Jemele Hill and Joan Baker join Outside Voice for Season 3
Welcome back to Outside Voice, Spotify Advertising’s annotated playlist series highlighting leading creatives from underrepresented communities. Each season, we invite curators from around the world to create original playlists—featuring their favorite music alongside spoken-word annotations with personal stories and words of wisdom.
Season 3 kicks off with playlists from journalist and podcaster Jemele Hill and voice actor Joan Baker—two women of color and prominent voices in their audio-driven industries. Both women are creatives who use their voice as their vehicle of expression, and have built companies to amplify underrepresented voices in their specific industries. This year, we’re lucky enough to have both appear on stage at our Outside Voice panel at Cannes Lions, “Representation Behind the Mic: an Outside Voice Event.” Watch it in person at Cannes, or stream it via Spotify Live on Tuesday, June 21 at 8am EST (2pm CEST).
Outside Voice, Season 3
Jemele Hill is an Emmy Award-winning journalist, and the creator and host of Jemele Hill is Unbothered on Spotify. The two-time Webby award-winning podcast features in-depth, thought-provoking conversation with some of the biggest newsmakers across entertainment, culture, music and politics. Hill explores topical and controversial issues with humorous, candid commentary. Hill is also the founder of The Unbothered Network, a groundbreaking podcast and production company that seeks to elevate the voices, stories, agency, and nuance of Black women.
In her annotations, Hill discusses authenticity, why truth is central to creativity, and the importance of taking risks in service of allyship.
Joan Baker is an American author, award-winning voiceover artist, and on-camera host. She is the co-founder and vice president of the Society of Voice Arts and Sciences™ (SOVAS™), an international nonprofit corporation that oversees That’s Voiceover!™ Career Expo, the Voice Arts® Awards, and multiple programs providing training, education, academic/financial aid scholarships and career counseling for voice actors. Joan is the author of Secrets of Voice-Over Success, the first book to chronicle multiple career journeys of some of the top voice actors in America.
In her annotations, Baker speaks to the struggles of finding her place in the entertainment industry before discovering her niche in voice acting. She also shares her optimistic vision for the future of entertainment, where all kinds of voices are embraced for what they are—and who they’re coming from.
We hope their stories inspire you to use your voice whenever you can, and to create a better path forward no matter what creative field you’re in. Stay tuned for more playlists from more remarkable creatives in this new season of Outside Voice.