HALEY NELSON
INNOVATIVE WORK WITH WORDS
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Podcasting

 

Featured GUEST ON…

I was the researcher for the Apple Original podcast UNDER COVER OF KNIGHT. You can hear me chat on mic as myself and the team of hosts and researcher unravel the mystery of Susan Knight’s life and her 1996 death.

Hear me chat about all things dramaturgy and freelancing as a guest on the Open Parameter podcast:

 

PAST PROJECTS


THE PERFECT SCAM

Seasons 10/11/12 Researcher
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AARP STUDIOS

AARP’s top iTunes podcast THE PERFECT SCAM tells shocking scam stories from the perspective of the victim. With each week’s story, we hope to educate our audience on fraud red flags and prevent our listeners from becoming a scammer’s next target. Host Bob Sullivan introduces listeners to those who have experiences scams firsthand, as well as professional con artists and leading experts who pull back the curtain on how scammers operate.

  • 2023 Webby Award for Best Branded Podcast

  • Produced in-house by AARP Studios

  • Work premiered on the show’s 100th episode special

  • Found, pitched, cast, and scheduled interviews for over 30 episodes

 
 

THE GRAND SCHEME: SNATCHING SINATRA

SERIES Researcher & Dramaturg
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SPOKE MEDIA/WONDERY

Hosted and narrated by John Stamos, The Grand Scheme: Snatching Sinatra is a complicated, nuanced story of one imperfect man trying to redeem himself by pulling off the perfect crime. Did you ever feel like everything’s broken, and it’s your job to fix it? That’s how Barry Keenan was feeling back in 1963. He was broke, unemployed, hooked on booze and pills, and his family was falling apart. Barry needed a miracle. And against all odds, he got one. One day the voice of God came over the radio in Barry’s car and told him there was a simple solution to all his problems: all he had to do was kidnap Frank Sinatra, Jr. For the first time ever, Barry Keenan shares his version of the bizarre story in his own words, from beginning to end.

  • 2022 Webby Award for Best Original Music/Sound Design and 2022 Webby Award Honoree for Best Host

  • Produced with Wondery+

  • Premiered at the top 10 on iTunes and in the top 200 of Spotify podcasts

  • See what the press is saying here!

BREACH

Season 2 Researcher
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Spoke Media

Equifax: the worst breach ever. You asked for it, and Alia and Bob are (finally!!) on board. Unpatched patches. Passwords stored in plain-text. 145 million people in danger. The Equifax breach is a perfect storm of bad decisions…Alia and Bob will dive into how hackers stole the most valuable data of 145 million Americans, why it matters, and what we can do about it.

  • Additional co-writing credit for S2, Ep. 1 - Why Equifax?

  • Series was #2 in Apple Podcasts for Technology and #42 overall; 207,000+ downloads.

  • Finalist for the 2019 Shorty Award for Best Branded Podcast.

Equifax: the worst breach ever. This time you're not the consumer - you're the product. Bob and Alia weren't sure about doing Equifax for Season 2... but everything changed when they learned exactly how Equifax lost the most valuable data of 145 million consumers. Your privacy has been murdered, but who really pulled the trigger?

GREAT MOMENTS IN WEED HISTORY

Season 3 Researcher
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Spoke MediA

Great Moments in Weed History delves deep into humanity’s 10,000+ year relationship with cannabis (a.k.a. “marijuana”) to find the historical importance of this very special plant. In each episode, co-hosts Abdullah Saeed and David Bienenstock blaze joints, crack jokes, and explore the people, places, and events that make up the complex and fascinating past of weed and weed culture.

Hashish bon bons play a starring role in one of Louisa May Alcott's "scandalous" short stories, but you'd never know that by reading her many biographies. Partially because she wrote Perilous Play (1868) under a pen name, but mostly because her experiences with high-powered edibles have been all but erased from history.

When 22 tons of weed washed up on Brazil's beaches one magical summer, the locals interpreted it as a gift from Yemoja, a sea goddess deity with African roots that was adopted into Brazilian Catholicism.

Once a year, Hindus celebrate cannabis and the god Shiva with the ancient festival of Maha Shivaratri, an all-night affair of fasting, meditation, chanting, and dancing. Abdullah tells Bean the story in this Freaky High-Day episode, and the guys talk Hinduism, the divine origins of cannabis, weed-loving deities, and psychedelics.

Jerry Garcia and Mountain Girl sat rolling joints and cleaning the stems and seeds from a brick of weed when a fateful knock came at the door of 710 Ashbury Street.