VPM Podcasts
Podcasts have changed – and enriched – our media landscape by providing a convenient, accessible platform to learn and be entertained through stories, interviews, conversations and more. Since 2020, VPM’s podcasts have made an impact by sharing compelling stories, amplifying diverse voices and creating community. Interested in learning more about podcasting, or even creating your own podcast? Check out the VPM + ICA Community Media Center.
VPM Daily Newscast
VPM's daily newscast contains all your Central Virginia news in just 5 to 10 minutes. Hosted by Benjamin Dolle, episodes are recorded the night before so you can wake up prepared.
Listen on: Series Website | Apple Podcasts | NPR | Spotify | Pocket Casts
The Virginia Press Room
The Virginia Press Room is a weekly podcast that brings listeners the latest insights and analysis on Virginia’s most important stories directly from the journalists covering them. Produced in collaboration by VPM and the Virginia Public Access Project, the series is hosted by journalist and Author, Michael Pope and features a rotating cast of reporters from the Virginia press corps. The Virginia Press Room offers a behind-the-scenes look at state politics, policy and the issues shaping communities across the commonwealth from the people who know it best, helping listeners stay informed about what’s happening in their state from the halls of the Capitol to their local neighborhoods.
Listen: Series Website
RVA’s Got Issues
RVA’s Got Issues is a podcast that delves into politics and big issues in the news that are defining life in and around Richmond, Virginia. Should taxes be raised to build a new baseball stadium? Should old schools get a makeover or be replaced? Are more bike lanes a good idea? Host Rich Meagher will speak with guests who shed light on the present, past and future implications of these questions. And in a time when faith in government is at an all-time low, many people say they can’t make a difference in politics. RVA’s Got Issues will counter this feeling of civic alienation by featuring guests who share stories of how they are making a difference. Listeners will gain new insights and ideas for how to become more engaged in their communities. The upshot is a podcast that helps listeners understand not only what’s happening around them but what they can do about it.
Learn more: Series Website | Apple Podcasts | NPR | Spotify | Pocketcasts
Admissible: Shreds of Evidence
Presented in partnership with Story Mechanics, Admissible examines how a key building block of our justice system – evidence itself – is often flawed, disputed, or even manipulated. Hosted by reporter Tessa Kramer, the first season of Admissible is a deep dive into the moment when DNA testing transformed the field of forensic science. This 12-episode series investigates the story of 13 men who were exonerated thanks to the miraculous discovery of preserved samples hidden away for decades in a Virginia records facility and the forensic scientist responsible for them: Mary Jane Burton. Burton was hailed as a hero for saving the evidence, but the story behind “the Mary Jane files” is far more complicated and darker than it appears.
Learn more: Series Website | Apple Podcasts | NPR | Spotify | Pocketcasts
Track Change
As four men are held in a Virginia jail, they record an album to chronicle their efforts to break free from an oppressive cycle of addiction and incarceration. In each music-infused episode of this documentary series, host and trailblazing hip-hop artist Speech Thomas meets a musician at a crossroads in their uphill struggle for freedom, learns what brought them to this inflection point, and helps them record a song that captures this critical moment in their life.
From soulful country to fiery hip-hop and haunting R&B, this music affirms the lives of people who are written off by society. And amidst a re-entry crisis afflicting millions of Americans every year, these intimate stories from behind the walls of Richmond City Jail ask: What does it take to rebuild a life after incarceration?
Track Change website | Listen: Amazon | Apple | Castbox | Spotify | NPR
Seizing Freedom
The story of the end of the Civil War you’ve probably been taught is that the slaves were freed by Northern white men (and maybe a handful of famous Underground Railroad conductors). What’s missing? The story of how Black Americans risked their lives to fight for their own visions of what freedom could be—struggling for their dignity in the face of horrific violence. Seizing Freedom tells the stories of these unsung American heroes.
Black Americans launched themselves into political careers, became newspaper magnates, entrepreneurs, Wall Street traders, and used their newfound mobility to reunite families torn apart by slavery. For twelve brief years of Reconstruction, Black Americans lay powerful claims to citizenship, dignity, and rights—despite brutal suppression.
Seizing Freedom is the personal history of the struggle to define freedom after 400 years of slavery. Using first-hand accounts from diaries, newspapers, speeches, and letters, this is a narrated docu-drama podcast about the failures and successes of the Reconstruction era, told by those who made it happen. These personal accounts illustrate what was at stake for the nation and reveal unsettling echoes in the fight for political and social justice of today.
Learn more: Series Website | Apple Podcasts | NPR | Spotify | Pocketcasts
Resettled
In this six-part podcast series, we showcase stories of refugees as they adjust to their new lives in Virginia. These personal stories are woven together with useful teaching moments about the resettlement process. Season one will consist of six thematic episodes, which aim to bring the listener into the daily lives of refugees through field interviews (at home, work and school), personally-recorded audio diaries and reflective studio interviews.
Learn more: Series Website | Apple Podcasts | NPR | Spotify | Pocketcasts
On Our Minds
On Our Minds is an Edward R. Murrow award-winning, student-led and student-produced podcast about the biggest mental health challenges young people face. In each episode, two teen reporters guide you through stories by high schoolers from PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs about the teenage experience that connects, educates and inspires listeners of all ages.
On Our Minds website | Listen: Apple | Spotify | YouTube | RSS
Social Distance Assistance
A podcast about looking for the helpers during the pandemic. Taking a cue from Mr. Rogers, host Kelly Jones and her daughter, June, set out to find brave, creative problem solvers who are supporting their communities in the era of social distancing. Each week, they explore how people are helping and then sit down with experts who can answer our most pressing pandemic questions and give practical advice on how to become helpers ourselves.
Learn more: Series Website | Apple Podcasts | NPR | Spotify | Pocketcasts