EXCLUSIVE: Sugar23 and Audible have partnered on a new podcast series, titled Shipwreck: How a Captain, Company, and Culture Sank the SS El Faro, which chronicles the worst American maritime disaster in decades.
Investigating a captain’s fatal decision to sail straight into a hurricane, Shipwreck dives deep into the 2015 sinking of the cargo ship SS El Faro, which left all 33 crew members dead. All 10 episodes will be released exclusively through Audible on August 7, ahead of the tenth anniversary of the sinking.
Reported, written, and co-produced by former NPR senior editor Maeve McGoran, Shipwreck explores troubling questions such as: Why did the captain choose to sail into the hurricane? Why did no one on board or shore stop him? And why was such an old and heavily loaded ship even allowed on the water?
The series takes listeners through the El Faro’s final hours with immersive reenactments of events preserved by the ship’s black box. Digging into the mystery of the sinking with previously unreported revelations from investigators, former crew members, and families of the lost crew, as well as information redacted from the official investigations, it exposes the forces that sank the SS El Faro and are still active today across the entire maritime industry, including cruise ships and other vessels that carry millions of passengers a year.
“From the moment we uncovered this story and found out the captain sailed straight into a hurricane, we knew it had to be told,” said the pod’s director and EP, Mike Mayer, who serves as Head of Podcasts at Sugar23. “It’s mysterious, gripping, and compelling. Sugar23 is always looking to support stories like these with fascinating truths, so we’re excited to let listeners dive into the mystery of the SS El Faro.”
Sugar23 is the management and production company founded in 2017 by Academy Award winner Michael Sugar. Behind projects like Spotlight, The Knick, The OA, Maniac, 13 Reasons Why and I Am the Night, the company currently has The Turning Point airing on MSNBC, which was co-produced alongside Time Studios, Trevor Noah’s Day Zero Productions, Mainstay and P&G Studios. Sugar23 has its own in-house independent podcast studio, as well as a book imprint in partnership with Penguin Random House and an animation studio through Mindshow, with dozens of film and television projects in development.
