Blumberg received a B.A. fromOberlin College and is currently anadjunct professor of journalism atColumbia University.[2] After graduating, Blumberg lived in Russia for a year before returning to his hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio and eventually moving to Chicago. In Chicago, he taught science at a private school for four years.[3] In 1994, he spent the summer interning at Harper's Magazine in Brooklyn. Later, he was introduced toIra Glass through a mutual connection and was able to land a position as an administrative assistant onThis American Life. From 1999 to 2014 he was the producer for the public radio showThis American Life and his stories were regularly featured on the show.[4] From 2007 to 2009 he was the executive producer of the television version ofThis American Life.
Prior toThis American Life, he worked as a freelance radio reporter, contributing toThis American Life, the Savvy Traveller and Chicago Public Radio. In 2008 he collaborated withNational Public Radio economics correspondentAdam Davidson to co-host thePlanet Money podcast, which posts new episodes twice weekly.[5]
In August 2014, he startedGimlet Media along with Matthew Lieber.[6] Initially pitched as the American Podcasting Corporation (APC), Gimlet Media is a podcasting business. Blumberg documented the startup process in the first season of a podcast hosted on Gimlet Media, titledStartUp.[7] The second season follows "Dating Ring", another startup company.[8] Apart from StartUp, Gimlet Media has launched several other podcasts, includingMystery Show,Surprisingly Awesome, andReply All.[9] The company has raised $1.5 million inseed funding. After raising most of its initial capital from investment firmsBetaworks,Lowercase Capital, and Knight Enterprise Fund, Gimlet invited the listeners of its shows to help raise the last $200,000 through crowdfunding platform Alphaworks.[10] In December 2015, Gimlet closed aSeries A round of funding that raised $6 million at a $30 million valuation.[11] On February 6, 2019, the Swedish audio streaming serviceSpotify announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Gimlet Media.[12] Blumberg departed Spotify in November 2022, after his remaining projects were cancelled by the parent company, and many employees were laid off. In June 2023, Gimlet ceased to exist and remaining projects and employees were absorbed into Spotify Studios.[13]
Blumberg won theGeorge Polk Award in Radio Reporting for his reporting with Adam Davidson for a May 2008This American Life show titled "The Giant Pool of Money". The piece explained the highly complex chain of events that led to the subprime mortgage crisis by showcasing interviews with participants at each sector of the crisis.[14] The episode was linked widely in the blogosphere and remains one of the show's most-downloaded podcasts.[15]
He won first place at the 2002 Third Coast International Audio Festival for his story "Yes, There is a Baby." His story on clinical medical ethicists won the 1999 Public Radio News Directors Incorporated (PRNDI) award for best radio documentary.[2] In 2009, he appeared on an April 12 Episode of NBC'sMeet the Press to discuss the2008 financial crisis.[16]
He shared threeGerald Loeb Awards: the 2013 Broadcast Enterprise award for "When Patents Attack" onThis American Life, the 2014 Online award for "Planet Money Makes A T-Shirt,"[17] and the 2017 Audio award for his story "Dov Charney’s American Dream".[18]
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Media related toAlex Blumberg at Wikimedia Commons
