Hot Docs Podcast Festival Showcase

Hot Docs is pleased to announce that its upcoming 30th-anniversary edition, April 27 to May 7, will feature a slate of today’s hottest podcasts live on stage in the documentary festival’s first-ever non-fiction audio-storytelling program.

The Hot Docs Podcast Festival Showcase will offer audiences a taste of the exceptional programming found at the organization’s popular Podcast Festival, an annual celebration of the world’s most talented audio storytellers that’s set to return live for its seventh year this fall. Embracing its commitment to sharing true-life stories, Hot Docs is thrilled to introduce this new dimension to its Festival in this milestone year and to engage its famously curious audiences in new ways. The Podcast Festival Showcase at this year’s Hot Docs Festival will present a tightly curated program of live presentations for the podcast-loving public, and industry panels and master classes for audio creators and non-fiction storytellers of all backgrounds and experience levels. The Hot Docs Podcast Festival Showcase is made possible with the support of Lead Sponsor CBC Podcasts.

May 4 // “The Story I Never Thought I Would Tell”: A Night of Surprising Stories with CBC Podcasts
In this intimate evening of live storytelling, the stars of the CBC’s hottest podcasts flip the mic on themselves, sharing personal stories they’ve always wanted to tell.

May 5 // Radiolab
This award-winning show from WNYC Studios brings its insatiable curiosity to Hot Docs, presenting a thrilling live event based on its Mixtape series, a rich cultural history of the cassette tape.

May 6 // “On with Kara Swisher” Live Featuring Special Guest Lilly Singh
In this exclusive live episode, presented on the Hot Docs stage, Kara Swisher sits down with multihyphenate actress, producer, writer, digital pioneer, and NYT bestselling author Lilly Singh for a candid conversation about the Canadian renaissance woman’s latest creative projects.

May 6 // Scamfluencers
For their first-ever live show in Canada, the show’s Canadian co-hosts, culture writers Scaachi Koul and Sarah Hagi, join Hot Docs for a fun-filled evening of Scamfluencer culture.

May 7 // The Happiness Lab Featuring Special Guest Gretchen Rubin
Based on the psychology course she teaches at Yale—the most popular class in the university’s 300-year history—The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos is a mind-expanding podcast on the science of happiness.