'The Long Way Around,' a New Fiction Podcast Written by Professor Trey Ellis, Premieres This Fall

Professor Trey Ellis is the author of “The Long Way Around,” a new fiction podcast that will premiere this fall.

The podcast is one of three different productions that compose We Imagine… Us, a new podcast and multimedia project that envisions how people and communities can work together to create an equitable world. Presented by Futuro Media and PRX, We Imagine…Us will explore and reflect on themes of racial solidarity and equity through each of its companion series.

Emmy Award-winning actress Karrueche Tran stars in “The Long Way Around,” which tells the story of a Black American father and his Black Vietnamese American daughter who set out across the United States in hope of rebuilding their lives. From the impact of incarceration on parents and children to issues of immigration, environmental racism, and the fight for fair wages, this audio drama offers a moving and clear-eyed look at our contemporary struggles and how, through solidarity, we can make a change.

With a focus on representation and centering voices of color, this series presents an expansive multicultural cast and creative team. In addition to Tran and Ellis, Latin Grammy Award-winning composer Michael Ramos, award-winning fiction podcast producer Paula Gammon Wilson, and Heartland Emmy-nominated sound designer Leslie Gaston-Bird round out this impressive creative team.

Launching alongside the fiction podcast will be “Re-Imagination Nation with Maria Hinojosa.” The series will feature interviews with global change leaders and offer listeners ideas about how we think about issues of racial and social equity with an eye toward addressing some of today’s most pressing concerns for communities. The guest interviewees include author Michelle Alexander, musician-activist John Legend, filmmaker Ava DuVernay, author-activist Saru Jayaraman, activist Linda Sarsour, and many more.

We Imagine… Us will also launch an animated shorts series that can be viewed alongside the other two programs, or enjoyed on its own. The series will be available via social media and feature the characters and stories from Ellis’ “The Long Way Around.”

“The Long Way Around” and its companion series will be available on all major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, and Spotify. Watch a short trailer for the upcoming series here.

Trey Ellis is an American Book Award Winning novelist, Emmy and Peabody-winning filmmaker, playwright and Professor of Screenwriting in the Graduate School of Film at Columbia University. Most recently he was an Executive Producer, interviewer and co-field director for the HBO documentary True Justice: Bryan Stevenson's Fight For Equality, and Executive Producer and interviewer for King in the Wilderness, also for HBO. His works have been screened at the Museum of Modern Art and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. His short film, What the Wind Carries, was produced by HBO and is part of the permanent collection of the Legacy Museum: From Slavery to Mass Incarceration in Montgomery, Alabama. His first play, Fly, was commissioned and performed at The Lincoln Center Institute, continues to play around the country, including the historic Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C., the Pasadena Playhouse and the New Victory Theater on 42nd Street in New York City. One of the original bloggers for the HuffingtonPost, Professor Ellis has also contributed humor, essays, and political commentary to The New Yorker, The New York Times, GQ, Playboy, Vanity Fair, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Salon and NPR’s All Things Considered.