Daily Texan alumna Laura Beil, who created the popular Dr. Death podcast and the upcoming podcast “Bad Batch,” will be on the UT campus at Moody College of Communication on Oct. 24 for “A Conversation With Laura Beil.”
She joins Haley Butler, also a Daily Texan alum and now senior producer for The Drag, a Moody College audio production house, for the discussion to be held in BMC 2.106.
Dr. Death is a 2018 podcast produced by Wondery that tells the story of Christopher Duntsch, a Texas surgeon who was convicted of gross malpractice after thirty-one of his patients were left seriously injured after he operated on them, and two patients died during his operation. The podcast is hosted and reported by Beil.
The original 10-episode “Dr. Death” podcast launched in September 2018 and has been downloaded over 50 million time to date, landing the No. 5 spot on Podtrac’s list of top podcasts released last year.
Robert Quigley, Innovation Director and Associate Professor of Practice at the School of Journalism within Moody, said “The Drag” is an audio production house within the Journalism school.
“We have three long-form podcasts in production,” Quigley said. “Our first (in partnership with KUT) will come out in the spring about the 2005 West Campus murder of Jennifer Cave.
“We are calling it “The Orange Tree” – the name of the condominiums where it happened on Rio Grande and 26th streets. Our students managed to land interviews with more than 30 sources, including the victim’s family and the man who was convicted,” Quigley said.
“We’re partnering with media organizations but doing the reporting/production in the journalism school. Others in the works are “American Bloodline,” a GateHouse/American-Statesman partnership about I-35. Our students take a road trip from Laredo to Duluth and tell the stories along the way, from immigration to Americana,” Quigley said.
Another project has the working title of “Crooked Power,” about the 2011 crackdown by a tyrant in Ecuador on press freedoms (partnering with El Universo in Ecuador). The son of a newspaper owner in Ecuador is a current student and is telling the story of when his family was under the dictator’s thumb.