🎙Interview: Stephanie Marudas & Emily Previti
Meet the team behind Obscured podcast.
Stephanie Marudas
Stephanie (she/her) is the founder of Kouvenda Media and co-creator of Obscured. Prior to founding Kouvenda Media, she reported for WYPR in Baltimore and WHYY in Philadelphia. At WHYY, as a reporter, she covered subjects like education, healthcare, and immigration, while also working on the "Impact of War" series, a collaboration with NPR and went on to become a producer at the station in various roles. As executive producer of the award-winning podcast Grapple, she collaborated with Obscured co-creator Emily Previti during their time working together for Keystone Crossroads.
Emily Previti
Emily (she/her) is executive editor and co-creator of Obscured. Before joining Kouvenda Media, she covered voting rights and election administration for NPR affiliate WITF and The GroundTruth Project during 2019-2021. Emily was the senior reporter for statewide public media collaboration Keystone Crossroads – where, in addition to collaborating with Stephanie on Grapple, she led data-driven projects and reported overlooked stories about government dysfunction, refugee resettlement, criminal justice and other challenges facing communities across Pennsylvania. Her work – including from staff reporting for print-based outlets earlier on – has been recognized by PMJA, PAPME, RTDNA’s Edward R. Murrow Awards and the New Jersey and Illinois press associations.
You can reach Emily at emily@kouvendamedia.com or via Twitter @emily_previti.
Obscured is a production of Kouvenda Media, and you can find it wherever you listen by clicking here. Make sure to follow Obscured on social media, Twitter or Instagram, at @KouvendaMedia.
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Stephanie, you are the founder of Kouvenda Media, the company that produces Obscured. Before we dive into the show, can you tell us why you founded Kouvenda?
Stephanie: Sure. There’s a backstory to tell first.
I never intended to have a career in audio, let alone start a podcast production house. In college, I happened to work on an audio documentary about The Biosphere 2 where I studied for a semester. After college, I worked as an environmental educator and consultant and volunteered with COSMOS FM-Hellenic Public Radio to report, host and produce a Greek diaspora community affairs show.
Soon after, I decided to make the switch and pursue public radio as a career. It wasn't an easy start. There were various ups and downs between station-based reporting, freelance assignments and whatever I could do to learn and hone the craft.
A decade later, there came a point when public radio didn’t feel like the right fit anymore. During that time, I took a break and immersed myself in the study and craft of oral history. It energized me and led to the idea for Kouvenda Media to produce narratives for social change. In Greek, Kouvenda means “talk, chat or conversation.”
One of the things I love about Kouvenda Media is that your storytelling seems to be rooted in Philadelphia. In fact, your company’s About Us says you are Pennsylvania-based. First, are you originally from the area? And if not, what draws you to creating stories that center the city or state of PA?
Stephanie: I grew up in Baltimore but have spent nearly half my adult life living and working in Philadelphia. It happened organically that Kouvenda Media’s storytelling has been based here. Being local has also meant being able to meet sources and/or clients in-person and building relationships in the community. While most of our projects have been local, some of our projects have zoomed out beyond Pennsylvania and have had a broader focus. We’re open to both and don’t limit ourselves. Seems like the best of both worlds.
Emily: I’m from southern New Jersey, went to college in Philadelphia and have spent the past decade reporting in Pennsylvania. Like Stephanie, I don’t limit myself to reporting solely in our city or state. It’s also part of my process to at least research issues and policies in other states to bring scope and context to journalism that’s largely otherwise focused in a particular place.
Please give us a quick overview of what the podcast Obscured is about. What do you all want to accomplish with the show?
Stephanie: Obscured is Emily’s and my response to seeing too many issues and stories remain unknown to the public due to underreporting. The show focuses on critical issues that are often missed in the daily news cycle. It blends in-depth journalism with enlightening conversations featuring policy professionals, researchers and journalists. We combine formats including deeply reported limited series and conversational episodes.
This season of Obscured “From Words to Weapons (FWTW)” is about trauma inflicted by law enforcement and the systems/policies/laws that enable this continuation. How did the idea for this season come about?
Emily: It had been years since I’d reported on criminal justice accountability and excessive force, but I still followed those issues and wanted to get back to them in my reporting. Then, I was researching an episode for At the Core of Care about standardizing sexual assault exam procedures, one of a few Kouvenda’s produced in recent years about sexual assault survivors and the nurses who care for them. I came across Maija Anderson’s name on a forensic nursing conference schedule where she was presenting on developing a medical protocol for caring for people after an altercation with law enforcement. Our conversation ended up focusing on her research. It was clear that Maija's story and work could be part of Obscured’s first season. Given all of that (and Obscured’s mission to elevate unheard stories and/or pursue relevant unexamined angles), we decided to focus on supporting survivors of law enforcement trauma.
This is not the first time you all tackled a topic related to mass incarceration. Your previous limited series Restricted Reading is about the lack of intellectual freedom in prison. What particular training or reporting experience has helped you to cover these stories that impact a vulnerable and often overlooked segment of our society?
Stephanie: In my early reporting career, I had several editors who assigned me to cover how public policy affects people’s lives. They mentored me and were excellent thought partners about how to approach this type of reporting. I also spent time consuming first-person accounts and/or oral histories that I found helpful in learning how to think about question development outside a news framework and how to be in conversation with people about their lives. My most transformative experience was having been selected as a summer institute fellow at the Columbia University Center for Oral History Research at INCITE, with a focus on Narrating Population Health: Oral History, Disparity, and Social Change. This experience really has shaped my reporting and production work ever since.
Before this interview, I listened to the first five episodes of this season. Truly excellent and engaging work! I don’t want to spoil anything, but I do want to bring up two things that I found very interesting.
Episode 1 focuses in great detail on a court ruling that overturned the conviction of a young man named Jimmy Warren. Take us through the decision-making behind starting the season here.
Emily: Thank you for the kind words about the work! While doing pre-reporting/early research for the series, I asked a capital defense attorney whether she could point me to any cases that dealt principally with questions of emotional or psychological effects of policing and didn't stem from an incident involving physical injury. She mentioned Jimmy's case. We started with his story in part because the final ruling on it got national attention and saw that as a strong potential entry point for listeners. But more importantly, the case/episode’s focus on over-policing, the anticipation of police encounters and resulting effects on people establishes (we hope) the ubiquity of law enforcement trauma and the true, high relevance of the issue as explored in subsequent episodes in a way that isn’t frequently represented in the news.
Episode 3 establishes something that I am still baffled by: not all wrongful convictions lead to compensation for these victims of injustice. And options to even bring a case in the first place may vary based on a number of different factors. What was your personal reaction to learning this?
Emily: Like you, I was baffled and outraged and wondered why Pennsylvania, where we live, was among a dozen or so states that doesn't provide a path to compensation aside from litigation. I had the same reaction upon finding out state lawmakers had been introducing bills for at least 20 years with, literally, zero movement. Even after reporting the episode and seeing a bit of movement in the statehouse this fall, I still feel that way, to be honest.
So as a journalist, how did you channel your feelings into a narrative supported by facts?
Emily: I just tried to pull together as much information as possible to provide as much context and depth as possible with the time that we had. The related bill discussed in the episode is a moving target in the Pennsylvania legislature and we’ll continue to follow it with the first update to come early next year.
While I don’t know how you two racially identify, from pictures I’ve seen, you both pass as white women. Jimmy Warren and Chester Holman III (ep 3), whose stories I was very moved by, are both Black men. How do you racially identify? And do you think about your racial identity as you approach telling stories about communities that are not your own?
Emily: Yes, I identify as white and do think about my racial identity when approaching people to talk, preparing for interviews, sourcing research materials and otherwise reporting on issues that have a disproportionate effect on communities of color. In particular, bearing in mind (1) that my role and goal here as a reporter and storyteller is to listen, amplify Jimmy and Chester’s experiences and contextualize for listeners without over-intellectualizing and (2) the principles of trauma-informed reporting generally (in this case, traumatic experiences inextricably linked to race).
What are some things you all do–if any–to make sure your storytelling approach is appropriate for the communities you are focusing on?
Emily: As a matter of course, we consume media produced by and collaborate on projects with people of diverse backgrounds, identities and communities – including this limited series/first season, where the production team also includes people with lived experience, and the Philadelphia Journalism Collaborative where the group regularly engages in training about best practices and thoughtful discussions about how to best apply them as we work.
Before we wrap, Emily, I want to ask you about your background as a data journalist. A lot of people…their eyes can glaze over when you start talking about data or looking at numbers. What are some tips you’d give others without your training or experience when it comes to informing the public about data that’s critical to your story?
Emily: Slow down. Keep a data diary (every step you take should be noted here). Get a partner you trust to check your work, whenever possible. And less is more, especially in audio versus text.
Is there any new or upcoming work that you all would like to share with us?
Stephanie: On Being Biracial is a ten-episode podcast series featuring conversations with more than 30 multiracial individuals interviewed by co-hosts Daralyse Lyons and Malcolm Burnley. The podcast, which started rolling out in October, was mixed by Paul Kondo and edited and fact-checked by Emily. In addition to Kouvenda Media, On Being Biracial partners include WURD Radio, the Philadelphia Journalism Collaborative, the National Association of Black Journalists, Philadelphia Neighborhoods, Technical.ly, PGN and G-town Radio.
Please see below for organizations that Stephanie and Emily recommend if you want to learn more about their show’s topic:
Witness to Innocence, Pennsylvania Innocence Project, Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project, The Center for Policing Equity, Do No Harm Coalition, National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement.
🎤 Pass the Mic
If you could pass the mic to someone about a social issue you care about, who would it be and what would they talk about?
We’d pass the mic to The Georgetown University Health Justice Alliance’s Working Group on Policing and Patient Rights to talk about protecting patient privacy, addressing patient mistrust in institutions and navigating institutional obstacles to implementing new and necessary policies and procedures.
If this show’s format / topic interests you, you might also want to check out the Sounds Like Impact interview with Adell Coleman and Stephen Colbert of Say Their Name podcast.