The Scoop
A science and technology media company that aims to be the National Geographic of podcasting is expanding.
Kaleidoscope, the New York media company behind On Musk from Walter Isaacson, the critically acclaimed podcast No Such Thing and podcasts from John Legend and Lance Bass, is acquiring a podcast company and filling out its executive ranks as it hopes to break further into video.
On Monday, Kaleidoscope plans to announce that it has hired former Condé Nast creative director Maria Paz Mendez Hodes to be its first head of video, as well as David Weissbourd as director of editorial and creative operations, and Agne Numaite as director of strategy. It has also acquired boutique podcast marketing agency The Listening Party, and is appointing founder Christy Mirabal to be Kaleidoscope’s new head of marketing.
Kaleidoscope also told Semafor that it had “formalized a long-term partnership” with creative studio Second Lane, founded by The Atlantic’s former VP and head of ventures, Bradley Girson, to develop Kaleidoscope shows and experimental initiatives.
“Kaleidoscope’s ambitious growth mission encompasses a sizable editorial slate expansion, new multi-platform delivery of our award-winning science and technology storytelling, and IP development that will resonate with brands, partners, and audiences around the world,” Oz Woloshyn, co-founder of Kaleidoscope, told Semafor in a statement.
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Last year, Kaleidoscope announced it had raised $5 million as part of its Series A fundraise.
After 2022 launching in 2022 with a slate of narrative podcasting and adventure stories, founders Mangesh Hattikudur and Woloshyn looked at some of its more successful podcasts — On Musk with Walter Isaacson and NSYNC singer Lance Bass’ The Last Soviet — and refocused the company around shows with curiosity about the future and advances in technology. At a moment of uncertainty and pessimism, Kaleidoscope believed there was a gap in the market and hunger among advertisers for quality content about the future backed by journalistic rigor.
“Our hope is that this entire network will be sort of like dispatches from the frontiers of knowledge,” Hattikudur told Semafor at the time. “This sort of beautiful, energized, cool space where you can learn without feeling the chore of learning.”