20 years ago Julie Snyder applied for a job at a little known radio show called, 'This American Life'. They'd only been on the air for a year and she said of her application, "I was incredibly unqualified."

It was there she developed a passion for audio storytelling, and where she met Sarah Koenig. 15 years later the two would start working on a new podcast project in Sarah's basement. The project launched in 2014, it's called 'Serial'. 

Through a unique combination of audio storytelling, music and soundscapes Jad Abumrad has been credited with creating a new aesthetic for broadcast journalism. Colleague, Ira Glass speaks of his podcast 'Radiolab' confessing "I marvel at Radiolab when I hear it. I feel jealous. I'm a hack in comparison. Everyone else is too." 

Son of a doctor father and scientist mother and raised in Nashville, Jad has said of his childhood that "I was always in the weird in-between space...being the Arab kid in a place where there are no Arabs...and conversely going back to Lebanon and being American." In our season two opener we ask Jad, how did being one of the only Lebanese kids in Tennessee set you onto the intuitive path of breakthrough audio journalism?