WNYC Studios Is Ending ‘Trump Inc.’ Podcast

With Donald Trump set to vacate the White House in less than a week, WNYC Studios is ending its “Trump Inc.” investigative podcast after nearly three years.

“Trump, Inc.,” a coproduction of WNYC Studios and ProPublica, dug into the business dealings of the president and his family — and the clan’s conflicts of interest while Trump occupied the Oval Office — over some 100 episodes. The podcast first launched in February 2018 and its final episode will be released on Jan. 19, 2020, officially Trump’s last full day as president.

While next week’s “Trump Inc.” episode will be the last, hosts Andrea Bernstein and Ilya Marritz will continue reporting on Trump for WNYC. Meg Cramer and Katherine Sullivan, who have served as reporters on the podcast, will be leaving WNYC Studios.

“[W]ith the Trump presidency (and therefore conflict of interest that drove ‘Trump, Inc.’) ending, so is the show,” Andrew Golis, WNYC Studios’ chief content officer, and Emily Botein, VP of on-demand content, wrote in a memo to staff Thursday.

The “Trump Inc.” team broke news about “inaugural improprieties, government spending at Trump properties, and took many, many, many looks at President Trump’s taxes (especially his attempts to avoid paying them),” the execs added.

The podcast was born out of an article published by the New Yorker in October 2017, co-written by Bernstein, Marritz, and ProPublica’s Jesse Eisinger and Justin Elliott, which detailed how Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr. avoided a federal indictment for “misleading prospective buyers” of units in the Trump SoHo hotel and condo development.

Read the memo from Golis and Botein:

Colleagues,

Last year, none other than the brilliant Masha Gessen called Trump, Inc. “the most successful media undertaking in the age of Trump.” The show has been a triumph and has been defined by attributes that should make us all proud: deep investigative reporting, rich and creative storytelling, and a collaborative spirit, inside and outside of WNYC, rooted in fierce journalistic ambition.

What started with an investigation by Andrea Bernstein, Ilya Marritz, and a team at ProPublica published in the New Yorker turned into a multi-year podcast and reporting collaboration that included dozens of journalists from nearly as many media organizations. Its team traveled the globe (Ukraine, India, Panama & more), won accolades (from the prestigious Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award to this somewhat NSFWFH song from Samantha Bee), and spurred government investigations in the New York and the District of Columbia. The Trump, Inc. team broke news about inaugural improprieties, government spending at Trump properties, and took many, many, many looks at President Trump’s taxes (especially his attempts to avoid paying them).

And now, with the Trump presidency (and therefore conflict of interest that drove Trump, Inc.) ending, so is the show. They’ll wrap up their brilliant run Tuesday, January 19th.

We’re excited for Andrea and Ilya’s next projects, including tracking the legal reckonings for Trump, his business, and his government. At the same time, we are saying farewell to Meg Cramer and Katherine Sullivan. Meg began as the show’s producer, served as executive producer, and spent the last year as a reporter for the show; Katherine joined the team as a ProPublica researcher and freelancer, then crossed over to WNYC as a reporter-producer. As noted late last year, sound designer Jared Paul has joined the staff at WNYC Studios, contributing his talents to shows including The United States of Anxiety. Meg and Katherine were essential players on the Trump, Inc. podcast team — their work brought the stories specificity, humor and depth. We’re also grateful for the work of editors, reporters, producers, and sound designers including — but in no way limited to — Matt Collette, Jesse Eisinger, Charlie Herman, Bill Moss, Eric Umansky, Nick Varchaver, Heather Vogell, and Alice Wilder.

Please join us in toasting the team on Tuesday, January 19th at 4:30pm. Look out for a calendar invite to follow. We couldn’t be prouder of all this team accomplished.

Andrew & Emily

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