Putting a Fine Point
on Fine Gorilla Person
To tell their next story, Topic Studios partnered with Rowhome Productions to create Fine Gorilla Person, an 8-episode investigative Audible Original series that tells the true story of Koko the Gorilla. Upon it's release, the podcast was featured in both The New Yorker and The Guardian.
Client
Topic Studios
Distributor
Audible
Services
Field & Studio Recording / Original Soundtrack Composition / Podcast Production / Sound Engineering & Design / Mixing & Mastering / Project Management
Overview
When it comes to storytelling, you’d be hard-pressed to find an entertainment studio more multifaceted than Topic Studios. They’ve made films like the Academy Award winning Spotlight, the critically acclaimed Spencer and the HBO documentary series 100 Foot Wave. Their array of podcasts includes hits like Missing Richard Simmons, Running from COPS, and an exploration of timely issues in Somebody and American ISIS.
Koko the Gorilla might be the best-known ape in the world. She was said to have an active vocabulary of more than 1,000 signs and knowledge of more than 2,000 words of spoken English, Koko was often hailed as a bridge between man and animal. She gained worldwide attention after being on the cover of National Geographic Magazine in the ‘70s, and interacted with celebrities including Robin Williams, Betty White and Mr. Rogers. Despite her intelligence and fame, there’s a darker side to Koko’s life that has largely been unexplored—until now.
Left: Former San Francisco Zookeeper Landes Bell, who helped raise baby Koko, talks with Lauren at the SF Zoo. | Right: Former Gorilla Foundation employee Gary Shapiro shows Lauren old photographs of Koko at his house in Santa Cruz, CA.
Distributed by Audible, Rowhome Productions produced Fine Gorilla Person with host Lauren Ober. Lauren is a journalist and host of the show The Loudest Girl In The World from Pushkin Industries and iHeart Media. Before that, she hosted Spectacular Failures from APMstudios, which was one of TIME magazine’s top 10 podcasts of 2019. Lauren has also worked as an award-winning radio reporter, producing stories for outlets like NPR, 99% Invisible and Criminal.
“Fine Gorilla Person, unpacks Koko’s life and troubled legacy, taking listeners from Koko’s beginnings as a cause célèbre (her visitors included Robin Williams and Betty White) to her final years as a diminished creature living in a small cell, embroiled in sexual-harassment lawsuits....This is the podcast for you if you want to feel newly furious at all the ways our culture demands that monkeys dance for our enjoyment.”
— Rachel Syme, Journalist, The New Yorker
Host Lauren Ober | Photo by DuHon Photography
During the production process we recorded an interview with William Shatner and commissioned an original music score for the series. We traveled from a zoo in Ohio to the campus of Stanford University accompanying Lauren as she investigated what really happened to the world’s most famous gorilla.
The Process
