The Team

Jeff Berman has had the kind of career that lends itself to the game Two Truths And A Lie. After starting as a public defender representing children facing life in prison, he moved to Capitol Hill where he served as Chief Counsel to US Senator Chuck Schumer. Jeff entered the private sector at MySpace overseeing policy before moving to the business side where he ultimately led the content, marketing, and sales teams. Jeff has run digital media at the NFL, been part of the first and only team ever to simultaneously chart 7 of the top 10 App Store apps, and most recently co-founded Magnet Companies where he helped launch TOGETHXR and LoveSeen along with leading the Series A investment in Dear Media.

After the 2016 election, Jeff helped start and continues to serve on the board of Protect Democracy, a non-partisan organization whose mission is as urgent as it is self-evident. He has been CEO and a re-founder of WaitWhat since September 2023.

Prior to co-founding WaitWhat in January 2017, June headed up media for TED, building its digital media operations from the ground up. In 2006, she launched TED Talks on the Internet. And in 2009, she introduced the TED Open Translation Project, the largest subtitling effort in the world, with 120 languages, 20K translators and 100K translations. She also co-hosted the annual TED Conference with Chris Anderson and co-founded TEDWomen with Pat Mitchell.

Deron is the co-founder and Chief Business Officer of WaitWhat, the media organization behind Masters of Scale, Meditative Story and Spark & Fire. Prior to co-founding WaitWhat in January 2017, Deron served alongside June Cohen on the executive team at TED where he built nearly 100 partnerships that grew TED’s audience to over 100 million per month. His love and unique skill set for creating successful partnerships resulted in hits like the TED Radio Hour on NPR, TED Weekends on The Huffington Post, TED in Cinemas with Fandango, TED Shows on Netflix, TED English with National Geographic Learning, and international collaborations throughout Asia, Latin America, The Middle East and Europe. Deron negotiated significant funding for TED-Ed from Google and a joint venture with Simon & Schuster to relaunch TED Books, among other collaborations that brought millions of dollars in new annual revenue. Prior to TED, Deron served as Vice President of Digital Ventures for PBS, where he launched the kids cable network Sprout. He holds an MBA degree from McGill University in Montreal.

Jai Punjabi is Head of Development and Production at WaitWhat. He produced the feature film Patang (The Kite), which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival, played in competition at the Tribeca Film Festival, and earned a New York Times Critic’s Pick and 4 stars from Roger Ebert. Alongside his career in film, Jai has led product management teams at major digital media companies including Vimeo, TED, and Major League Baseball.

Aaron has worked for WaitWhat since 2020, as the mixing and mastering engineer for Rapid Response and Masters of Scale, among other company-developed projects. He started his audio journey assisting famed recording engineer Jason Corsaro, before becoming the Head Engineer at Converse Rubber Tracks (CRT) in Brooklyn, NY. During his time at CRT, Aaron worked with thousands of artists from around the world and traveled as part of a global recording initiative to Johannesburg, Amsterdam, Berlin, Paris, Barcelona, Rio de Janeiro, London, and throughout North America. During his career as an audio engineer Aaron has had the pleasure of working with many high-profile artists including U2, Maggie Rogers, Third Eye Blind, The Roots, Grandmaster Flash, Matt and Kim, Foster The People, Vacationer, and The Hold Steady.

Alex Morris is a writer for WaitWhat’s business podcast Masters of Scale. Prior to joining the WaitWhat team, he performed and taught improv at The Free Association Theatre. His work in comedy led him to multiple summers at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival. He’s also written and directed a number of short films.

As Head of Content Operations at WaitWhat, Alfonso uses his unique combination of experience in design, audio, and education to empower those around him to do great work while facilitating internal communications and planning. His responsibilities include overseeing production for Wait What’s shows and supporting its creative teams across the board in the creation of world class content. 

Prior to joining the team, Alfonso acted as Managing Director at nclud, a D.C.-based digital creative agency, with past clients including Amazon, Bethesda Softworks, RAINN, and Giffords. His past experience also includes producing design courses for General Assembly, assistant engineering and digital recording instruction at D.C.’s famed Omega Recording Studios, and a formative two years as a Tower Records clerk. After spending most of his life in D.C, he recently relocated to Los Angeles and can usually be found at a live music venue or with a guitar and his two dogs in his home studio.

Anya is a native to Los Angeles and began her journey in production and storytelling right out of high school. She worked as part of the content development and writing team at Mammoth Media for their app Yarn, helping to build out their narrative catalogue across a wide spectrum of genres. While at Mammoth she collaborated with Nick Hornsby, The CW, Headspace, and Marvel to name a few. Her experience in the audio landscape began as the studio manager for Unbridled Sound, a post audio production house. She oversaw sound design and sound editing for projects across networks like ABC, Comedy Central, and Netflix, as well as major motion pictures. She then transitioned to Rabbit Grin productions, the team behind Armchair Expert with Dax Sheppard and several popular podcasts. While at Rabbit Grin Anya produced Ellen Pompeo’s interview style podcast Tell Me. Anya’s passion for both writing and acting led her to co-found Sidecar Pictures, a women-run production company.

After teaching meditation to groups for four years, Brandon fell in love with creating his own shows. Soon after the passion developed, he built a podcast studio in his Michigan hometown and began freelance podcast producing for others. Before joining WaitWhat, Brandon spent time at Kast Media, a Los Angeles based podcast network, as a Studio Engineer and Producer. In his personal time, Brandon is especially interested in reading philosophy, watching sketch and stand up comedy, and live-streaming concerts for artists out of his LA-based music venue.

Bryan is an audio engineer who specializes in sound design, post-production mixing for music, film, and podcasts. He started with WaitWhat in 2017, marking the beginning of season two of Masters of Scale. Since then, he’s mixed nearly every episode of Masters of Scale, Meditative Story, Spark & Fire, Should This Exist, and many episodes of Masters of Scale: Rapid Response.

Before joining WaitWhat, Bryan spent the last 18 years predominantly in the music industry. He worked with many notable artists and producers such as Tony Visconti/David Bowie, Phil Ramone/Ray Charles & Gladys Knight, John Mayer, and Eliane Elias, whose album he recorded “Made In Brazil” won a Grammy in 2016 for Best Latin Jazz Album. He was a house engineer for Converse Rubber Tracks Studio where he recorded hundreds of bands of every genre at pop-up studios in Brooklyn, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Hamburg, Germany.

Other notable projects include original music recordings for Ken Burns’ Prohibition, Baseball, The Roosevelts, Vietnam, and The Mayo Clinic. One of his favorite personal projects was working with his brother Casey Pugh to create a full-length crowdsourced version of Star Wars called Star Wars Uncut. It won an Emmy for Outstanding Creative Achievement in Interactive Media in 2010 and a Peabody Award in 2022.

Chineme Ezekwenna is a multilingual Igbo-American who has worked in the areas of international development / education, marketing, and events on three continents. In her personal time and as a freelancer, she has coordinated events and programs for Black-owned businesses and women-led organizations — often remotely, across North America and West Africa. She works diligently to create strategic partnerships and ensure smooth operations across global teams. 

Cole Matkin is the Paid Media Manager for WaitWhat, leading the strategy and execution of paid media campaigns across all shows and initiatives. His agency background includes managing multimillion-dollar budgets for a variety of Fortune 500 brands such as The Nasdaq, Coca-Cola, Juniper Networks, Shake Shack, and The CW.

A graduate of Texas A&M University with a degree in social media communications, Cole launched his own agency, William Cole Creative, in 2020 right out of college helping small to mid-sized businesses navigate the rapidly evolving digital landscape. Now based in New York City with his partner, he enjoys exploring the city’s restaurant and cocktail scene, taking their two small dogs, Buffy and Stevie, on trips upstate, and catching performances of all kinds, from raves to the ballet.

Colin Howarth is a Senior Digital Content Manager for Wait What, overseeing the distribution of content across the company’s YouTube channels, podcast feeds, newsletters, and websites. Previously, Colin served as a production editor at Harvard Business Review, playing a key role in the launch of the podcast network HBR Presents and coordinating the delivery and distribution of weekly assets for each show. Before that, he worked as a journalist for two Rhode Island newspapers. Based in southern Rhode Island, Colin holds a Master’s degree in Media Studies from The New School.

Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, Dan began his career as a writer performing sketch comedy with friends in a local theater company. He took this experience with him to Chicago, where he studied at the Second City training center and became a contributor to The Onion, the nation’s leading satirical news source, as well as its absurdist sister-site ClickHole. He has written award-winning television pilots and a feature-length audio comedy for Conan O’Brien’s digital production company Team Coco. Now residing in Los Angeles with his wife and dog, Dan brings his love of concise storytelling and narrative structure to Meditative Story, where he collaborates with a broad range of storytellers to bring their personal experiences to life.

Eric Drobny grew up in the Sacramento area but is based in Los Angeles and has previously lived in London and the Bay Area. He began his career as an Americorps volunteer working 1:1 with high school students. After getting his Masters in Sport Management from USF, he worked in audience development, journalism and creative development at Bleacher Report and The Athletic. In his free time, he’s a dad, he writes a Substack that combines memoir with music, and he works weekly with a small local organization that feeds thousands of meals to the unhoused in Los Angeles.

Eric is a Video Producer and Editor, but is spending most of his time on the editing side these days. Since graduating from The University of Miami, Eric has worked as a video and podcast editor for The Daily Show, Vaynermedia, Business Insider, an environmental research field station, and more. Now at WaitWhat, he uses this experience to create stand-out video complements to WaitWhat’s powerful audio storytelling.

Eric enjoys history, anthropology, analog technology, nature, food, and zen gardening Spotify playlists, among an assortment of other rotating hobbies that change monthly. In between planning trips and drinking coffee, Eric can be found dealing with some problem that one of his cats caused and cheering on the Buffalo Bills.

As Head of Alliances, Erika manages, ideates, and executes WaitWhat’s strategic partnerships programs. With each, she is enthusiastic to build solid relationships and unearth new ways to co-elevate the partnership experience.

Before joining WaitWhat, Erika spent 7 years at TED, where in her director role she strategized and produced creative partnerships with corporations and foundations. She is particularly proud of founding and hosting the TEDWomen Leadership Intensive, a professional development initiative focused on intrapreneurship across businesses of all sizes and industries. Experiences prior to TED include leading the individual giving strategy for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, where she developed programs to engage a younger generation of donors, and managing the board of trustees at Sundance Institute, where she worked to diversify the board, advocating for gender and minority equity.

Erika is a California native and lives in Los Angeles with her husband and young son. Together, they spend much of their time (dreaming of) traveling to faraway places, cooking ambitious meals for friends, and growing things in their garden.

Gabriela Leverette is a strategic marketing leader specializing in storytelling, audience growth, and brand development. She thrives at the intersection of content, digital strategy, and audience insights, bringing a sharp, creative lens to every campaign. Her career spans integrated marketing at ViacomCBS, influencer marketing at Open Influence, and progressive media at Crooked Media, where she built audience-first promotional strategies that elevated meaningful stories.

As Marketing Director at WaitWhat, Gabriela drives audience expansion, process development, and high-impact partnerships that deepen engagement across digital and internal platforms. Beyond her work, she is passionate about mentoring emerging marketers, fostering creative storytelling, and contributing to community outreach.

Jodine Dorcé is an award-winning executive producer for live and virtual events with over 15 years of experience. After graduating from the University of South Florida, her career path led her to the areas of event marketing, event programming & productions for experiential agencies, media, and consumer brands with a focus in culture. Her event achievements include the Apollo Theater, Time Inc, Reckitt Benckiser, Redbull North America, ESSENCE Festival/Magazine, ONE Musicfest, 651 ARTS, and other leading organizations.

At WaitWhat Jordan brings to life impactful partnerships spanning cross-platform programs. She’s energized by the creativity and deep integration embedded in WaitWhat alliances as she strategizes to amplify partners within WaitWhat’s properties. Prior to joining the team, Jordan spent four year cultivating new partnerships and producing conference activations at TED, and honing her culinary skills in homes and restaurants across New York. She’s a graduate of USC’s Marshall School of Business. 

Jordan is an Associate Producer at WaitWhat. Previously, he worked at Kindred Media as a podcast and content producer, and as a program manager in the refugee resettlement space. Since 2016, Jordan has independently produced and hosted his podcast, The Smart Stories (New & Adapted). He loves telling stories at the intersection of human interest and culture and elevating the perspectives of Black and brown communities.

In his spare time, Jordan can be found at his local American Film Institute theater, listening to his records, watching anime, or hiking with his wife, Imani, and dog, Apollo.

A graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Justin has applied his classical training to a career in motion graphics. His work experience encompasses multiple design disciplines, including digital illustration, animation, and public art. In the past, he’s created animated spots for PBSkids, HBOfamily, Nickelodeon, Animal Planet, Amazon, and many others. When he’s not working, Justin can be found painting, attending drink & draw events in Brooklyn, and chilling with his cat, Gus.

Kelsie is a graphic designer and illustrator based in Brooklyn, New York. Before joining the WaitWhat team, she worked as a freelance designer for companies such as Generosity NY, Apple, Every Nation, and Flatiron Health. She studied at Belmont University and has a background working as a creative in the music business. When she’s not immersed in the wonders of photoshop, Kelsie enjoys blogging, practicing yoga, and eating her way through New York City.

With 8+ years of digital media experience, Lauren can be described by one word: Versatility. From having a crucial hand in editing 45 corporate educational videos with Disney Theatrical Group, to crafting narrative film festival submissions, to performing post-production for over 100 published videos with Watcher Entertainment – 70M+ views to an audience of 2M+ subscribers – Lauren’s work can be found heavily imbued with an eye for engaging and brand-cohesive storytelling. She built on her self-taught beginnings at Chapman University, where she acquired on-set experience with productions, edited for a wide variety of student films, and wrote and executive produced a half-hour television pilot. Now with WaitWhat, Lauren seeks to elevate the content already existing with a video complement, co-creating new branding and digital platform optimization as a Video Editor alongside the video, design, and social teams.

Leital Molad is the Head of Podcasts for WaitWhat. Before that, she ran content development for Malcolm Gladwell’s Pushkin Industries, where she helped create award-winning, chart-topping podcasts such as Lost Hills, A Slight Change of Plans, Death of an Artist, The Loudest Girl in the World, and Hot Money, as well as the Apple Fitness+ program Time to Walk. Previously, she was the executive producer of podcasts at First Look Media/Topic Studios (Missing Richard Simmons, Intercepted with Jeremy Scahill, John Cameron Mitchell’s Anthem). She began her career at WNYC radio, where she produced the Peabody Award-winning Studio 360 with Kurt Andersen. Molad has an MA in journalism from NYU and teaches podcasting at the School of Visual Arts.

Masha Makutonina is a producer from Odesa, Ukraine, now residing in New York by way of Wales, France, and Vermont. She graduated from Middlebury College where she spent the majority of time directing film, theater and dance projects. Masha’s work as a filmmaker and public speaking coach led her to TED Conferences, where she worked as a content curator and strategist for the YouTube shorts series. She is a proud alumni of the United World College program and actively participates in the life of the Ukrainian national committee.

On a rare occasion that she isn’t listening to a podcast, Masha likes to dance, read Flannery O’Connor and come up with scripts for her imaginative run-in scenarios with favorite celebrities in New York City.

As Senior Growth Marketing Manager at WaitWhat, Nicki strives to craft holistic go-to-market strategies that prioritize a user’s wants and needs. Prior to joining the team, Nicki managed B2C communication and growth initiatives for various mobile startups, ranging from a social media live-streaming app to a neobank fintech. Nicki graduated Cum Laude from Boston University, where she studied Film & Television and Spanish.

Noa is a video editor at WaitWhat who specializes in social video creation and strategy. Before venturing into podcasts, Noa worked at newsrooms including BuzzFeed News and The Messenger, telling stories that energized viewers and expanded social audiences. When she’s not working, Noa can usually be found walking her dog in Prospect park, cracking dad jokes, and bedazzling her trash can.

Rachel Ishikawa is an award-winning producer making podcasts at Wait What. She cut her teeth in the industry working in public radio, where she covered everything from breaking news to the humble origins of chain pizza. At the heart of her work is a love of sound and a drive to tell nuanced stories that break through the noise. Outside of audio, she’s a fan of biking, banh mi, and shoegaze.

Ryan is a music composer, producer and sound artist who has helped shape the sound of WaitWhat since its founding. In addition to his role as Music Director, Ryan and his brother, Hays, create work at the intersection of music, art and technology as The Holladay Brothers. Works include interactive sound installations for the US Embassy in London, the Hirshhorn Museum and Dolby HQ in San Francisco. They received praise for their pioneering work with “location-aware music,” compositions designed as mobile apps that use GPS to sonically map a physical space. Their first location-aware album, The National Mall, was included in The Washington Post’s top ten records of the year. (“Magical…Like using GPS to navigate a dream” ). Ryan has presented his work at the TED Conference, SXSW, the New York Times and IBM annual staff gathering. He is a Senior TED Fellow, an Aspen Ideas Scholar and past visiting artist at Stanford University’s Experimental Media Art Lab.

Shira Ackerman has worked in learning and education for the span of her 20+ year career. She holds a Master’s degree in Teaching and Curriculum from Teachers College, Columbia University and has taught people of all ages ranging from preschoolers to adults. Shira has spent most of her career creating and advising on curricular and learning content for a wide variety of media and platforms including podcasts, videos, ebooks, digital games, live events and print material, for organizations such as BarnesandNoble.com, Amplify, Scholastic, The Girl Scouts and Pinna. In all her work, Shira thrives on collaborating across teams to create joyful and transformative content that enriches and engages, all while empowering people to learn new skills, and about the world, themselves and others.

As Director of People at WhatWhat, Steph brings over 15 years of experience in HR, People Ops, and Business Administration to lead the company’s people strategy, driving talent acquisition and compliance, fostering inclusive workplace culture, developing scalable people policies, and elevating the employee experience. Prior to joining WaitWhat, Steph held strategic leadership roles at innovative tech start-ups Aryeo, Inc. and Overclock Labs. She began her career in private equity, and her background includes nonprofit and creative agency roles. Steph is passionate about building diverse, high-performing teams, nurturing inclusive cultures, driving strategic growth and fostering environments where employees thrive.

In addition to her work at WaitWhat, Steph founded Authenticity Goddess, an empowerment coaching practice inspired by her belief in the importance of living authentically and passion for empowering others to unlock their potential. She continues to coach a small number of clients in her spare time. Originally from the Philadelphia suburbs, Steph spent a decade in Manhattan before relocating to Los Angeles in 2018. She longs for travel to far flung destinations, has a deep passion for gastronomy, enjoys cooking with her partner, taking their dog on adventures and cannot live without music.

Tim is a graphic designer, printmaker, and sometimes teacher with over 10 years of experience. He has worked with small studios, large agencies, and non-profit organizations and loves solving all kinds of design problems from branding, packaging, and web design to illustration and animation. Tim holds a Master’s degree in graphic and web design from Minneapolis College of Art and Design, where he explored the impact of making printmaking technologies accessible to everyone — particularly young people — as a tool set for vital self-expression and social justice.

As a very queer, mostly Puerto Rican millennial, Tricia has always been drawn to stories of people who don’t quite fit in. 

Tricia’s roles have ranged from reporting, producing, and editing for newspapers and public radio to strategic leadership and audience development roles. She is the co-founder of Pod Mtn and has worked with Pushkin Industries, Fresh Produce Media, WBEZ Chicago, KUER (NPR Utah), and Freakonomics. They were also the co-founder and co-host of Nerdette and its spinoff series, Nerdette Recaps Game of Thrones with Peter Sagal. When she’s not making podcasts, Bobeda is most likely making guacamole. 

Tucker is a writer who seeks adventure. He’s lived in NYC, the Deep South, Oregon, Ecuador, Mongolia for two years in the Gobi Desert as a Peace Corps Volunteer, and on a ship in college that stopped in nine countries. His life was forged by the Rocky Mountain West trifecta: Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado. He has a BA in English earned at Colorado State and an MFA in Creative Writing from The University of Alabama. His resume includes an anti-boredom specialist for seriously ill children in hospitals in NY & NJ, a reporter for Alabama Public Radio, an English and writing teacher, a pandemic delivery driver. 

Books and storytelling play a visceral role in Tucker’s life. He is an avid writer of fiction, non-fiction, and sometimes journalism. He is currently at work on a book about his mother and diabetes. He celebrates bicycles, libraries, coffee, and charcuterie. He lives happily with his splendid partner, Meg and a jungle cat, Stella.