Podcast Pioneer Jad Abumrad on His Favorite Tools, Apps and Habits
Radiolab creator Jad Abumrad told The Verge about his favorite tools, apps and hobbies. He also described what inspires him and helps him focus.
Jad Abumrad, the American podcaster who created the NPR show Radiolab and the acclaimed podcasts about Dolly Parton and Nigerian musician Fela Kuti, answered questions from the technology site The Verge about his preferred tools, habits and obsessions.
Radiolab, an experimental show from NPR (US public radio), used creative sound design, original music and cinematic effects, and helped change ideas about what a podcast could be. Abumrad often made the sounds and music himself. He left Radiolab in 2022, and Latif Nasser and Lulu Miller now run it. Since then he has produced Fela Kuti: Fear No Man, composed for film, theater and dance, and worked as a distinguished research professor at Vanderbilt University. Both of his podcasts, Dolly Parton’s America and Fear No Man, won Peabody Awards.
Tools and apps
Abumrad calls a flat, springy travel pillow his most indispensable tool. Among digital tools, he singles out the calendar app Fantastical and Granite, a granular synthesis program about 15 years old, which he used to score dozens of early Radiolab pieces. On a new device he first installs Alfred, a lightweight replacement for Apple’s Spotlight. He says he owns far too many audio plug-ins.
His pinned browser tabs are NYT, Ground.News, the Vanderbilt Library resource page and ESPN. He uses Instagram occasionally, but lost access to his Twitter account after the login process changed. Online, he enjoys Bandcamp and Andrew Huang’s YouTube channel.
Obsessions and habits
His favorite gadgets were a 1997 Motorola flip phone and a butterfly knife he saved up for as a teenager. His current obsessions are Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho and UK dubstep. To focus, he meditates for two minutes and then locks his phone away; when stuck, he bangs on gamelan strips. His latest physical media purchase was an original pressing of John Coltrane’s Blue Train, bought with his son.
