Master Class: Audio Storytelling with George Lavender (DR. DEATH)

George Lavender is an Emmy award-winning journalist and the Senior Vice President of Content at Wondery. He is an executive producer on the network's hit mini-series including DR. DEATH, THE SHRINK NEXT DOOR, and JACKED. Before joining Wondery he reported stories for NPR, Marketplace, and 99 Percent Invisible among others. He was an instructor at USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism and has taught audio storytelling and journalism in universities, high schools and community groups around the world.

oiLata Pandya is the Senior Manager of Miniseries at Wondery. She shepherded the reporting and production as managing producer on DR DEATH Season Two, JACKED, and KAMALA: NEXT IN LINE among others. She was also integral to the writing and reporting of Wondery's series DO NO HARM that took an in-depth look at Child Protective Services in Houston, Texas. Before jning Wondery, Lata spent more than a decade producing long-form news shows for public television and radio in Los Angeles, including the long running news magazine show SoCal Connected on KCET. With the investigative team at KCET she won the 2011 Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Award for Excellence in Journalism for a series of investigative stories holding CAL Osha and FEMA officials accountable. Lata holds a B. A. from the University of California, Santa Barbara and a M.A. from the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at USC.

Martina Castro (@martinacastro) is the founder and CEO of Adonde Media (@adondemedia), a globally-minded podcast production company based in Los Angeles, CA. Over the past fifteen years, Martina has produced and edited award-winning audio content in both the U.S. and Latin America. She spent a decade working in public radio at NPR and KALW-FM, and then co-founded NPR’s first Spanish-language podcast, RADIO AMBULANTE. Since launching Adonde Media, Martina has led multilingual and multinational teams as Executive Producer on podcasts for clients such as Duolingo, TED, Spotify, and Vice News.

James Kim is a Los Angeles based podcast creator. Previously, he worked on Radiotopia's STRANGERS, MARKETPLACE, DEADLY MANNERS, THE DINNER PARTY DOWNLOAD, KPCC, and GIMLET MEDIA. Most recently, he made the fiction show MOONFACE, which landed on the "Best of 2019" lists from Vulture, Spotify, Time Magazine, and The A.V. Club.

Melissa Dueñas is an Associate Producer at Wondery. She has helped produce “Jacked” and “The Apology Line.” Before joining Wondery, she was a Maximum Fun Production Fellow for NPR’s Bullseye with Jesse Thorn, as well as a freelance journalist. She has published work for KPCC, KQED, LA Taco and Ampersand LA. Melissa received her M.A. in Arts Journalism from USC Annenberg, and her B.A. in American Studies from UC Berkeley. In addition Melissa has been a DJ for over ten years. She produces and hosts her own radio shows for WorldwideFM and Dublab monthly.