Sean Cole

Cole is from the Boston area.[1] He grew up in the Unitarian Church.[2] In episode 660 of This American Life, "Hoaxing Yourself," Cole recounted how he spoke with an affected British accent from ages 14 to 16, a habit that sprung from his fondness for British programs like Doctor Who and Dempsey and Makepeace.[3]

He attended Marlboro College in Vermont, graduating in 1993.[4]

Cole's career in radio began in 1997 with an internship at the Boston NPR-affiliate WBUR.[2] He went on to work there for nine years as a news-writer, engineer, announcer, field-producer, reporter and, finally, a correspondent for the documentary series Inside Out.[5] From 2006 to 2011, he was a contract reporter American Public Media's Marketplace[6] and, briefly, a senior reporter for Weekend America.[7] He then worked as a staff producer for WNYC’s Radiolab[2] for a year and a half. Cole has also contributed to the NPR programs All Things Considered, Only a Game,[8] and the podcast 99% Invisible among other shows. From mid-2011 through 2013, he was a regular guest host for The Story with Dick Gordon out of WUNC in North Carolina.[9]

Cole became a contributor at This American Life in 1999, and then joined the staff in 2014.[5] He is currently a Supervising Producer for the show.[10]

In 2003, then-Boston-based press Pressed Wafer published a chapbook of Cole's poems titled Itty City.[11] His poem "To Acropolis" was part of a collection of art and writing to benefit victims of the Boston Marathon bombing. Cole's contribution weaves through histories of marathons beginning with ancient Greece. In 2015 he read the poem at a Boston poetry marathon that he helped found in 1998.[1] In a review, Audrey Mardavich called Cole "a superb thinker: he can be irreverent when it matters most, he is inventive with his images and sounds, he is very funny," qualities she noted were reflected in his radio work as well as in his poetry.[1]

In 2019, Cole received an honorary doctorate in humane letters from his alma mater Marlboro College and served as commencement speaker.[12]

Cole became an Internet-ordained clergyman in the Universal Life Church in 2001 and has performed more than 20 weddings for his friends.[2] He is close friends with Audie Cornish, whom he met while they worked together at WBUR.[13]

• Itty City, ISBN 9780972108997 (2003)
• The December Project (2005)
• One Train (2012)

• "five"—co-written with David Kirschenbaum[14]
• "From the States Project"—co-written with David Kirschenbaum[15]
• "Union Street" and "Gansett Point"[16]
• "Show"[17]

• Cole's profile at WNYC
• Sean Cole on Twitter
• Interview with Sean Cole for Jacket2