Jonathan Pitts, the cofounder of the Chicago Improv Festival, believes that podcasting is the fastest-growing art form of this century. Podcasts have certainly gained momentum in the past three years—according to a Pew report listenership has steadily been on the rise since 2013 and there were more than 3 billion podcast downloads in 2015 alone. That helps to explain why Pitts turned his attention to the medium and created the Chicago Podcast Festival.
Even though the schedule features programs from all across the country, Greene and Pitts wanted to highlight Chicago’s thriving podcast scene. Local podcasts will be popping up around town, too, like the popular shows Arguments & Grievances and Hello From the Magic Tavern, at Schubas and Athenaeum Theatre respectively. Steppenwolf’s 1700 Theatre serves as home base for the up-and-coming locals to find a larger audience, among them Louisa Chu and Monica Eng’s Chewing, Elizabeth Cambridge’s Random Conversations With Elizabeth, and the Nerdologues’s Your Stories.
Chicago Podcast Festival 11/17-11/19, various locations, chicagopodcastfestival.org, $20-$45.
