Jad Abumrad, Distinguished Research Professor of Communication of Science and Technology and creator of award-winning series like Radiolab, More Perfect, Dolly Parton's America and Fela Kuti: Fear No Man, set out in life to be a composer.
Perhaps a poet, maybe a fiction writer, but it was music, Abumrad said, that was "running through me constantly."
He spent his tween-age years logging hours at the piano in a practice room at Blair School of Music-a creative solution to childcare from parents who were both Vanderbilt faculty.
As a University School of Nashville student tasked with finding an internship, he wandered into live recording sessions on Nashville's Music Row and listened in.
Music was running through me constantly. -Jad Abumrad
At Oberlin College, he studied music composition and creative writing, and after graduation, he took a stab at composing and magazine writing in New York City. The real world had other plans.
"Out of school, I ended up trying to do both and realized that it's really hard, so I kind of failed at both," Abumrad said. "Maybe that's putting it too strongly, but I just couldn't get any traction writing music or [creative] writing."
"I had one of those post-collegiate crises where you're like, 'Who am I?' And Karla, then my girlfriend, now my wife, on the platform of the G train, was like, 'You like to write, you like to make music-why don't you think about radio?'"
A KNACK FOR STORYTELLING
Abumrad made his way to WBAI, a New York City community radio station, and became a volunteer. Day one, he was conducting interviews out in the field-something he'd never done. Right from the start, he was hooked.
"It was so amazing to go out and talk to people, come back and put the audio onto these strips of tape," Abumrad said. "Then you cut the tape, you write interstitial pieces between Tape One and Tape Two, then it's like, 3 p.m., you have an audience and you're on the air. The whole thing was like, 'Oh my God, this is what I wanna do with my life.'"
He was drawn to the tactile nature of radio-compliments of WBAI's 1970s-era equipment-and the ease of storytelling. Unlike fiction and poetry, interviewing someone and shaping their words into a story was an antidote to his writer's block.
"I went to school for creative writing-fiction, poetry, which I tried, but I find I would just get writer's block," Abumrad said. "So initially, I got attracted to the writing and storytelling part [of radio] because it felt like a shortcut, but I didn't really know how to tell a story at that point."
Abumrad's crash course in journalistic norms happened on the air. He kept what resonated and left the rest, ultimately granting himself permission to shape people's words in artful and musical ways.
A SHOW IS BORN
"I got into the business of storytelling through the side door," Abumrad said. "I didn't think it was a thing that I would be doing-at least not true stories, you know?"
Abumrad worked a slew of random jobs so he could continue volunteering at the station, freelancing on the side, putting his new skill set into practice. His first paid piece, a video project for National Public Radio, opened the door to his next 20 years.
"I sort of wormed my way into WNYC, which is the NPR station," Abumrad said. "I started freelancing a little bit. And then, 9/11 happened here in New York, and the station changed its entire strategy."
The scheduling change-from mostly classical music with some news every hour, to news all day with a bit of music at night-resulted in several openings on the AM frequency, and it presented Abumrad with a serendipitous opportunity.
"I just happened to be in the hall when the program director of the station was like, 'I need someone to do something at 8 p.m. on Sunday nights.' A week later, I was hosting what became Radiolab."
Abumrad produced Radiolab, a show he describes as, at its outset, "a science show for poets," alone in the basement of his home for the first few years. It effectively made him a writer and composer.
"There were all these different jobs connected to it, and it kind of became my life," Abumrad said. "And I actually got to be a composer through that, because I was writing all the music for the show."
From a party of one to a bustling newsroom of 30, Radiolab's content shifted as Abumrad's interests did, leading to spin-offs like More Perfect, which breaks down the Supreme Court for everyday people, and Dolly Parton's America, an exploration of the iconography of Dolly Parton.
After 20 years of Radiolab, Abumrad entrusted the keys to his team and embarked upon a mission to tackle his next thing-telling stories that spark change and connection. That's how he got to Vanderbilt.
TELLING 21ST CENTURY STORIES
Abumrad joined Vanderbilt's research faculty in 2022. At the center of his work-mentoring students, advising the chancellor's office, conducting research-is a belief that a well-told story can bring people together and make life more colorful.
With the chancellor's office, he helps tell stories the university is excited about. Quantum Potential, a 2023 video series chronicling Vanderbilt researchers and their work, was Abumrad's brainchild. The series' success led Vanderbilt University Provost C. Cybele Raver to expand it into a podcast.
He mentors students on personal projects, immersion projects and their independent studies, and he is building out a semester-long fellowship exploring the basics of visual storytelling-how to tell stories that resonate with audiences and garner engagement.
"They'll learn the basics of, how do you tell a story so that it connects with somebody? And how do you get attention for your story?" Abumrad said. "How do you get somebody to stop what they're doing-which is increasingly hard these days-and just connect with the thing you're doing so that you have some value that can enhance your life."
At Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Abumrad is working on a pilot research program studying the effects of stories on cancer patients in treatment.
"One of the things I'm super excited about at Vanderbilt is working with the medical center to study the effects that stories have on people who are being treated at Ingram for cancer," Abumrad said. "Does the sharing and receiving of stories help throughout that journey? What are the kinds of stories that help? How might we make these spaces where people have to wait-the cavernous waiting room-a space where we're all in a community together?"
From the VUMC pilot to Fela Kuti: Fear No Man, his first Vanderbilt-studio-produced series, building community through art is the goal.
"Fela Kuti for me was-I felt like I needed to hear a story to remind myself, and then the audience, that music is powerful," Abumrad said. "That, with just music, you can move people into action. I believe art can save us, and I needed to tell myself that and tell people stories that can make that point."
The series, which netted Abumrad his fourth Peabody Award, he describes as having "Vanderbilt's fingerprints all over it."
It was funded, in part, by a gift from the chancellor's office and recorded in Studio 608 in Vanderbilt's Central Library. Additionally, Abumrad asked fellow Vanderbilt faculty to lend him a hand. Moses Ochono, Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of History, is featured in the series and served as Abumrad's editorial guide-gut-checking his reporting along the way to make sure everything sounded right.
For Abumrad, the Peabody win-alongside the series' clear Vanderbilt imprint-felt like a full-circle moment.
"It's just a great validation. In the way that faculty publish, this feels like a publication, a Vanderbilt publication," Abumrad said. "And I'm proud of that."
