Podcasts

Simone Polanen has produced podcasts for The Nod, StartUp, and Reply All. Here is a selection of her work.

Sister, Sister (2018)

A personal essay on family, identity and the relationship between two sisters. Narrated, written, and reported by Simone Polanen.

Arlan Hamilton

A six-part series on Arlan Hamilton, Venture Capitalist and founder of Backstage Capital.

Silicon Valley is leaving money on the table, and Arlan Hamilton will go to extremes to prove it. She's a venture capitalist like no other — black, female, gay — and she's out to prove that investors in the Valley are overlooking big returns they could tap into by investing in more outsiders. Arlan calls them "underestimated" founders, and she's planning to get as rich as Richard Branson by investing in them. But her thesis is still untested, and she's running out of time to show Silicon Valley what she's got.

Shadowed QUalities

Alex Blumberg, co-founder and CEO of Gimlet Media, receives feedback about his job performance from his co-workers, friends, and family. Some of it is good, some less so. But there is something else that comes up during the review process that shocks him. We explore what happens when you unpack your emotional baggage—or someone unpacks it for you—and you realize the unexpected effect that it has been having on your team.