photo by: On Air Fest
Simone Polanen is a host, writer, performer, film- and audio-maker based in Brooklyn, NY.
She currently hosts PAST PERFECT, a time-traveling trivia game show. The podcast from ZSP Media invites comedians, podcasters, and writers to compete in a game that puts their history and pop culture knowledge to the test.
She also recently hosted NOT PAST IT, an original podcast from Spotify, Gimlet Media, and ZSP Media. The show explores how history shapes the world we live in today — delivered via thorough reporting, cinematic audio storytelling, and Simone’s signature comedic voice. The Atlantic named it one of the 50 best podcasts of 2021. In 2023, she was invited to speak at TEDxCarnegie Mellon University about the lessons she’s learned telling history from a contemporary perspective.
Prior to hosting PP and NPI, Simone worked as an audio producer on narrative non-fiction podcasts such as Start Up, The Nod, and Reply All. She also produced for Trevor Noah’s interview podcast On Second Thought with Trevor Noah and Spotify’s award-winning The Decade Wrapped podcast, recapping a decade’s worth of pop culture and music hits. She even has a Quibi credit (shoutout to the wildest days of our lives) as a segment producer on the daily show The Nod with Brittany and Eric.
Simone writes HIGHBROW/LOWBROW, a Substack newsletter recommending and reviewing culture across the spectrum—everything from art house films to K-pop girl groups, nature documentaries to YouTube videos, experimental animations to campy classics. You can subscribe here!
In her free time, the Bay Area native loves to play tennis, watch performances of all kinds, and write about herself in the third person.