Vox VPs Allison Rockey and Liz Kelly Nelson today announced that Katherine Wells is joining the network as editorial director of explanatory audio, a new role. Wells will oversee all of Vox’s narrative shows, including Unexplainable and The Impact, as well as lead efforts to pilot and develop a new crop of narrative explanatory shows in 2022. These shows will build on Vox’s mission of giving context to the news and world, providing clarity to listeners while sparking curiosity. Wells starts her new role in October.

“We’ve long admired Katherine’s work and when we spoke with her I sensed a real joy from her in learning something new. That kind of curiosity is contagious and exactly what we were looking for in our new editorial director. We have an ambitious plan and we can’t wait to dig in with Katherine and get started,” said Rockey.

“With the launch of Unexplainable earlier this year, we discovered our audience’s appetite for more aurally-rich evergreen explanatory podcasts. Katherine will be leading efforts to pilot and launch a growing slate of shows to build out that category with care and creativity,” said Nelson.

Wells joins Vox from The Atlantic, where she was the executive producer of podcasts. At The Atlantic she developed several new shows, including The Experiment and the Peabody Award-winning series Floodlines. Prior to that, she oversaw the launch of Gimlet Media’s Every Little Thing. She has also been a producer for Radiolab’s More Perfect, Freakonomics Radio, Science Friday, and many other shows.

Editor-in-Chief of Vox Swati Sharma announced today that Ryan McCarthy is joining the network as the editorial director for politics, policy and society. In this role, McCarthy will oversee the politics and policy team and stories about America — coverage that examines criminal justice, the courts, democracy reform, race, religion, and gender, among other topics. He’ll work with the stellar team in place to strengthen Vox’s journalism, identify political trends and deliver clarity on the most important policies, controversies, or news moments. He will start this new role September 20.

“Ryan McCarthy’s reputation in journalism embodies everything we do here at Vox. Ryan’s dedication to growing a diverse and inclusive team, his commitment to high editorial standards and his collegiality are some of the qualities that spoke to us,” said Swati Sharma.

Prior to joining Vox, McCarthy did investigative reporting for ProPublica, where he covered battles over voting rights, election administration and misinformation during the 2020 election. Previously, he served as the editor-in-chief of VICE News, where he ran its digital newsroom, including a global team of reporters, editors and producers, started its audio division, and helped launch VICE News Tonight on HBO. Last year, Ryan also helped launch Rest of World, a global nonprofit newsroom that covers technology’s impact outside of the Western world. He’s also been an editor at The New York Times, The Washington Post and Reuters.