Emmy Award Winning Producer Kurt Engfehr and NAACP Image Award Nominee Ray Nowosielski Team Up With iHeartPodcasts For New Series “George Bailey Was Never Born”
The 10-part series takes a definitive look at “It’s a Wonderful Life,” one of the most popular movies of all time, the story of Americans’ decades-long love affair with this cultural institution and how it may offer a light down the path we walk today
NEW YORK – November 21, 2023 – Today, iHeartPodcasts, Emmy Award-winning producer Kurt Engher and 2022 NAACP Image Award Outstanding Podcast nominee Ray Nowosielski announced the release of “George Bailey Was Never Born,” a one-of-a-kind podcast experience that takes a definitive look at “It’s a Wonderful Life,” one of the most popular holiday movies of all time. The new series is available now on the iHeartRadio app and everywhere podcasts are heard.
The series is a co-production of iHeartMedia and Double Asterisk, in association with True Stories, created by Engfehr, editor-producer of Oscar- and Palme d’Or-winning documentaries from director Michael Moore, and Nowosielski, producer of “Gumbo Coalition,” which began streaming on Max Nov. 6th, and a story producer on “The Super Models,” streaming on Apple TV since September.
Joseph returns to narrate the podcast, reprising the character who tells fellow angel Clarence the story of Jimmy Stewart’s George Bailey over the 1947 Frank Capra directed classic. The podcast features conversations with Stewart's daughter Kelly Stewart Harcourt, co-star Donna Reed's daughter Mary Owen, Capra's grandchildren Frank Capra III and Monica Capra Hodges, original story writer Philip Van Doren Stern’s grandchildren and others, as well as American influencers, artists and real modern small-town corollaries to the characters from the movie.
“George Bailey Was Never Born” details many never-before-told stories, ranging from the failure by Rashida Jones’ grandfather to renew the film's copyright to how Republic managed to regain control of it in 1993, from how the New York Times helped start a popular phenomenon of upside-downing the meaning of “It’s a Wonderful Life” to the abolitionist and anti-fascist intentions behind the movie’s creation, with implications for the MAGA movement today, and much more.
Three episodes take listeners inside the "real" Bedford Falls, Seneca Falls, New York, one spotlighting community banker Menzo Case's efforts to bring affordable housing there through his own Seneca County Habitat For Humanity Bailey Park. Case passed away suddenly of a heart attack on October 13th, leaving that initiative in doubt. Double Asterisk is donating a portion of proceeds to Bailey Park and encouraging listener donations to that, to their local Habitat for Humanity and to AFSP, in honor of the movie's twin causes of affordable homeownership and suicide prevention.
“George Bailey Was Never Born” is distributed by iHeartPodcasts.
Podcast Embed Code:
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Link To Cover Art here
Visit iHeart.com/apps to download iHeartRadio and listen to “George Bailey Was Never Born” on your favorite device.
About Double Asterisk
Double Asterisk, Inc., is the documentary and podcast media company of John Duffy and Ray Nowosielski. DA’s first major podcast series, After the Uprising, was nominated for a 2022 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Podcast. Visit DoubleAsteriskMedia.com for more company information.