around the world. And we also have worked with the Knight Foundation to offer podcasting and digital workshops for journalists across the US as well. And so that's, that's who we are at PRX.

Mike Russo [00:05:49] Thanks, Steph. I think we're going to go into show a little bit about what cohort one did, so we can go. Yeah, here's the next slide. So we did a showcase at the end of cohort one. And this is a sizzle reel of all the work they did. So it's just a visual representation and kind of a pitch of the podcasts that they were producing and did produce in cohort one. The VO isn't quite laid down for this yet, so we aren't sharing this completely worldwide, but we did think that we would share it here just so you could get a sense of everything. In it, you'll see podcasts that are doing dual-language podcast, a podcast for children experiencing blindness, music podcasts, interview, podcasts, and podcasts in collaboration with their community organizations. So, yeah, if you want to just click play, then we'll kind of see a little bit of taste of what got produced. Welcome to the Ready To Learn podcast accelerator showcase from PRX. We have six new children's podcasting teams from across the country. You will get to experience their vision for their newest podcast creation.

Video [00:07:35] Ma'am, it is an honor to be here with you and Abby, my name is Kijuan Amey and I'm a blinded veteran. Commander Kijuan on is one of my heroes. Kathryn Allison is a Broadway actor who made her Broadway debut in 2015 in the hit musical Aladdin. We're here in north Minneapolis. So what do the kids do here at Antioch? So at Antioch we do like an after school program for the kids and we teach them leadership qualities and teach them how to be a part of the community.

Mike Russo [00:08:38] I love seeing that video. Seeing all the work that we did in the first cohort was a lot of fun. And so let's talk a little bit about what is a podcast accelerator and why we believe in the method of a podcast accelerator. So, so first, the podcast accelerator will not guarantee you like distribution or publication of your podcast. We're really coming alongside your team, your station and making your podcast the best that it can be for an audience and also allowing you to produce it and launch it. And the podcast accelerator's goal is that there are thousands, tens of thousands of podcasts made every week, maybe even every day. And so it's not just that "Can you make a podcast?", but can you make a podcast that's going to serve a specific audience? It's going to be well-received, sustainable, and produce even better work for your collaborators and for your station. And so we believe in this project of truly being an accelerator for your ideas, any idea of any size, getting it to market, and getting it to really be a fully-realized idea. We have received feedback from a lot of our programs saying that this is professionally life-changing, that it gives them design tools that instantly become relevant and useful for all of their work. We do have a couple of teams that are actually partnering with large production organizations and will launch their podcast in collaboration with them this year. And then the podcast accelerator provides visibility, it provides connections to your cohort, which would be everybody accepted into this accelerator program. And we have lots of connections to key industry, the who's who of children's podcasters. Last time around, we had Wow in the World, we had Tinkercast, Brains On, PBS Kids, lots of different producers, marketers, and researchers all connecting throughout the accelerator program to provide the best coaching experience. And speaking of coaching, we do one on one mentorship and accountability throughout the entire program. We are really going to lock on to these podcasts to make sure that they are created for the best outcome. That being said, if you are selected for this program, there are a bunch of things that you receive. I just talked about the 16-week podcast accelerator, which is the training program, which is kind of the bread and butter of what we offer. Will will provide mentorship, ongoing mentorship, and feedback. You'll be part of a community of peer-to-peer learning. And then some things that I hadn't discussed yet you'll receive PRX distribution and ad tech. You'll get a $10000 stipend and we'll cover all the travel costs for a live event if we do it, which we are hopeful will happen this year. Pandemic allowing for it.

Stephanie Kuo [00:11:44] Alright. So what kind of podcasters are we, what kind of podcasts we're looking for specifically for this program? We are looking for new podcast ideas, so not shows that have already been in production for seasons, ideas that have not been produced or released into the world. And they, these are ideas that should aim to introduce children ages two to eight and their families, and their Ready To Learn communities with an emphasis on representing various communities within your Ready To Learn community to the world of work and future careers. Basically, any kind of content that helps illustrate important social skills and dispositions like self-awareness, social awareness, goal setting, task persistence, flexible thinking, functional literacy, and an exposure to a variety of jobs and careers. We are happy with those pitches, and we are also open to a podcast of all formats. We've worked with fiction, nonfiction, interview, lose conversation, storytelling, all that kind of stuff. But above all, submissions must strive to prioritize educational experiences and must be aligned with the overall mission of the Ready To Learn initiative. We also want to be, be sure that when you are submitting a podcast idea about age ranges that while the age range is from two to eight, that you are actually being a little bit more specific within that age range of who that podcast is for. Because as many of you know, a child who is two, and a child is eight or very different children, and one podcast to serve both of them would be very difficult. So the two to eight is really a guideline kind of the end of the spectrum. And when you pitch a show, make sure that you are very clear about who in, what range within that age range, and really trying to target. But beyond the content itself, beyond the pitch itself, we really do believe at PRX that we are investing in teams, not necessarily ideas. And so we really want to work with passionate and creative production teams that have a demonstrated level of experience in children's programing or education or educational media experience in audio production. But most of all have a passion to delight and teach children and connect with their communities and be open to co-creating and collaborating with their communities to make sure that you are producing content that is going to serve them in the end. And so anyone who is committed to those things, who have the ability and willingness to participate in a very rigorous program, as well as an openness to pivoting, to experimentation, to new ideas, are broadly who we're looking for in this program. And we can definitely answer some more granular questions about this at the end of this session. An effective pitch, so many of you are probably very familiar with the process of pitching. But with podcasting, that can be a little bit different. And so I wanted to just go over what we like to look for in pitches from what we like to see in pitches. Next slide, please, Toni. So there really is no secret formula for the most compelling pitch. But as an organization that has run many cohorts and many accelerators, we, we know a good one when we see one. And we've noticed that a good pitch captures all of these things. That those pitches are very specific and meaningful. We love details and we like ideas that go past broad concepts. We want the pitches to have a clear idea of its intended audience. We know that we are reaching children ages two to eight. But can you actually picture an ideal listener? What are their names? What are they like? What do they need? Can you create a compelling audience profile for this audience member? It offers broader context that put the podcast into a time and place and sets itself apart in the current landscape of existing children's content. You know why this show now? Why is it culturally relevant? Why does it need to happen? Why does it need to get made again speaking to details and specificity, we love to get a sense of how you imagine your episodes will look and sound like, how that will roll out, and what listeners can expect to hear and experience as a part of your show. Again, a lot of this is stuff that you don't know because they're all new ideas. So treat this as a, treat as an aspirational project to think big pitch the show as if it already did exist. And most of all, we really want a pitch to demonstrate why you and your team have the skills, the vision and the drive to make the show that you're pitching. Why you, why your community make a case for why your, a case for your contribution to this landscape, essentially.

Mike Russo [00:16:22] So in the next section, we're going to talk a little bit about the two minute audio sample that we asked you to provide in the application. We get a lot of questions about this. It's it's kind of important to hit. We do not want more than two minutes of of the sample, so you can do less, but no need to submit a full episode here unless your episode happens to actually be two minutes. You can pick something that you have, you can prototype something, we really want the most compelling two minute audio sample that will give us a clear sense of what the show is about and what it sounds like. The clip could be a trailer. It could be a teaser. It could even just be a sound more mood slash vision board. And if you're piloting a new idea and haven't begun production, you can get creative. You can put together something rough and aspirational. While we will be paying attention to technical skill and execution what we're really listening for is the vision and creativity and really the potential of what the podcast has to be. As far as audio experience goes. Do you need to have audio experience? Yes, the training will focus more on idea development, audience and community engagement and really just developing of a children's program. So you do need to have some audio experience within the team because we're not going to cover basic audio production skills, but that doesn't mean that you need to have a seasoned sound engineer. We just need somebody that can actually be part of the audio creation process on your team. And to be clear, I didn't mention this, but even if you're audio person does just have video experience, but has done audio and can make the translation over to a single audio editing software, I think that would actually work fine. So what kind of team, now that we're on that subject, what kind of team should be participating in this training? So first, we want to be upfront that we are only accepting applications from public media stations that are currently funded by CPB as Ready To Learn Learning Neighborhoods. We will not be accepting submissions from any independent producers in this cohort. However, you can hire contractors and freelancers and have them be part of your team submission. They still need to be representative of the Learning Neighborhood stations. We recommend a team of up to three, at least one member of all teams having some background in audio production, as I already mentioned. And then the other team members could cover the areas of marketing and education or promotion. All joining the whole production journey, though. Training attendees must be at least 18 years old to participate. Currently, we're not able to process contract work between PRX and minors for a podcast accelerator program. Additionally, our training program involves a significant time commitment, which is likely to be in conflict with traditional K-12 school hours. However, we do encourage adult participants to share their training with, and involve all team members in the work outside of the virtual training sessions. And finally, all participants must be able to speak and understand English fluently. Currently, PRX is not able to offer this training totally in a language other than English. Podcast ideas, however, do not have to be in English to be eligible. So do you have to have experience or expertize in children's content? We would prefer that the production teams have some experience in this field, but we don't want to cut off great ideas. If you don't have a history in children's content making, then make a compelling case for why your application and the training could support the idea and what you'll bring to the program into the children's podcasting landscape. We're really just looking for fresh ideas, new talent and new voices are certainly welcome. So can you apply with a non-English language or bilingual or multi lingual podcast? Yes, absolutely. We believe you should make the content that will best serve. You are ready to learn community. So we encourage you to produce whatever that may be to you. And if that is a non-English podcast, and that's great.

Stephanie Kuo [00:20:43] All right, so we've mentioned the 16 week training, so I'll break it down a little bit for you some more, so you have a clear understanding of what we mean by that. So the training, the dates are set. It will run from June 13th to September 30th, with the final showcase sometime in the fall. The first 12 weeks of this is really dedicated to hands on training and mentorship with PRX staff. We will kick things off with a one week design intensive in June, that first week, June 13th. Where we'll will cover fundamental skills, tools and mindsets that will set up teams for success and for the remainder of the program. Then after that, there will be weekly synchronous group sessions where we will integrate lecture, design and development activities, peer to peer learning. There will also be webinars every week as well, with experts in the field and influencers in the fields. Just basically those who are doing really good stuff in the space right now. There will be some off weeks built into this so that there are times for the teams to actually get work done. And you will be expected to work on your podcast in this time, but you will not be expected to attend synchronous group session or webinar of any kind. And this is, well, I will be mentorship, appointments and check-ins to supplement learning. We really actually think that, you know the instruction happens and you learn a lot in those, but the real inspiration, the sparks of innovation happen when you're speaking one on one with your mentor and that mentor will be Mike. And Mike has done a lot of great work counseling and helping people through creative hurdles. And it's those one on one mentorship opportunities that make a huge difference. I would say that you could expect approximately 10 hours of work any given week, and that's including the synchronous sessions, webinars, mentorship check ins, as well as any outside work. Granted, that time varies depending on your capacity, the speed at which you work, all that kind of stuff. Finally, the final four weeks will cover. Will be just open time, will be reserved for teams to finish their deliverables for the program, so there'll be 12 weeks of hands on work together, where we're seeing each other every week and then four weeks off where you're spent, which should be spent putting together the work that we've been, that we've been working on. There will be a final showcase sometime amidst all of this, which will involve some preparation and some rehearsals, and the schedule for that is still to be determined. We will do our best to set a program cadence that accommodates everybody's schedules that we're very flexible. We send out an accessibility survey for everybody prior to training to get a sense of what potential schedule conflicts there may be what other conflicts there may be. And it is our, it is our goal to be as flexible as possible, but please also know that this program is quite rigorous and it's intentionally so. So offering your greatest flexibility will maximize the chance that we can include you and maximize your learning opportunities, essentially.

Mike Russo [00:23:39] So your, Toni, can we go back up a slide, there we go, perfect. What you submit originally in your application will not likely be the outcome of the, of the final deliverables because we're going to take it through a whole journey through 16 weeks in the podcast accelerator. But once you reach the end of the podcast accelerator, the final deliverables that we will have are one pilot episode, a production editorial calendar for the upcoming season, a prelim promotion and community engagement strategy, a curriculum overview outlining educational goals of the podcast, and how the goals align with the broader Ready To Learn project. And then finally, a 10 minute final showcase presentation, which can be used and should be used as a pitch for both external and internal stakeholders of your podcast. So we really situate your podcast to have a clear foundation for the remaining trajectory of your work, and we'll do a lot of work for alignment, launch monetization, marketing. All of those things will be tools that are in the ready for this podcast to go.

Mike Russo [00:24:53] Another big question we have is who owns the intellectual property of this podcast? Simply put, you do. PRX takes no intellectual property in this process, not even some the application on. You will be asked to sign an agreement that covers crediting and branding, but for the purposes of this training PRX, nor CPB, neither of us owns any of your work and you are free to do with it what you want to. And finally, our last question that we have preplanned before we go into an open Q&A. Can I apply or can your station apply to Ready To Learn if you've already participated in another PR Act accelerator? Yes, you can, however, you must apply with a new idea for a children's podcast. And we also recommend sending different team members. If you have participated in a previous accelerator with a kids podcast, specifically, you cannot apply for this with that same show.

Mike Russo [00:25:49] All right. That brings us to a close of our FAQ today. This is the the link. Looks like this on the website that we provided above to be able to submit. And you will... we will notify you after you apply to March 25th by May 3rd of the selection. So that's the timeline apply on March 25th, find out by May 3rd. And so now we are reaching that time where we have questions and so we can answer any questions, any clarifications, anything you might have about the application process. We are also available to be emailed at any time at training team at PRX.org, so please email as much as you want.

Stephanie Kuo [00:26:41] All right. It looks to we have a couple of questions in the Q&A. How many grants will be awarded? We currently have five teams or five grants to be awarded, but we have definitely made room for six in the past. So but currently that's five awards. And then the second question is how many members should form a team? Up to three. So no more than three. We certainly don't recommend sending a team of one because the work is so collaborative and a single person will find themselves to be very lonely during the virtual session. So more than one no more than three.

Mike Russo [00:27:16] And just to clarify on that, Stephanie, we have we will work with teams of three, but the teams could be larger internally. If you want to share back and work with them, it's just as far as the accelerator goes. It's three. Is that correct?

Stephanie Kuo [00:27:30] Yes. So obviously, if you have a podcasting unit at your organization, that's 10 people or five people. Not all 10 of them can come, but the three that you designate as representatives of that team can come to the virtual sessions and will be expected to speak to everybody else. So if your team is also larger, they're welcome to come to webinars. They're welcome to meet Mike during one on one mentorship, but for the purposes of the learning environment that we're trying to create virtually, only three people, but your team could obviously be much bigger.

Mike Russo [00:28:03] Stephanie it looks like we have a question in chat about where do we go to find out about existing podcasts so that we can be certain ours is a new idea? If this is in reference to what we said in the FAQ, we actually we're talking about the application process. We want you to situate yours in all of children's media in the application process. Why is you always new there and that that could be larger than podcasts and other applications have referenced other media. But as far as learning about new children's podcasts, it's a simple Google search of like top 100 or top 10 children's podcasters. We have kind of been in reference with most of them. That'll get you going pretty quickly. Stephanie, I don't know if you have a better resource than that.

Stephanie Kuo [00:28:47] Yeah, I think we did have, we are in the process of creating a new website where we will have the shows that we helped produce in the last round. They'll be there, but they're not currently available. But if, I'm wondering if I'm reading this question as this like, how do we know our idea is new in the landscape of podcasting? That's great if it is, what we really do mean by "new" is that it is just not something you're already producing at the station. That's what I mean by "new." If that if I was reading that question correctly. Let's see. Tasha Weinstein asked, Is it OK to work with other radio stations that are not our stations public radio station? Do they have to be nonprofits? I might need clarity on that. Essentially the the station that's going to be represented in the program, the one that's going to be receiving the stipend has to be a PBS station that's currently receiving CPB funding as a Learning Neighborhood station. If you want to partner with another station or another group in your organization or in your community, that's fine. But ultimately, the signee, the signatory or the representative entity and the contract has to be that Learning Neighborhood Station and Devon feel free to clarify.

Devon Tutak [00:30:04] Yeah, I would say that partnership is great, especially because on things about promotion and distribution and even just content creation. But just to make sure that in your application, you would explain how public media would be seen as like a lead distributor of a podcast, of the podcast that you're proposing, if it were to come out or how what public media's role would be in that.

Stephanie Kuo [00:30:32] There's another question in the Q&A that kind of speaks to that. Can members of the team come from our RTL partner organizations or do they have to be from the station? I would say, yeah, sure. I think the the thing that you're going to have to navigate on your end, though, is how you will compensate them for that time or how you're going to work through the schedules. Essentially, like, would this be like, if they're working other jobs at the moment, like, you'd have to negotiate how the timing, how to schedule, what the time commitment will be and what capacity will be. But no, we did work with organizations in other programs where they brought in people from their partners, and that's really fine.

Mike Russo [00:31:16] Neal asks if we could give an example of a podcast that we've worked with that was successful. I don't know if this is in reference to other accelerator programs with PRX or Ready To Learn, but as far as ready to learn goes, we would consider all of the podcasts that we worked with successful. And the key to them being successful was them understanding their audience and really delivering it to them. So with Page Flippers from New York, they partnered with the Brooklyn Public Library and worked with them to create a podcast that was exploratory for the reading experience with their kids. And that podcast is going to be really successful. A lot of these podcasts are still in the process of actually launching them, so you can't see them in the wild. But all of them have some form of launch that's going to happen.

Stephanie Kuo [00:32:04] I can give examples of actual shows that aren't in Ready To Learn because this is only a two year old program, but to keep it in the realm of public media, we had three years of Project Catapult under CPB as well, and Project Catapult was a podcast accelerator for public media stations generally. And some successful shows that we helped produce was On Something from Colorado Public Radio. It was a show that just went into hiatus. They're on a rest right now, but it was a great show about the realities of marijuana legalization. It was came out of Colorado Public Radio. Love that show. I'm Sick from WFYI in Indiana was also a really great show. It was its first season was an investigative true crime story about malpractise in the fertility industry, and that also that went on to be a one of our most successful shows ever at PRX. We also helped produce Through The Cracks from the WAMU, which also is one of our most successful shows. So we do have quite a history of working with public media stations and really helping them conceive of ideas that are a bit unexpected for their station may not have been their first instinct and really helped them create something that was innovative and new and really galvanized those stations in the process.

Mike Russo [00:33:27] Great. We had a question of is the objective to make content for children aged two to eight or their parents and all of that kind, that whole spectrum of what it could be for. And this is a great question. I'm glad that we're revisiting this. So yes, it could be for... We've kind of phrased it as the Learning Communities around these two to eight audience. So that could be caretakers, that could be educators. It could be directly the children themselves. So it kind of, based on your pitch, tying it to the kids at the heart of it, but could be their surrounding community. All right. It looks like we also have: if selected, what are some of the things the station needs to provide mentally, support-wise, station-wide to the team to help guarantee success of the accelerator? This is a really great question. So I think that in one of the questions in the application, we'll kind of talk about, like you can outline, what is the alignment with the station. So we think that a successful podcast for this program would have at least buy-in from the station, excitement about this future podcast that's going to be happening and thought processes around what a launch maybe could be. We will also do some of that station integration work to work with them on a proper launch as well. And Stephanie, I don't know if you want to say more about that.

Mike Russo [00:35:00] I have a massive answer, like I can talk about all the ways that you could support, all the ways that you can support your team. But I will say that generally we also, when we're working with organizations, we work directly with producers. Right? We're not necessarily interacting with senior level leadership or program directors. We're really working with the people making the product. And so a lot of what we do is help them and coach them through how to navigate an institution when you are essentially kind of a startup within an organization. We've actually called podcasts in public radio stations "little startups." And so a lot of our training also is about coaching them through managing up, across, how to advocate for themselves, how to tell their stories across an organization, how to manage expectations. And so if you are a member of senior leadership where you are a director or an editor, or anybody who's going to be supervising this team, really open yourselves up to how nonhierarchical this process will feel and be open to to listen to, to really getting insights and creativity from the people on the ground making it. So, we really structure this to be a bottom up program.

Mike Russo [00:36:14] Along those lines we provide, I'm still in one on one sessions with some of the teams from RTL, the first cohort. So we really have a vested interest until launch of keeping in contact and helping and supporting those initiatives. So there's a question a little bit about that was the can there be can they can a station apply RTL learning neighborhood funds to the systematic rollout of a podcast like this after its completion? And so Devon will have to ask, Ask your help.

Devon Tutak [00:36:50] I was waiting for that one.

Mike Russo [00:36:51] Yeah, thank you.

Devon Tutak [00:36:52] Yeah, I'd say potentially, only because as part of this accelerator, your ideas, you know, we hope that you'll think about your actual learning neighborhood, like the actual communities that you're doing your learning neighborhood work in. But we also understand that like the scope of a podcast should probably be larger than just that, one community. It should also reach other communities like it within your service areas. So, this project, this particular piece of Ready To Learn can be bigger than just your learning neighborhood, you're learning neighborhood budget, your grant from CPB directly has to focus on that one learning neighborhood. So there may be ways where this could align and you could support in later years of the project with your budget as long as you're meeting also the other requirements of the Ready To Learn CPB grant. So I would say potentially, but it would really be a case by case basis.

Mike Russo [00:37:48] And Devon, this might be a good place to to clarify that the $10000 stipend for being a part of this cohort will come from PRX and would be on top of the funding that they're already receiving as an RTL station.

Devon Tutak [00:37:59] So a whole separate agreement, this wouldn't be an agreement and an addition to an agreement or a new agreement between the station and CPB. It would be between PRX and the stations.

[00:38:15] Those are all the questions that we have in the Q&A and in the chat, but we are 17 minutes from the end of this webinar, so we are happy to stay on and continue to answer any more questions. Feel free to actually raise your hand and we can unmute you so we can talk to faces. Or actually, no, we can't see you, but we can talk to actual voices. We're here to do that. Otherwise, if you have no other questions, you are free to claim back those 17 minutes of your day. A recording, a close captioned video, plus, a transcript of this webinar will be posted to the FAQ page on that website that Mike showed earlier today. Question from Tasha. Can you remind us of the dates that this 16 weeks begins? Yes, so June 13th will be day one and the final day, the day that all deliverables will be submitted: September 30th.

Mike Russo [00:39:08] Marion had a great question about "what is the role of video in this project? Because we saw some really great animations in the in the showcase." So we were able to provide the funds that weren't allotted for travel to the teams because we had a digital showcase and a lot of them chose to either pay an animator or pay a video editor or producer for the for that piece of that showcase. Video is really, here, served as a marketing and pitch aspect, or basically allowing to tell the story of your podcast, whether it's in the production phase or, sorry, the marketing phase or just in the actual showcase or the pitch phase is really kind of the outcome of what we think video could be best served here. That's not to say that these podcasts don't eventually become video at some point in their life, but we're not looking for a dual video-podcast submission at this point.

Stephanie Kuo [00:40:02] There is no expectation to create video for this.

Mike Russo [00:40:06] That's a better answer.

Mike Russo [00:40:09] You're not required to make videos, but certainly, certainly a lot of the shows we work with, the moment we read the page, we see the video potential, the cross-platform potential, all these shows. But this program is really, really the most concerned about making sure that the idea that you apply with is strong. It serves real audience needs and that from there, if the foundation is really tight and really creative, then other products will come. But try not to go, try not to go too big before you've really conquered the initial phases, essentially. All right. Well, Toni, maybe we just turned up some tunes and see if anyone has any remaining questions, any lingering questions, but we will be here until the end of the hour. Thank you all so much for coming. We really appreciate your time and we really hope to see every one of you send in a pitch.

Mike Russo [00:41:06] Yeah, thanks for such good questions and for coming to this. It's been great.

Mike Russo [00:41:17] And we really are the people you'll be working with. We're not just talking heads.

Mike Russo [00:41:21] Yeah, we're not robots.