A storytelling enthusiast

Kait Walsh, ’13, has come a long way since she walked into her first professional interview with her DVD documentary thesis, on how UR students market themselves, in hand. She had created her own interdisciplinary studies major of strategic marketing and communications with journalism studies and wanted to continue to tell stories through film and marketing.

Now a producer at Spotify, an audio streaming service, she puts giving others a voice at the core of her career, specifically through podcasts. Her favorite projects have been Spotify originals such as Harmonize, which examines the biases faced by marginalized communities and how music can be a catalyst for social change — and features John Legend and Pusha T.

“My job today is really to create, find, and amplify great content — whether it’s my own or whether it’s a brand’s or whether it’s an artist’s story — and tell that on our platform,” said Walsh.

Though Walsh focuses on long-form audio now, she started with long-form video and worked on the Weather Channel’s Emmy and Peabody Award-winning documentary The Real Death Valley while working at Efran Films, a New York City-based production company.

“I feel like the golden age of video was during my time in Efran Films, and I feel like the golden age of audio is approaching, if not already here, with podcasts,” she said.

Walsh’s passion for storytelling extends beyond the office. In 2019, she started Draft Queens, a weekly “pet project” podcast that recently highlighted fellow Spider Tim Hightower, ’08.

“The premise behind Draft Queens is to create a reliable and relatable podcast about sports hosted by women, so there’s a female voice in the podcasting space, but for everyone,” she said.