Boston — December 9, 2021 — This week the Bello Collective, which brings together writers, journalists, and other voices who share a passion for audio storytelling, named two Hub & Spoke shows—The Lonely Palette and Rumble Strip—to its list of 100 Outstanding Podcasts from 2021. It’s the sixth time members of the collective have published their list of favorite podcast episodes of the year.
The Lonely Palette, an art-history podcast created and hosted by producer Tamar Avishai, was cited for the episode Mary Kelly’s Post-Partum Document (1973-79), a mixed-media work that follows the growth of Kelly’s son from birth to age five. Bello Collective co-editor Galen Beebe wrote:
Art and parenthood are each hard to capture in words. They’re ephemeral and deeply personal, and podcasts on either topic too often capture what it’s *about* without capturing the experience itself. Tamar Avishai beautifully encapsulates both parenthood and art in this episode of The Lonely Palette.
Rumble Strip, a show about the lives of rural Vermonters made by producer Erica Heilman, was named to the list for the episode Finn and the Bell, an emotionally wrenching story about the life, death, and legacy of Hardwick, Vt., teenager Finn Rooney. Audio producer and critic Neroli Price wrote:
“Finn and the Bell” is one of those episodes that you cannot listen to without being utterly convinced of the magic of audio storytelling. It’s a portrait of 17-year-old Finn Rooney, who killed himself on January 3, 2020 in the small Vermont town of Hardwick. It’s not a story about suicide, but rather it’s a touching celebration of Finn Rooney’s life through the voices of those who loved him. The absence of any synthetic sound effects or heavy scoring makes room for the musicality of the human voice to take centre stage. The result is a sonic memorial of sorts — a homage to the experiences of loss and the ways in which people live on after they’re gone.
Hub & Spoke was one of a number of networks to receive multiple commendations from the Bello Collective this year. Others included Spotify, Earwolf, Pineapple Street Media, Netflix, Crooked Media, Wondery, iHeartRadio, Vox Media, Lemonada, PRX, NPR, WNYC, Broccoli, and the BBC. In 2020 Bello named three Hub & Spoke shows to its year-end list.
Hub & Spoke producers joined in congratulating Avishai and Heilman on making this year’s list, which is one of the most sought-after kudos in the world of serious audio storytelling. “Tamar, Erica, and the rest of our producers continue to make amazing stories that demonstrate the depth and reach of independent podcasting today,” said Wade Roush, co-founder and president of Hub & Spoke and producer of Soonish. “We’re so grateful to our friends at the Bello Collective for recognizing their work.”