Audacy Inc.

07/22/2021 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 07/22/2021 07:40

Pineapple Street Studios Partners with Award-Winning Journalists Andrea Bernstein and Ilya Marritz for Investigative Documentary Podcast Series on the January 6 Insurrection

After GOP lawmakers blocked the formation of a bipartisan, independent commission, and as Trump declares he's 'not into coups,' the team behind the critically acclaimed podcast 'Trump, Inc.' will explore the multiple failures that led to the breach of the U.S. Capitol

New York, NY (July 22, 2021)-Pineapple Street Studios, an Audacy company, today announced that it has partnered with award-winning reporters Andrea Bernstein and Ilya Marritz, co-hosts of the highly acclaimed, duPont Award-winning podcast Trump, Inc. for an investigative documentary podcast series that will trace the multiple failures that led to the breach of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

The yet-to-be-titled series, the highly anticipated first new project for Bernstein and Marritz since they announced their departure from WNYC after two decades, will launch in Early 2022.

Twenty years after the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil prompted wholesale and disruptive changes in our way of life, another attack very nearly toppled democracy from within.

In the wake of the riot, Trump continues to deny basic facts surrounding the events of January 6, and declared in a recent statement 'I'm not into coups!'. At the same time, Republicans in Congress have resisted an independent, bipartisan investigation in the style of the 9/11 commission, leaving Bernstein's and Marritz's hard-hitting docuseries to fill the void.

This attack on our nation's capital was foretold, even heralded. Yet a battered democratic system and law enforcement apparatus trained on foreign threats failed to mobilize to respond to nearly every red alert - from the rise of domestic terrorism to radicalization in law enforcement and the military. As with 9/11, explicit warnings went unheeded and federal and local intelligence agencies failed to work together. Through a novelistic, character- and document-based investigation, the podcast will examine the multiple ways the Trump Administration directly created the conditions that both led to the first assault on the Capitol in over 200 years and to the government's failure to adequately respond to the threat of attack.

'Pineapple Street Studios is the premier producer of beautifully-told, sound-rich multipart series,' said Bernstein. 'We're so excited to have it as a home for our investigative reporting.'

'Pineapple has made some of my very favorite nonfiction podcasts, ever,' said Marritz. 'We are thrilled to work with some of the sharpest, most talented audio-makers in the business.'

'We couldn't be prouder to be working with Andrea and Ilya,' said Jenna Weiss-Berman and Max Linsky, Co-Founders, Pineapple Street Studios. 'We've been tremendous fans of their unique, ambitious style of investigative narrative audio for years, and what they are uncovering about the insurrection on January 6 will provide the context about that day and what led to it that all of us are so desperate to understand.'

Andrea Bernstein and Ilya Marritz are the co-hosts of Trump, Inc., the duPont-Columbia award-winning podcast from WNYC and ProPublica. Trump, Inc. was twice named as one of the New Yorker's ten best podcasts of the year and was a finalist for a Loeb award and a National Magazine award. Together, Bernstein and Marritz have repeatedly broken national news, and have written for The New Yorker, New York Magazine,and The New York Daily News. They are contributors to NPR on Trump legal fallout.

Bernstein is the author of the New York Times bestseller AMERICAN OLIGARCHS: The Kushners, The Trumps, and the Marriage of Money and Power. She previously won a Peabody for her work covering Chris Christie's 'Bridgegate' scandal. Marritz previously hosted the award-winning podcast, THE SEASON.

Follow Pineapple Street Studios on Twitter @PineappleMedia and Instagram @Pineapple.fm

For more information, visit http://pineapple.fm.