Zach Woods on satirizing public radio in new animated series ‘In the Know’

The world of public radio gets animated in Zach Woods’ new Peacock series In the Know.

Woods stars in, executive produces and serves as the showrunner of the stop-motion animated series that he created, which he described as quite personal to him.

“It’s born of a love of public radio and a hatred for myself,” Woods said. “I grew up listening to public radio all the time. [It] was always on at my house. Like, when I hear the All Things Considered theme, I can smell the cucumbers that one of my parents is cutting in the kitchen … I have very, like, Pavlovian connections to public radio.”

The show also satirizes what Woods describes as the hypocritical nature of some parts of the liberal elite. To describe what he means, he told a story about walking through Los Angeles’ Larchmont neighborhood. He saw something in the front yard of a $4 million home.

“There’s a sign on the front lawn that said, ‘Defund the police.’ And then, right next to it, was an ADT home security armed guard detail. So, it’s like, they want it to be, like, defund the police, but also, we have, like, paid mercenaries who will protect our home with guns,” Woods said.

His character in the show, third-most-popular NPR radio host Lauren Caspian, has both a timid demeanor and a huge ego. Woods said he knows the type well.

“It reminds me of small liberal arts colleges in the middle of nowhere where everyone is so educated and genteel in their way, but they stab each other in the back with a dagger to get tenure over that a****** down the hall,” Woods said. “I think that’s kind of funny.”