Award-winning journalist and producer Tania Ketenjian has spent over two decades interviewing the world’s leading artists and thinkers with unique conversations that reveal intimate understandings of creativity, inspiration and the journeys that shape us. She has produced nationally and globally for NPR, the BBC, the BBC World Service and many others. She has produced several documentaries for NPR and for a decade hosted her own weekly radio show, interviewing creatives about their lives and process. In 2017, she co-founded, with her husband and designer Philip Wood, the award winning SOUND MADE PUBLIC, a creative agency that collaborates with the leading cultural institutions—The Metropolitan Museum, The Guggenheim, The Whitney Museum of American Art, The Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art, Carnegie Hall, The Brooklyn Museum, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, MoMA, The Studio Museum in Harlem, LACMA— and global design led brands—Airbnb, GitHub—to create podcasts, sound installations and public art projects that extend beyond the walls and into the hearts and minds of listeners worldwide. She has interviewed hundreds of creatives and important thinkers from His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Lena Dunham to Angela Davis. Based in San Francisco and New York, Tania has taken what she deeply values- people and the stories they have to share- and turned it into her career and life’s work. She is the person who will meet someone you’ve known your whole life and, within 5 minutes, learn things you’ve yet to discover.
How many years have you worked in podcasting or audio?
10+ years
What is your current role, in your own words?
As executive producer, I lead all editorial strategy and bring teams together for all aspects of production. I also conduct all interviews and mixing, with producers doing the cutting and mastering.
What types of projects do you typically work on?
Podcast series’, interview based audio tours and audio experiences
How many years have you been a Signal Awards judge?
This is my first year!
What excited you about joining the Signal Awards Judging Academy?
Really diving in to the work that is being produced around the globe by my peers.
What is one recent podcast you’ve loved and would recommend?
Live from Johannesburg: The Moth Radio Hour
What separates good audio storytelling from great audio storytelling?
Candor and a universal connection are two of the main things that distinguish good from great. But there are so many micro things that make a difference as well, like the pauses between words, the sound design and the contextual writing.
What project are you most proud of and why?
I am most proud of SOUND MADE PUBLIC as a project. I started it with my husband and the company is celebrating its 10 year anniversary next year. Being able to raise a family with the income we earn through a cadre of projects with some of the best arts and culture institutions is a blessing and something I don’t take lightly. We are committed to doing projects that have integrity and we often become friends with the people we work with. In an increasingly corporate culture that is focused on ROI, it’s meaningful to me that we can build a company that stays true to what it believes in. That said, if I have to choose one single project, it would be AWAKEN because it explores some of the most profound aspects of being human.
What podcasting trend, challenge, or opportunity has your attention these days?
I am a huge fan of audio so I find it challenging that these days, many podcasts need to be video as well. It’s not so much a challenge for us as a company but I think for new producers it is a big ask to create videos that have equally high production value as the audio does.
What’s one piece of advice you’d give to emerging creators?
Trust and develop your own style and unique voice, take chances and try things you don’t think you can do.
What are you currently listening to? (podcasts, music, anything)
Podcasts: Fashion Neurosis, The Moth, The Art of the Interview, Poetry Unbound, Talk Easy, Roulette, Afropop Worldwide. Music: Jackson C. Frank, Liz Lawrence, Aldous Harding, Nick Hakim, Carl Tjader, Hanni El Khatib, and so much more.