
Sunrise in Philadelphia
(Photo by J. Fusco for Visit Philadelphia)
Philly has spawned plenty of quality podcasts — enough for an annual podcast festival — on a variety of locally relevant topics. If you’re listening for social impact, for instance, consider “The Loving Project,” “Local Nation,” “Pushback,” “Contemporary Black Canvas.”
A new podcast aspires to join their ranks: “City Rising” by Green Philly and SustainPHL founder Julie Hancher and friend Brady Halligan, a business strategist who previously worked as director of strategy and bizdev for The GREEN Program.
The series will cover climate change solutions via job creation, energy, green buildings and local government from cities around the U.S., including Pittsburgh, Orlando and Philadelphia.
Local guest include Philadelphia Office of Sustainability Director Christine Knapp, Philadelphia Energy Authority ED Emily Shapira and The Franklin Institute’s Climate & Urban Systems Partnership (CUSP) project manager, Richard Johnson.
Season one premieres on Wednesday, Oct. 3. Hear the trailer here:
Hancher, a podcast lover who “fell in love with Serial from episode one” — though, come on, who didn’t? — said via email that the process of making the series has been “a fun learning curve.”
The podcast has been in the works since March, and season one was recorded this summer. A mini-grant from CUSP allowed the duo to outsource audio recording and editing. They also got Podcasting 101 tips from Tell Me a Story founder (and Hancher’s WeWork officemate) Hillary Rea, who has her own podcast, “Rashomon.”
“And obviously Google,” Hancher said.
Her advice for other social impact folks interested in launching a project like this:
“During my early entrepreneur days, I learned to focus on your strengths and outsource what you don’t know how to do,” she said. “That’s where outsourcing the editing has come in super handy instead of learning an entirely new platform. Also, find partners who have different strengths than yours. It’s been fun to work Brady, who has the same passion but a different network (focusing on higher education) in the same sustainability space for new topics and guests.”
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