Long Distance Wraps First Season, Launches Patreon Membership Campaign and Documentary Series Long Distance TV

Los Angeles, CA, USA—Long Distance, an independent narrative podcast about stories in the Filipino diaspora and member of the inaugural Google Podcasts creator program with PRX, just completed its first season. The show, called “timely, personal, and evocative” by the Manila Bulletin, has launched a Patreon campaign as it heads into production on a second season of the podcast and on the documentary series Long Distance TV.

“Filipinos make up one of the largest diaspora populations in the world, but our stories are rarely covered in mainstream media. We have a rich tradition of narrative storytelling and radio, but we don’t always see or hear stories that accurately reflect our transnational, multicultural, and complex experiences,” says Long Distance host, creator, and producer Paola Mardo. “I made Long Distance to help tell stories about our community. It’s a podcast for us, by us.”

In other words, Long Distance is “F.U.B.U.,” says producer Patrick Epino.

Since launching in October 2018, Long Distance has been featured in Apple Podcasts’ New and Noteworthy, Spotify Podcasts, Rappler, Fast Company, Bello Collective’s 100 Outstanding Podcasts of 2018, and more. In January 2019, Long Distance was selected as 1 of 6 teams out of over 6,000 applications from more than 100 countries to be part of the inaugural Google Podcasts creator program with PRX. The team received seed funding and training to help further develop Long Distance and to begin production on a second season.

By launching a member-supported crowdfunding campaign on Patreon, a membership platform, the team will expand production of audio documentary-style stories about Filipinos in the U.S. and across the diaspora while growing a worldwide community of Long Distance listeners. The team is also producing Long Distance TV, which will feature a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the podcast and short documentaries highlighting the show’s important stories.

“Our listeners are international and many of them have found the show through social media and visual platforms like Instagram. Long Distance TV is a way for us to connect more deeply with our current listeners and with new audiences,” Epino says. Long Distance TV is available on the show website LongDistanceRadio.com and on National Film Society, Epino’s YouTube channel and an original member of PBS Digital Studios.

“As an independent podcast, we have to think creatively about how we produce the show and how we keep it sustainable. We’re looking into all sorts of ways to make that happen, including grants and sponsorships,” says Mardo. “Joining our Patreon is one way to help us build our show as well as the community we’ve grown in the making of Long Distance.”

Mardo is a radio and podcast host and producer, whose audio stories have aired on KCRW’s Good Food, PRI’s The World, and Offshore. As an independent producer, her clients include Lantigua Williams & Co., Stitcher, Western Sound, and Wondery. Before working in audio, she worked in the film industry at Sony Pictures and Annapurna Pictures. Mardo was born in Los Angeles but grew up in Manila, Philippines and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia before moving to the San Francisco Bay Area at the age of 15. She calls herself a 1.5 generation Filipino American and share her “long distance story” on the podcast’s first episode.

Epino is an actor and filmmaker. His recent acting credits include the award-winning Bitter Melon and Awesome Asian Bad Guys, which he also directed. For his work on Mr. Sadman, The Independent chose Patrick as one its “10 Filmmakers to Watch.” Epino is the executive producer of National Film Society, a full-service media studio whose clients include Amazon, IMDb, and PBS. Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, he is a 2nd generation Filipino American.

Long Distance is available on all major podcast platforms and on LongDistanceRadio.com. Follow Long Distance on Instagram and Facebook at @LongDistanceRadio and on Twitter at #LongDistanceRadio.