This Moving Podcast Is Hosted By Best-Selling Author Stephanie Wittels Wachs, Who Lost Her Brother Harris Wittels To A Heroin Overdose in 2015

New York– September 25, 2019 – Last Day, the first weekly podcast series from the highly anticipated new podcast network Lemonada Media, has arrived. Hosted by Lemonada co-founder Stephanie Wittels Wachs, the first two episodes of Last Day are available now wherever you get your podcasts.

As host of Last Day, Wittels Wachs and her guests talk candidly about what’s killing us, the stuff that’s hard to comprehend and getting worse every day. She manages to confront massive epidemics with humanity, wit, and a quest for progress. The first season, airing weekly on Wednesdays through Spring 2020, is focused on the opioid crisis. The show zooms in on a person’s last day of life, exploring how they got there and how we, as a society, have gotten here.

“It’s nearly impossible to wrap your head around a number as large as 72,000, which is how many lives we lost in 2017 to opioid overdoses. I can, however, invest in one person’s story. That’s the idea with Last Day. We’re telling one person’s story, the story of Stefano Cordova, Jr., as a way to humanize and personalize the crisis and, quite literally, save some lives,” says Wittels Wachs.

“We’re telling my brother’s story because it’s emblematic of so many stories of people taken too soon by this disease, and we think demystifying one person’s last day and their overall experience will help remove the stigma and shine light on solutions,” says Jessica Cordova Kramer, Stefano’s big sister, and Lemonada’s co-founder and the show’s Executive Producer.

In the premiere episode, “Meet Stephanie, Meet Harris,” Stephanie tells the story of her late brother, Harris Wittels, a comedian, writer, and producer who passed away in 2015 of a heroin overdose. Harris’ close friends Sarah Silverman and Aziz Ansari also join Stephanie as she introduces the concept and why it’s so critical that Last Day exists.

The second episode, “Stefano’s Last Day,” walks the listener through Stefano Cordova Jr.’s last day of life—from the moment he woke up to the moment he wound up at the morgue. Stefano died of an accidental fentanyl overdose on Oct. 23, 2017 in Allston, MA, just outside Boston. The conversation is narrated by Stephanie and produced on site in Boston by Kat Aaron and Cordova Kramer.

The season will also feature town-hall style live shows in a variety of local communities and the Last Day team is committed to engaging with listeners via the new Flick Chat app. “As a chat platform for podcasts, we are here to help Last Day listeners continue the conversation, hear each other out, and keep pushing for solutions to the opioids crisis,” adds Nigel Eccles, Flick Chat founder and CEO.

Transcripts of each episode will be available the week each episode airs.

Earlier this year Lemonada Media teamed up with Cumulus Media’s Westwood One, America’s largest audio network, to distribute, sell, market the shows to build audiences across the Lemonada network.

“We all know someone touched by the opioid crisis, one of the most devastating issues facing society today,” says Suzanne Grimes, EVP Marketing, Cumulus Media and President, Westwood One. “Last Day weaves together raw storytelling and in-depth reporting, with humanity, grit and hope, and together I believe we can save lives.”

Award-winning podcaster, Jessica Cordova Kramer (Crooked Media, Pod Save the People) and best-selling author, Stephanie Wittels Wachs joined forces to form Lemonada Media, offering an unfiltered version of the human experience. The network offers content that is raw and real, sorting through the ugliness, weirdness, awkwardness and darkness life can bring. They are entering the podcast ether with three original series: “Last Day,” “As Me with Sinéad,” launching on October 24 and “Good Kids: How Not to Raise an A**Hole” on November 26.

The natural whole-food vitamins and supplements company New Chapter is proud to sponsor all three Lemonada Media shows launching this fall. New Chapter improves lives with revolutionary vitamins & supplements that actually work.

Cordova Kramer met Wittels Wachs in 2017, shortly after both women had lost their brothers to opioid overdoses. Hearing Wittels Wachs talking about her brother on the “Terrible, Thanks for Asking” podcast, Cordova Kramer felt understood and less alone in her grief; she even laughed. The women connected over their shared experiences and the idea to bring Lemonada to life was born: Turn lemons into lemonade, one podcast at a time.

Westwood One, the national-facing arm of Cumulus Media, offers iconic, nationally syndicated sports, news and entertainment content to over 250 million monthly listeners across an audio network of 8,000 affiliated broadcast radio stations and media partners.

Lemonada is represented by UTA.

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