Art Space is a recurring element in the UpFront section of our print publication that spotlights a local artist or project making an impact in the city at large. Here’s what’s going on this month:

In 2019, following a series of disparaging remarks about Charm City made by then-President Donald Trump, one native Baltimorean took notice and was inspired to correct the narrative.

As the host of The Truth In This Art, podcaster Rob Lee (pictured,) aims to elevate his hometown through the stories of local creatives and small businesses, such as photographer Devin Allen, chef Carlos Raba of Clavel, and musician Sam Herring of Future Islands.

“My job is to help them show [listeners] what they do, but also who they are,” he says. Find almost daily episodes via Apple, Spotify, and here.

Last fall, you launched your own podcast, drumBOOTY, a recurring series that sheds light on untold black stories.

It’s something I always talked about doing, I’m very conservational and personable, but never took too seriously. You have to let things come to you. Then in the summer of 2017, Mask Magazine hit me up and asked if I wanted to do a podcast for them. It was only six episodes but after my first interview with [writer-activist] Bilphena [Yahwon], I just felt so good.

What is it you like about podcasts?

I like the performance aspect. The audience is not present with you, but you still have to turn something on in order to make it a good show and a good listen for people. As a child, I was always obsessed with talk shows. I went to school for journalism at the University of Baltimore and my goal was to be a media person. I wanted to be Oprah or Ricki Lake. When I would stay home from school, I would watch Jerry Springer, Jenny Jones, all of it. Talk-show TV was like a whole era. I think people my age—the elder millennials, the late 20-somethings and early 30-somethings—we gravitate towards podcasts because we grew up on that sort of conversational television and storytelling. People like story time, and podcasts fulfill that human desire to hear their stories told orally.

After years in the music scene, why did you choose this as your next medium?

Hosting and curating [art and music] shows was cool for a while, but it wore out my soul. It’s not feasible all the time for me. Without the events, I still felt like I needed something else to do beyond music. I’m a Gemini moon, so I need to be busy. And I realize that with podcasts, I can still do what I did with Kahlon [bi-monthly dance party at The Crown] through the guests that I bring on—filling a void, telling stories that haven’t been heard, and being innovative. There are not many shows out there that focus on giving queer people a voice, black people a voice, or women a voice, and especially targeting voices who are creative intellectuals. For me, it’s like In Living Color meets Ricki Lake.

Are there any podcasts out that there did inspire you?

Still Processing with my girl Jenna Wortham and Wesley Morris [via The New York Times]. You really enter their conversation. They have so much chemistry and they don’t always agree on things, which is good, too. A lot of podcasts are about news, politics, or pop culture. They don’t focus on specific themes. They can be dry or boring. I want drumBOOTY to feel like we’re in a living room, and show the world that people my age are having these kind of intimate, real conversations, outside of the election and the pulpit. People want that in their media

I want to bring on people are not really represented on the podcast platform. People like Bilphena, who is a writer, an activist, queer, an immigrant, and an academic intellectual. I also want to talk about topics that aren’t really talked about, like colorism, or desirability politics in dating, or anxiety disorders, or what it’s like to be an underground artist. I’m bringing [local rapper] Butch Dawson on just to talk about his album and being from Baltimore. For me, it’s just about elevating these voices. I want to tell as many untold stories from across the diaspora as possible. There’s something very valuable about having these kinds of discussions and letting them be streamed but also archived so they can be referred back to in the future.

Season two, which you are now independently producing, is now underway. How often will the episodes air?

Every week from fall into winter. I’m going ham. I’m not playing games this time. I’ve been studying and listening to other podcasts all the time. I’m super passionate about it. I think it has so much potential. It’s a platform I could really thrive in, and that it’s going to make me not only a better person but also a better artist. Everyone can learn something from these stories. I want to invite people into my world and my community. I want to give Baltimore a voice.

How did you get started in radio?
Completely by accident. I had no intentions of doing anything in radio. I have a master’s degree in conflict resolution so I thought I was going to be studying religious conflict in the Middle East. I started working as a content producer for an independent radio show called Interfaith Voices that’s housed at WAMU in Washington, D.C.

As a content producer, I was advising on stories and writing scripts. It was a very small staff so everybody pitched in and did a little it of everything. They taught me about the audio side of things and I learned that I liked that equally as much as I liked storytelling.

What drew you toward the audio side of storytelling?
For me, it was a new platform for creativity. I love mixing interesting sounds and the fact that you can tell a story in a unique way through audio. Plus, it’s a really intimate medium. Listeners are most likely listening [to podcasts] while they’re driving or at the gym. Either way, you’re alone with one person’s voice in your ear. It’s a new medium, but it’s also an old-school way of storytelling.

WYPR’s podcast The Noir and Bizarre explores strange local stories with an emphasis on Baltimore’s spooky history. Where did this idea come from?
Last fall, we had an internal podcast committee to look at ways that we could develop in-house podcasts. All of the producers had a chance to pitch ideas, and I was really interested in doing something that would bring out the quirkiness of Baltimore. I wanted to play with historic topics that would tell new, interesting stories and give listeners a real sense of place. Baltimore is a weird city—we all know a strange local story—and I wanted to bring those out for everyone to hear.

How does the podcast discuss familiar topics, such as the life of Edgar Allen Poe, in a new way?

I find that, while people might be familiar with the general idea of an aspect of Baltimore’s history, they may not know all of the details. I’m not just interested in telling people facts, but exploring bigger questions, such as why are we still reading [Poe]? Why does his work continue to resonate with people after so many years?

Tell us how you approach storytelling in the podcast.

I try to walk a line between being serious and being campy. . . .I don’t want to freak people out, and I’m not into horror, but I do like weird, off-the-beaten-path stories. I like adding a dose or suspense or an eerie vibe to an episode, but I’m not here to scare anybody. A lot of the creepy things that we’re interested in surround bigger questions that are really important. I think people respond well to it because it’s a safe way to play with ideas like death and mortality.

What do you want listeners to take away from the podcast?
I want people to appreciate the city and its history, even the weird parts. And I hope it encourages people to go places like The Walters Art Museum, The Baltimore Museum of Art, and the Peabody Library—these historical resources are right here, and they’re amazing. These spaces have so much history. Every piece of art in the museums and every book in the library was put there for a reason, and there’s a story behind each one.

Going forward, what do you think the distinction between regular programming and podcasts will look like for local radio stations?

One big difference is that podcasting is on-demand. One of the beauties of radio is that, when you turn on the dial, you don’t know what’s on and there’s a serendipitous nature to it. But for podcasts, you have to seek it out on your own. You inherently have a more motivated listener because they have to find it themselves. I think that since there are so many podcasts nowadays, if radio stations can tie [their shows] to something local and tangible, it will be more appealing to listeners.

What do you see for the future of The Noir and Bizarre?

This podcast was an experiment and I’m glad it’s going well—I think it gets better with each episode. I don’t think we’ll run out of creepy or interesting things in Baltimore to cover, and I hope I can keep exploring them for as long as possible.

For many National Public Radio listeners, his voice is a familiar one, coming across the airwaves to tell stories that explain the world to us a little more and find the extraordinary in the seemingly ordinary. Ira Glass, the host of This American Life, returns to his hometown in March for an appearance at Goucher College. He joined us to talk about This American Life’s two decades, the booming podcast scene, and what he listens to.

This American Life turned 20 last year. Can you believe it’s that old?
I do. And I can’t tell if it’s a good thing or a bad thing from a marketing perspective to tell people that the show is 20 years old. On the one hand, it makes it seem like an institution and, on the other hand, it seems like there’s no show that’s 20 years old. It just seems like that’s for old people then. I worry saying the show is 20 years old is a way of alienating potential listeners who are 19 and 25.

What do you think has been the most successful part of the show? Has that changed?
We’ve managed to find stories that are interesting enough that people would want to listen, that people continue to listen, and the audience continues to grow. The thing that’s changed is the kind of stories we do. If someone were to go back and listen to our archives, there were a lot more personal stories in the early years. We had a lot more writers come on the air, David Sedaris and other people like that. Now, it’s much more of a reported show, and honestly, [has] much more ambitious, investigative stories, but always with the idea that the story will be told with characters and scenes and a plot. The thing that was true of the show at the beginning was that it was a show where the stories were narratives, very traditional stories with characters, scenes, funny moments, and emotional moments. That was true when we were doing personal stories, and as we’ve taken on more serious subjects and things that are on the news, we’ve kept to that.

Do you think you’ll keep that investigative direction?
I think we’re going to keep that. We’re in the unusual situation now where because of the money we’ve made from podcasting, we have a little money to spend and it’s been nice to be able to spend that money on investigative reporting, to let a reporter or producer work on something for several months before it has to go on the air. It’s a luxury we definitely didn’t have at the beginning. We did a project a couple of years ago where we sent three reporters to a high school in Chicago over the course of five months. That’s a huge investment of time, energy and money. And that’s all because of podcasting, which brings in this new revenue we’ve never had before.

Podcasts have been such a boon, it seems like, for programs like yours. Did you foresee that any of this was going to happen?
Oh my god, just the opposite. It kind of just happened and we witnessed it gratefully, like we were the unusual recipients and holders of a winning lottery ticket. No, it’s very odd that our colleagues in newspapers and magazines, and even network TV news, are experiencing this tightening and one of the few places where journalism audiences are getting larger and where people are interested in long-form, detailed journalism is podcasting. It’s this crazy moment, and I’m grateful that it’s happening.

The business plan when we started Serial was if we could get 300,000 people to download each episode, we could sell underwriting and cover our costs. Sarah Koenig and Julie Snyder just referred to it as this little thing they were doing on the side. There was very much a feeling that no one was going to hear it, and the fact that 8 million people have downloaded every episode and it became a phenomenon unto itself, I wish we could say we knew enough to know that.

Does that change This American Life at all?
It just means we can consider stories with more cursing in them. (laughs) No, the serious answer is it doesn’t change what we do on the radio at all, but it does mean there are certain stories that we come across that we realize, oh, this could be a six-episode podcast, this could be a 10-episode podcast. So we have other things planned and other shows planned that we’ll be coming out with.

Why do you think podcasts have become so popular?
Honestly, I feel like we’re in a bubble right now. It will have to burst. They’re so popular because people are just discovering them and it’s sort of cool and new still, so that’s part of it. And some of the individual shows are popular just because they’re great shows on their own merit. Like Radiolab is a great show, those guys are super engaging, it’s beautifully produced, they pick great stories. It’s built to be pleasing. With a show like ours, what we’re doing is such traditional storytelling. I feel like the reason people like it is the same reason we on the staff like the stories. It’s just fun to lose yourself in a story and what to find out what’s going to happen and the feelings that go along with it. It’s the most traditional kinds of stuff. And then I think there’s a market niche thing. There’s certain times when it’s nice to have a story when you can’t keep your eyes on a TV screen: you’re walking down the street, you’re driving, you’re cooking.

What was it like for you to have the first Serial happen in your hometown?
I grew up within 10 minutes of everything that happens in the first episode. That Best Buy parking lot, that was our Best Buy. Security Square Mall was our mall, [so was] Reisterstown Road Mall, but for a fancy mall it was Security Square Mall. Reisterstown Road Plaza, excuse me, or The Plaza as we used to call it in the northwest suburbs. [Mimics teenage voice] ‘You going to The Plaza? Where’s Karen? She’s at The Plaza.’ And Woodlawn High School was the rival to Milford Mill High School, where I went, so I knew the whole world of it. It was very surreal, it was very strange for me. Especially when Sarah would go driving around, it would be like, oh, you’re driving around my old neighborhood.

What do you listen to? Any podcasts on your list?
Right now, my number one podcast that I like that we’re not making is Reply All, made over at Gimlet, which is one of our ex-producers Alex Blumberg, who started a for-profit company to make podcasts. They’re all pretty good, but that’s my favorite. And my wife is a huge fan of various comedy podcasts. She’ll play me stuff from ones she’ll know I’ll like. And then there are the occasional random shows I’ll start listening to. [Musician] St. Vincent has a music show, it’s not a podcast though, it’s on Apple music, so it’s a little harder to get. People call her up and ask her to make a playlist for a specific person for a specific moment in their life. And then she’ll talk to them on air and play the music for them. It’s just wonderful. For a long time I was a big Marc Maron fan. My nephew just started a podcast, the Creator-Destructor Podcast. It’s about music. If the purpose of this question is to get recommendations for podcasts I feel like my list is very idiosyncratic. But honestly, I haven’t had time to listen to much, or really to see much TV.

You listen to people talk all day long. Do you ever not want to listen to anything?
I do have trouble when I’m at the gym. On the treadmill, I need music to keep going. But I don’t get sick of listening to people talk. I do have a hard time with podcasts that are just people talking, that aren’t edited. When Serial came out last year, there were a bunch of podcasts about each episode, and I listened to a few of them, and I was like, “Oh my god, these people don’t understand pacing. Like, how dare these people do a podcast critiquing a podcast, they don’t understand how to pace a podcast.” It made me so angry that I wasn’t able to listen. I was very curious about what they had to say about our show, I just couldn’t stand it. I was just like, “Pacing, pacing, obey the basic laws of pacing.” I don’t want to seem like some crazy crank. I mean, it’s the golden age of podcasting, there are many, many wonderful podcasts out there. And even some of the podcasts that are just straight up interview podcasts, like Marc Maron, are beautifully made and the pacing is good. But there’s a whole world of podcasts out there where the fact that they can be any length, people don’t completely comprehend what good pacing could do to make them better.

What’s it like for you coming back to Baltimore?
It’s nice. Honestly, I just come in and go from the train station to see my dad and hang out with him. And we’ll go see a movie or we’ll go to the symphony or something, so I basically live in his orbit. There’s a lot of the city that I don’t see very much.

Do you get recognized when you visit?
A little. It’s totally nice; people are very normal about it. Public radio listeners treat me and other people on public radio as some sort of distant friend that they haven’t met yet. People are appropriate and not weird. It’s exactly at the level that a person would want it to be.

CTB Podcast
Description: An extension of the sardonic The City That Breeds blog, this podcast—hosted by Evan The Mayor, Dennis The Cynic, Casey The Kasem, and a rotating cast of guests—is a sometimes crude, always opinionated romp through Baltimore news and culture.
For Fans of: The Howard Stern Show
Platforms: FeedBurner, iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher

Undisclosed
Description: When Serial ended its first season in late 2014, a lot of questions remained about the 1999 murder of Woodlawn High School senior Hae Min Lee and the subsequent conviction of her ex-boyfriend, Adnan Syed. Hosted by Rabia Chaudry (yes, the Rabia who first brought the case to Serial host Sarah Koenig’s attention), this podcast continues the investigation with help from law school professor Colin Miller and D.C.-based attorney Susan Simpson.
For Fans of: Serial
Platforms: AudioBoom, iTunes

Section 336
Description: We have it on good authority that even some MASN employees listen to brothers Josh and Matt Sroka and their childhood-friend-turned-in-law, Bert Rode, as they discuss the Ravens, Orioles, Terps, and other sports and pop-culture news of the week.
For Fans of: The Bill Simmons Podcast
Platforms: iTunes

Stoop Storytelling
Description: For the past 10 years, Stoop Storytelling has brought together Baltimoreans from all walks of life to tell stories around a dedicated theme. (Full disclosure: Baltimore magazine is a media sponsor of the series.) These recordings bring those revealing speakers to your speakers.
For fans of: This American Life
Platforms: iTunes

Keep Calm and Rock On
Description: Towson High grads Michael Koehler, Jamie Green, and Angelo Christino discuss the latest rock news and welcome big-name guests like E Street Band member Nils Lofgren and veteran Rolling Stone editor Anthony DeCurtis.
For Fans of: U Talkin’ U2 To Me?
Platforms: iTunes

PodMed
Description: Hosted by Elizabeth Tracey, director of electronic media for Johns Hopkins Medicine, and Dr. Rick Lange, a professor of medicine at Hopkins, this weekly podcast is a brief digest of the latest health headlines, covering everything from sleep to the safety of silicone breast implants.
For Fans of: Science Friday
Platforms: iTunes

Enoch Pratt Free Library Writers LIVE
Description: Can’t make it to the Pratt to see your favorite scribe? These recordings are the next best thing, capturing poetry readings, lectures, and appearances by writers of both local and national renown.
For fans of: Longform Podcast
Platforms: iTunes

The Digression Sessions
Descriptions: Baltimore comics Mike Moran and Josh Kuderna riff on comedy, life, and pop culture in this weekly(ish) podcast. They often get great guests as well, including national comedians such as Patton Oswalt, Matt Walsh, and Ralphie May.
For fans of: WTF with Marc Maron
Platforms: iTunes, Stitcher

The Hawk Chronicles
Description: This old-timey radio series follows Kate Hawk, a Baltimore police detective who becomes an intergalactic crime-fighter after finding a TARDIS-like capsule on top of a grocery store in Little Italy.
For Fans of: Welcome to Night Vale
Platforms: The Eastern Shore’s WCEM-AM 1240 every Friday at 12:30 p.m.

The Startup Soirée Podcast
Description: A continuation of the Startup Soirée business networking organization, each episode features an interview with a local entrepreneur.
For Fans of: Foundation
Platforms: iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher