Meet the SOTRU Dynamos
Al Letson
Host • Executive Producer • Idea Man • Top Dog
Al Letson has received national recognition and built a devoted fan base with soul-stirring, interdisciplinary work. He established himself early in his career as a heavyweight in the Poetry Slam Movement, which garnered artistic credibility and renown. Performing on a number of national, regional and local stages including HBO’s Def Poetry Jam, CBS’s Final Four PreGame Show and commercial projects for Sony, the Florida Times Union, Adobe Software and the Doorpost Film Project, Al has honed his professional voice and artistic sensibilities into a unique brand that is all his own. After winning the Public Radio Talent Quest, Al received a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to create 3 episodes of his public radio show concept State of the Re:Union. His company finished their first grant in August of 2009 and has just been awarded one of the largest public radio grants ever given to a single project to produce a full season of shows.
Bowling Team Affiliation: Blue Thunder
Ian DeSousa
Creative Director • Executive Producer • Problem Solver • Shot Caller
Ian Desousa has more than a decade of successful management experience, formal design training and displayed ability to seamlessly shift to multiple mediums and medias. A graphic designer by trade, Ian transitioned from print and digital media to multimedia project management and has repeatedly directed projects that involve numerous facets, challenges and personalities to successful conclusion.
During his seven-year tenure at Web.com, Ian moved from Designer to Director of Design Services where he was responsible for the production and output of the company’s flagship product. His position demanded not only maintaining, but elevating graphic standards along with the challenges of managing a large group of people to preserve a fine balance of productivity and quality. Ian’s professional experience and grasp for multimedia solutions that are effective and engaging have made him the perfect fit in his responsibilities as Creative Director, Business Manager, and Multimedia Project Manager.
Bowling Team Affiliation: Blue Thunder
Taki Telonidis
Content and Story Editor • Guiding Hand • Production Finesse • Voice of Reason
Taki Telonidis has collaborated with host Al Letson since 2007, when the original pilot for State of the Re:Union took top prize in a national talent quest that launched Al’s career in radio. Taki lives in Salt Lake City and is the media producer for the Western Folklife Center, working with the center’s founder Hal Cannon to produce features about the West for public radio and television. Taki came to the West from NPR in Washington, where he was a producer on Morning Edition before becoming Senior Producer of Weekend All Things Considered. He has received the Overseas Press Club Award for Breaking News, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting Gold and Silver Awards, and a Rocky Mountain Emmy Award.
Zak Rosen
Radio Producer · Multimedia Collaborator · Community Builder · Pesto Enthusiast
As the primary producer of State of the Re:Union’s first episode, “Motorcity Rebound,” Zak was responsible for generating story ideas, conducting field interviews, co-writing and editing scripts, and mixing the final version of the special. Additionally, with Al Letson at the helm, he took part in brainstorming and manifesting the tone of the show, and how that tone will evolve from episode to episode. Prior to working on SOTRU, Zak produced Detroit Today; WDET’s daily local affairs program. He also contributed stories to Studio 360, The Environment Report, The Splendid Table, World Vision Report, and Transom.org. Zak is a proud board member of Detroit’s InsideOut Literary Arts Project. He also sits happily on the steering committee of Detroit: City of Hope, “An evolving communal vision that calls Detroit into a place where humanity lives with purpose and dignity.” All this stuff has led Zak to better understand how and why creating community can and should be represented on the radio and just as importantly, on the web.
Tina Antolini
Radio Producer · Relentless Reporter · Can-Do Chick · Blues Singer
Since she started making radio at the tender age of 15, Tina Antolini has produced stories on everything from the sex lives of lobsters to Iraqi religious minorities to a secret bunker in the woods of Massachusetts that houses an archive of East German films. She joins State of the Re: Union after several years as a reporter, producer and host at WFCR, the NPR-affiliate for Western New England. She’s also produced for the science and nature program Pulse of the Planet, and for a slew of national NPR and PRI programs. Her radio stories have won numerous awards, including a 2009 Gracie Award from American Women in Radio and Television for her series documenting the transgender community in western Massachusetts. Antolini received her B.A. in Ethnomusicology and American Studies from Hampshire College, and is also a graduate of the radio program at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies. She can bake a mean apple pie, sing a killer cover of “Mustang Sally,” and will happily spend hours in a cafe with a stack of books and newspapers to occupy her.
Brie Burge
Business Manager • Multimedia Producer • Information Hub • Lady of the House
Brie Burge’s career has been a media medley, a delicious stew if you will. She started in broadcast journalism at WFOR, the CBS owned-and-operated TV station in Miami. She rose from Associate News Producer to 6pm News Producer in her 4+ years there. After the never-ending 2005 hurricane season (Rita, Katrina, Wilma) took its toll on her sanity (some claim that she has never fully regained), she decided to try something new. Brie moved to Jacksonville and began as a website copywriter and designer for Web.com, and worked with both Ian and Brenton where it was a regular party! She was promoted to Quality Control Supervisor, then to Quality Control Manager – working as the company’s managing editor. From there, Brie followed her buddy Brenton, who had to bribe her with the promise of never-ending and really bad Christopher Walken impressions, to Vizergy, an industry leader in online hospitality marketing and website design. She honed her marketing skills as Client Marketing Services Manager, managing internet marketing campaigns for some of the big names in the hospitality industry, including Marriott and Pacifica Hotel Company. Brie is obsessed with Canes and Dolphins football, loves traveling with her husband Jeff, enjoys hitting the high notes during Bon Jovi songs in karaoke and frequently adds -tastic and uber- to random words.
Bowling Team Affiliation: B-Rain
Brenton Crozier
Multimedia Producer • Wordsmith • Sounds Host • Music Man
Brenton Crozier started as a print journalism major and shifted to website copywriting and content editing early in his career, mainly because of a lack of academic discipline. Working for Web.com, the largest provider of small to medium business websites in the country, Brenton started as a copywriter and quickly worked through the ranks to become a Design and Copywriting Supervisor and then shortly after that, the company’s Quality Control Manager at which point he had a proclivity for calling himself the “Sheriff.” After a successful period as QA Manager for Web.com, Brenton renewed his focus on copywriting with the Head Copywriter position at Vizergy, an industry leader in online hospitality marketing and web design. He has worked with both Al and Ian for a number of years in various capacities, mainly lending his prose and opinions.
In addition to his professional experience, Brenton has worked on various blogs, Internet radio projects and video podcasts, always striving to use the latest multimedia technologies as tools to create a seamless audience experience . . . and to rock your socks off. Brenton is an extremely proud father of his 2-year old daughter Elise, still has dreams of playing guitar in the hippest indie rock band in town (you know, the type of thing responsible people abandon at a certain age) and has a rather disfunctional love for the NFL and fantasy football (I’m talking ulcer enducing).
Bowling Team Affiliation: B-Rain
Meet the SOTRU Interns
Marietta Synodis
After receiving her B.A. in International Studies and French from Southern Methodist University, Marietta joined Teach for America and was placed in a school in the South Bronx. Her life outside of the classroom has been filled with filmmaking, storytelling, and advocacy – particularly for the California High-Speed Rail, which she spent 16 months in California researching, documenting and developing a website aimed at educating voters. Marietta began focusing on radio in 2009 and enjoys the thrill of capturing the sounds of a great story and sharing them with others.
Macon Reed
Macon Reed came to radio from a diverse background in interdisciplinary art and years of extensive travel. She received her BFA in Sculpture and Extended Media from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2007. She also studied physical theater and voice at the Dah Theater International Research Center in Belgrade, Serbia, and socially engaged art at The Kitchen in New York City. It was in her art studio that she fell in love with the intimacy of radio, eventually leading her to study radio documentary production at the Salt Institute of Documentary Studies in Portland, Maine, in 2010. She will be teaching radio at the Brown Ledge Gap Year Program in Vermont this fall and is very excited to be working with the fabulous folks at SOTRU.
Laura Herberg
While attending Lewis & Clark College, Laura produced her first short documentary on urine therapy, the process of drinking one’s own urine for health benefits. After serving an AmeriCorps year in “Wild and Wonderful” West Virginia, Laura moved to Portland, ME where she learned to make radio at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies. Currently Laura is trying to decide what new city to settle down in for a bit (she’s lived in six places over the past eight years and is exhausted). SOTRU isn’t helping her decide at all because with each new episode she finds she’s tacking another city onto her list!
Lynda-Marie Taurasi
As Lynda-Marie Taurasi transitions her career from commericial to public radio, she is excited to work with SOTRU staff. She is honing her audio skills at The Center of Documentary Studies at Duke University, and currently freelances for Free Speech Radio News. Previously, she served as news director for a community radio station in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and won the station a Regional Edward R. Murrow award for Best Use of Sound. Before all of this, she worked at MTV Radio Network.
Sarah Danson
Sarah graduated from Hampshire College in May, 2010 with a BA in radio production and music history. During the spring of 2009, she attended the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies in the radio track. Her senior thesis was producing two radio documentaries on music and social movements, specifically focusing on alternative marching bands and the gay African-American disco artist Sylvester. She came to State of the ReUnion to watch auditory and content rich radio be made from start to finish and is very, very excited to be working with the amazing SOTRU team.
Raphaella Bennin
Raphaella has spent the last five years as a disability rights advocate, most recently, at the San Francisco Mayor’s Office on disability, and she currently sits on the San Francisco Mayor’s Disability Council. In 2009, she began to explore her interest in media at Citizen Film, a documentary film non-profit. Along with interning at SOTRU, she is working for Pushing Limits, a show on issues in the disability community at Berkeley’s Pacifica station. She is excited to be working with SOTRU to learn about the unique communities that make up our country, and to help share those inspiring stories.
