The ABC and WNYC Studios in New York have announced the co-production of a special five-episode season of Short & Curly, which will ask children across the world a series of ethical questions grounded in everyday life.
The podcast co-production follows a successful season of Short & Curly released in Australia in 2015 and 2016, produced by the ABC’s Audio Studios team.
Short & Curly’s producer Kyla Slaven will team up with WNYC Studios Vice President for On-Demand Content Emily Botein for the new series. ABC’s Carl Smith and Shumita Basu from WNYC Studios will co-host the series. It will be known under the name Pickle for its North American release.
Head of ABC Audio Studios, Kellie Riordan, said the co-production is one of the most significant deals struck in recent years. ”It places Australian storytelling and production values on the world stage and gives us the opportunity of taking this amazing idea of children grappling with everyday issues to a much wider audience. It’s a great co-listening experience for children and their parents. We’re excited to partner with WNYC Studios, a pioneer in podcasting,” Ms Riordan said.
“Kids are kids all over the world and that’s why we are happy to partner with the ABC and its wildly successful show,” said Dean Cappello, Executive Vice President and Chief Content Officer of WNYC Studios. “We think there are not enough good podcast experiences for kids and a show about some of the big and intriguing questions kids face will find a big audience in America.”
The series will be launched in December in both Australia and the USA.
WNYC Studios is the premier producer of on-demand and broadcast audio, home to some of the most critically acclaimed and popular podcasts of the past decade, including “Radiolab,” “2 Dope Queens,” “Nancy,” “The New Yorker Radio Hour,” “Freakonomics Radio,” “Death, Sex & Money,” “Here’s the Thing” with Alec Baldwin, “Note to Self,” “On the Media,” and “A Piece of Work” with Abbi Jacobson. WNYC Studios is leading the new golden age in audio with podcasts and national radio programs that include personal narratives, deep journalism, interviews that reveal, and smart entertainment as varied and intimate as the human voice itself. For more information, visit wnycstudios.wnyc.org.
ABC Audio Studios is a content production house for ABC Radio, focused on creating on-demand audio and podcasts. It is the home of many of Australia’s most loved podcasts including Conversations with Richard Fidler, the documentary series Earshot, and contemporary storytelling podcasts The Real Thing, This Is About, and How Do You Sleep At Night?.