The Organist is a monthly experimental arts-and-culture program hosted and distributed by KCRW. The editors of the award-winning monthly magazine the Believer, published in San Francisco by McSweeney's, will produce ten annual episodes of the podcast, which includes richly sound designed, eccentric audio documentaries, comic radio drama, un-fusty reviews, narrative field recordings, more. The scope of the podcast will reflect that of the print edition: its contributors take a thoughtful approach to pop culture, along with an irreverent attitude toward the highbrow. From philosophy to daytime TV, from poetry to martial arts, the show scrutinizes and interrogates the world with an affectionate and rigorous intelligence. Pieces from the podcast will grow out of stories in the magazine, and vice versa. Far from functioning as a supplementary appendage of the magazine, the show aims to become a cultural institution in its own right, discovering and developing a new generation of artists and musicians, writers and comedians. Weaving together the voices of its contributors, which include the brightest talents in literature and the arts, the Organist is an elegant, impressionistic, funny, and sharp cultural magazine that itself becomes an object of inquiry, discussion, and wonder.
We're looking for contributions of between zero and twenty minutes, preferably closer to four. Four minutes is the sweet spot. Any format will be considered, but the best thing you could send would be a radio documentary that doesn't have a twee or self-serious narration that uses sound in an intelligent way that introduces us to a new corner or aspect of the world, whether that world be cultural, political, literary, sociological, artistic, scientific, musical, anthropological, cinematic, or all ten. Send a brief bio, a handful of clips, and a pitch (or link to audio) to organist@believermag.com.
The podcast will launch December 1 at KCRW.org and believermag.com and iTunes and &c &c. We will pay our contributors mellow independent publishing rates TBD.