PRODUCTION CREDITSStephen Talbot
Executive Producer
Stephen Talbot is a veteran documentary writer and producer, who has made over 30 documentaries for public television, including ten films for the PBS series, FRONTLINE. Along the way, he has won nearly every major award in the field — Emmys, Peabodys, a DuPont, a George Polk, an Overseas Press Club of America Edward R. Murrow award, even an Edgar Allan Poe award from the Mystery Writers of America.
As the Series Editor for FRONTLINE/World from 2002-2008, Talbot was involved in commissioning and supervising nearly 100 broadcast stories, and recruited reporters Marco Werman, Alexis Bloom and Arun Rath. He also oversaw the FRONTLINE/World web site editorially and helped pioneer development of online video — from investigative reports to world music stories. Talbot lives in San Francisco with his wife, Pippa Gordon. They have two grown children.
Marco Werman
Host & Reporter
As senior producer and anchor for Public Radio International’s weekday news show The World, Marco Werman brings international news and music to an audience of 2.8 million listeners each week. A global music expert and fan, Marco has produced The World’s daily “Global Hit” segment since 1997. He has also produced news for the BBC World Service in West Africa, volunteered for the Peace Corps, and covered international news and music stories on television for PBS’s FRONTLINE/World, including the Emmy award-winning story “Libya: Out of the Shadow.”
Marco readily admits he has one of the best jobs on the planet, but when he’s not listening to the world through its music, he’s indulging his last remaining carnivorous tendencies hunting down vacuum-packed locally-raised beef and chicken, playing jazz violin, and trying to get on the roster for open-mic night.
Alexis Bloom
Reporter
Alexis Bloom formed a keen sense of the importance of media during her childhood in apartheid South Africa. The media censorship and injustice she witnessed as a child also gave her a unique perspective on politics and culture. Reporting for SOUND TRACKS appeals to her because, as she says, “In every problematic regime in the world, there is still somebody playing loud music, determined to have a good time.”
After graduating from Cambridge University in England and the University of California at Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, Alexis became a featured correspondent on PBS’s FRONTLINE/World. Her investigative report “Shadows and Lies,” about life under Robert Mugabe’s dictatorship, was shot undercover in Zimbabwe. She has also worked on a number of FRONTLINE documentaries, as a field producer for National Geographic in Papua New Guinea, Mongolia and Guyana, and as co-producer of NOVA’s Emmy Award-winning “Rx for Survival.”
Arun Rath
Reporter
Arun Rath is an award-winning veteran of public broadcasting whose beat has ranged from the media industry to the Iraq war to world music. He was director of NPR’s Talk of the Nation before taking over as senior producer of On the Media with its re-launch in 2000. During his tenure the program tripled its audience and won a number of awards, including a Peabody.
In 2005, Arun became senior editor of PRI’s Studio 360, before being lured to television by PBS’s FRONTLINE. Arun has reported and produced three films for FRONTLINE, the latest being the Emmy-nominated Rules of Engagement, about the deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians after a roadside bombing in Haditha.
Arun currently hosts and produces the FRONTLINE podcast, balancing his work as a journalist with cultural pursuits. He’s a trumpet player and self-described music obsessive who loves classical, jazz, funk, soul, and traditional Indian music.
Mirissa Neff
Reporter
Hip-shaking crowds in San Francisco, New York, Paris, and Rio know Mirissa Neff as “DJ Felina.” She spins the world, treating fans to Brazilian batucadas, gypsy electronica, and other musical treasures collected from her travels. San Francisco’s 7×7 Magazine named her “the city’s best mood-setter.”
By day, Mirissa is a freelance designer, photographer and journalist, interviewing a range of world music luminaries. She worked in the publicity department of Six Degrees Records and as a disc jockey for campus radio at her alma matter, Amherst College. Since 2006 she has been the art director for San Francisco’s largest alternative newsweekly, the San Francisco Bay Guardian.
Mirissa grew up in New York and has appeared several times on PBS’s Sesame Street. She has fond memories of getting down to Latin beats alongside Mr. Hooper and Big Bird.
Production Credits
Stephen Talbot
Executive Producer
Marco Werman
Host & Reporter
Alexis Bloom
Reporter
Arun Rath
Reporter
Mirissa Neff
Reporter