The following was sent out from The New York Times‘ director of audio Paula Szuchman:
Jen Poyant
I’m thrilled to announce that Jen Poyant is joining the Audio team as an executive producer of newsroom shows. Her portfolio will include our new tech show, “Hard Fork,” and the stalwart “Modern Love.” We searched far and wide for an audio journalist with experience producing and editing various formats, managing teams and hosts, running news coverage and developing shows. Jen is the rare person who has done it all.
Most recently, Jen ran the “Ten Percent Happier Podcast” with Dan Harris, and launched multiple shows under the Ten Percent banner, covering mindfulness, mental health and wellness. Her stories ranged: an interview with the Dalai Lama on living through a pandemic; conversations on how to deal with feelings of dread; and how to call people in (instead of calling them out).
Prior to that, Jen co-founded her own podcast company and co-hosted the business podcast “ZigZag,” where she reported on the rise and peculiarities of the crypto industry and the highly anticipated launch of Civil, an Ethereum-backed crypto experiment to create a decentralized network of independent journalists.
I first met Jen at WNYC, where she got her start producing “The Takeaway,” a live, national news broadcast show and “The Brian Lehrer Show.” She developed the tech show “Note to Self,” covering issues around data privacy and partnering with ProPublica to investigate how Facebook handles its users’ data. She also launched the live comedy show, “2 Dope Queens,” which was adapted for HBO.
I couldn’t be more excited for Jen to start on January 30th. Please join me in welcoming her to our team.