Gimlet Media British advertising firm WPP announced it was investing $5 million in Gimlet for a minority stake in the company. Alex Blumberg, a radio journalist, producer for "This American Life", and co-founder of "Planet Money", came up with the idea of a for-profit podcast network after the success of a T-shirt fundraising campaign for "Planet Money". He chose to document the foundation of Gimlet in the first season of "StartUp", the company's first show. Gimlet's co-founder, Matthew Lieber, holds an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management, is a former radio producer at WNYC, and worked as a management consultant
Gimlet Media 2017 Peabody Award for News, Radio, Podcast, and Public Service Programming. This is the first Peabody award for Gimlet Media. Hosted by the Story Pirates performance group, "Story Pirates" takes original stories submitted from kids and turns them into comedy shows. The Story Pirates crew includes actors, comedians, improvisers and musicians on a rotating basis. The show debuted on November 20, 2017. Hosted by Rachel Ward, "Chompers" is a twice daily show designed to help kids develop good tooth brushing habits. The show is designed to help kids brushing for the full two minutes that dentists recommend by integrating jokes,