Independent Producer, Creator of Strangers

Lea Thau is a Peabody Award-winning producer and director. She is the producer and host of the podcast Strangers, created in partnership with KCRW. Strangers is also part of the groundbreaking podcast network Radiotopia from PRX. With more than 10 million downloads, the show is popular with fans and critics alike. Slate named an episode of Strangers one of "The 25 Best Podcast Episodes Ever” and Strangers won the 2015 Public Radio March Madness Bracket Contest, beating out shows like This American Life, Serial and Radiolab for the top honor.

Lea is also a storytelling teacher and coach. She has worked one-on-one with the likes of Ethan Hawke, Marc Maron, Gabriel Byrne, Darryll "DMC" McDaniels, Gay Talese, and Suzanne Vega, among many, many others, as well as with Nieman fellows at Harvard and inner city kids in New York and Los Angeles. She has taught storytelling for business at Google, Nike, Proctor & Gamble, Tiffany & Co, The Home Depot, Saatchi & Saatchi and many other companies. She previously served as Executive & Creative Director of the live storytelling organization The Moth, where she created The Moth Podcast and The Moth Radio Hour. Originally from Denmark, she first came to the U.S. as a Visiting Scholar at Columbia University in New York City. She lives in Los Angeles with her son.