Experts shape our world. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. In every big story, you’ll find one; you’ll find a researcher, scientist, engineer, planner, policy wonk, data nerd, bureaucrat, regulator, intellectual, or pseudointellectual. Their ideas are often opaque, unrecognized, and difficult to understand. Some of them like it that way. On Cited, we reveal their hidden stories.
Schedule & Distribution
We post sporadically in a season-based format, releasing episodes on a given theme or topic. When we are in season, we usually drop episodes weekly. You can find us on all the relevant podcatchers (Apple, Spotify, etc.). If you use something else or you cannot find our feed, you can manually add our RSS feed.
We are also distributed by two large podcast networks. Our episodes are syndicated on various feeds throughout the New Books Network, the largest academic podcast network in the world. Additionally, we are a proud to be part of the Harbinger Media Network, Canada’s largest progressive media network.
Meet the Team
Gordon Katic is the host, editor, and executive producer. He is an award-winning radio producer and journalist with a background in health, science, and climate reporting. When he’s not making podcasts, he’s working on a PhD at the University of Toronto: Ontario Institute for Studies in Education focussing on theorizing a critical theory of science communication. Previously, he earned a Masters in Journalism from the University of British Columbia.
Jay Cockburn is Cited’s technical producer. Before moving to Toronto in 2019 Jay worked for the BBC in London where he was a studio director on flagship global radio news shows. He’s also worked as a producer on BBC Radio 1 and a classical music sound engineer. Jay’s from the UK’s Lake District so he likes to wander off up big hills, but he also likes sci-fi and telling people he is writing a book. More than actually writing the book
Marc Apollonio is a producer at Cited. He has he worked in radio and podcasting for over a decade and a half, producing shows like CBC’s The Current and As It Happens. His longform radio reportage, The Brightest Licence Plate in Montreal, won the Canadian Association of Journalists’ 2021 Award For Human Rights reporting. He has an amateur interest in evolutionary biology and genetics, and he plays accordion–badly, but with heart.
Nadeen Shaker is a producer at Cited. Originally from Egypt, Nadeen is an award-winning journalist and storyteller, working in both publishing and podcast production. She has produced shows for the Kerning Cultures network, and has a mater’s degree from NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. She loves telling stories, especially ones that involve people, cultures and human rights.
Alec Opperman is a producer at Cited. He’s the former head of the YouTube channel Wisecrack, where explored the intersection of culture and philosophy. He has also produced stories for Slate’s Hi-Phi Nation about medieval animal trials and effective altruism. For More Perfect Union, he’s covered American healthcare, the food industry, and labor struggles at Waffle House. He spends his free time hiking and being mad about subpar bagels.
Dakota Koop is a multi-faceted art director based in Stockholm, Sweden, who works with select clients in fashion, culture, technology, and finance. He is a graduate of Emily Carr University of Art + Design and co-founded the Vancouver studio Siblings Creative, a boutique creative studio.
Funding & Editorial
Our project is a unique collaboration with journalists and academics. Each series features faculty member(s) who acts as a research advisors, as well as a graduate students who provide research support.
Our third season, the Use and Abuse of Economic Expertise, had research consulting from Drs. François Claveau at Université de Sherbrooke, Jacqueline Best at the University of Ottawa, and Peter Dietsch at the University of Victoria, with additional support from Maëlle Turbide at the Université de Sherbrooke.
Our second season, the Rationality Wars, had research consulting from: Professors Michael Pettit, Alexandra Rutherford, and Donald V. Brown Jr, all at the Department of Psychology at York University in Toronto. Our student research assistants, who are all from the same department, are David Berman, Michael Stead, and Hannie Smolyanitsky. We have additional consulting from Dr. Cathy Faye at the Cummings Center for the History of Psychology, which is at the University of Akron.
In our first season the Science Wars, faculty advisors included: Dave Ng (UBC), Alan Richardson (UBC), Eagle Glassheim (UBC), Jessica Dempsey (UBC), Rosemary Collard (SFU), Joel Lexchin (U of T), and Sergio Sismundo (Queens).
Funding to support these partnerships comes from a variety of university and public research grants. These grants all support efforts to mobilize stories about research and academia to the public sphere. In our most recent seasons, we are primarily supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada as well as Mitacs. Once funded, we are independent of the granting bodies and they have no editorial control of our stories.
We work with academics who share our scholarly, political, and editorial values, and who are interested in developing grant proposals and projects in collaboration. If you are an academic that listens to the show and enjoys it, perhaps you could be one of our future partners. Email us. Additionally, many educators have used our programming in their classes. If you would like to do the same, feel free. However, do drop us a line–we like to know!
Backstory & Acclaim
Cited has had several iterations. Between 2015-2018, we ran regularly alternating between audio documentaries and quicker news-focussed episodes, making over 60 episodes. Then, in 2020, we returned for a season-based style of storytelling, releasing the Science Wars, and starting our episode counter over again at 0. Then, we went on a long hiatus as we made Darts and Letters, a Cited-like program, but a program much more focussed on current events and analysis. However, over time, Darts started to slowly morph back into what Cited used to be. Therefore, we brought Cited back in 2024.
In our initial run, Cited was critically-acclaimed and highly-regarded. In 2018, we were featured at the Hot Docs Podcast Festival as one of “Canada’s Podcast All Stars.” We have also won numerous national radio awards in Canada for campus and community radio programming, been a finalist for awards from the Canadian Association of Journalists, and won a Jack Webster Award–BC’s top journalism prize.
Finally, we regularly worked with major media partners and distributors, like: 99% Invisible, Life of the Law, CBC’s The Doc Project, Podcast Playlist, and Ideas, as well as over 100 campus and community radio stations across North America. Additionally, we have partnered with print and online outlets, including the Tyee and the Georgia Straight, to produce longform text articles based on our storytelling.
Land Acknowledgement
Our podcast is made in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Toronto is on the traditional land of Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples. Vancouver is on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations.