Why these two public radio veterans launched a Kickstarter campaign

After 35 years of hosting and contributing to NPR, Jacki Lyden decided there was a missing thread in public radio reporting : stories on clothes.
So when she was forced out of NPR last March, she quickly teamed up with Elaine Heinzman, another public radio alum, to start a new podcast: The SEAMS.
“We’re not so much talking about high fashion,” said Lyden, who calls herself the Head Seamstress. “What we’re doing is talking about history and significance and anthropology. If you think about the Pope’s Mitre or if you think about Trayvon Martin’s hoodie or if you think about a bikini … they all mean something.”
Like other entrepreneurs with a creative enterprise to fund, Lyden and Heinzman took their project to Kickstarter. (The runaway success of the Kickstarter campaign for design podcast 99% Invisible probably provided some inspiration.) The SEAMS reached its $49,500 goal just an hour before its December deadline, Lyden said.
The SEAMS is still looking for underwriters — the very public radio term for companies that weave advertisements into the podcast.
Still, Lyden sees herself as something of a disruptor. “Nothing has ever connected fashion and clothing to the public radio audience ever before,” she told Technical.ly DC from Florida, where she was conducting ground research on patchworks.
She acknowledged it made more sense today for public radio to delve into visual topics. Before the widespread availability of the internet, Lyden said, NPR stories on art had always “seemed faintly ridiculous.”
But a podcast can be at the core of a broader, interactive experience. “When I describe the backstrap loom that I see in Mexico, I want you to look at a picture of it,” she said.
For a preview, you can check out some SEAMS episodes that have already aired on NPR. The podcast itself will also be hosted on the network, Lyden said. It should start in April and run every two weeks with episodes ranging from 22-40 minutes.