iHeartMedia is adapting some of its most popular podcasts for the page.
On Thursday, the media company’s iHeartPodcast Network and Flatiron Books announced a new imprint, Stuff You Should Read: An iHeartBook, that will begin by publishing four books based on iHeartRadio’s slate of Stuff You Should Know podcasts. The first book in the series, Stuff You Should Know: An Incomplete Compendium of Mostly Interesting Things — written by Stuff You Should Know hosts Josh Clark and Chuck Bryant — is slated for release on September 29, 2020.
“Podcasting is exploding right now, with some of the best and brightest minds launching shows in this medium,” said iHeartPodcast Network president Conal Byrne in a statement. “We wanted to take a lot of that creativity and extend it into another amazing medium, serving it up in a whole new way and potentially to a whole new audience — readers. We found the perfect partner in Flatiron to launch our first four titles, with more to come.”
An Incomplete Compendium will tackle many of the subjects Clark and Bryant have covered on the podcast, including Murphy beds, facial hair and the psychology of being lost.
The new publishing imprint will be led by Flatiron executive editor Sarah Murphy and publish at least one book per year. Future books will include adaptations of other iHeart curiosity podcasts including Stuff You Missed in History Class, Stuff They Don’t Want You to Know and Stuff Mom Never Told You. Each book will be released in both adult and young reader editions, the latter by Imprint, a part of Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group.
“Stuff You Should Know is as addictive as Cheese Doodles, full of the kind of fascinating details that book-lovers will love,” added Flatiron Books president Bob Miller. “Who doesn’t want to know how water treatment plants work? Or the history of the donut? We’re thrilled to be partnering with the SYSK team and iHeartRadio to bring this delightful information to bookstores this fall.”
Stuff You Should Know: An Incomplete Compendium of Mostly Interesting Things is now available for pre-order.
iHeartMedia, which laid off dozens of employees last month, has been doubling down on its podcast content of late. In October 2017, the company unveiled its “Podcast, Meet Broadcast” initiative, which embeds iHeart’s most popular podcasts across hundreds of iHeartMedia radio stations. The following September, the company acquired Stuff Media, home to the Stuff You Should Know franchise as well as series like Atlanta Monster and The Daily Zeitgeist. More recently, it launched a new podcast network with Will Ferrell and added Questlove’s Questlove Supreme (previously on Pandora) to a lineup that also includes original shows such as Chelsea Handler: Life Will Be the Death of Me, Insomniac, Sleepwalkers, Noble Blood and Committed.