Award-winning podcaster Jessica Cordova Kramer, and best-selling author Stephanie Wittels Wachs have joined forces to form a new podcast network, Lemonada Media. Lemonada will partner with Westwood One to distribute, sell, and market their new shows.
The network, launching in September, will launch with three original shows: Last Day, As Me with Sinéad, and Good Kids: How Not to Raise an A**Hole.
Cordova Kramer met Wittels Wachs in 2017, shortly after both women had lost their brothers to opioid overdoses. Hearing Wittels Wachs talking about her brother on the Terrible, Thanks for Asking podcast, Cordova Kramer felt understood and less alone in her grief — she even laughed. The women connected over their shared experiences and the idea to bring Lemonada to life was born: turn lemons into lemonade, one podcast at a time.
Kramer said the goal is to make shows that help people get out of bed in the morning and help people deal with “the hardest shit in their lives.” Wachs added, “Community is a life jacket. Over half of Americans say they feel alone. It doesn’t have to be that way.”
Westwood One President Suzanne Grimes said, “Our partnership with Lemonada, which is women-founded and women-run, diversifies the Westwood One Podcast Network as Jessica and Stephanie break new ground. Their candid approach to tackling the intricate issues of our daily lives will resonate with the millions of Americans looking for light in the shadows.”
The upcoming Lemonada series includes:
Last Day (Launching on September 25)
Let’s talk about what’s killing us, the stuff that’s hard to comprehend and getting worse every day. Lemonada co-founder and author Stephanie Wittels Wachs confronts massive epidemics with humanity, wit, and a quest for progress. Starting with the opioid crisis, we zoom in on a person’s last day of life, exploring how they got there and how we, as a society, have gotten here.
As Me with Sinéad (Launching on October 24)
What’s the first step towards becoming more empathetic? Listening. Academic, TED alum, and advocate Sinéad Burke leads candid conversations with diverse, notable guests who explain what it’s like to be them. They challenge us to confront our biases, deepen our humanity, and feel empowered to impact and change the world around us.
Good Kids: How Not to Raise an A**hole (Launching on November 26)
How do we raise good kids? How do we make sure they don’t turn into sh*tty adults? For 15 minutes each week, a diverse set of parents, teachers, policymakers, and world-shapers grab the mic and offer relevant advice, rants, and reflections. Think of this as a quasi-manual for how to raise better humans.
