about.
Abukar Adan is an award-winning producer, reporter, and editor based in Queens, NY. He's currently a Managing Producer at Campside Media, where he has produced six shows ranging from a 10-part investigation into a multi-national scam to a weekly horror anthology. His slate of shows includes the narrative series Wild Boys, which won an Ambie for Best Podcast of the Year. He has also produced Run, Fool!, Dr. Dante, The Bering, and Hollywood Con Queen—which peaked at #2 on Apple charts—and fact-checked the chart-topping podcast Night Shift. Abukar’s shows have been downloaded millions of times and featured in several "best of" lists, including those by The Atlantic, Rolling Stone, and New York Magazine.
Before joining Campside Media, Abukar was an education and city government reporter at WJCT News, Northeast Florida's NPR affiliate. He has worked as a general assignment reporter at Maine Public Radio and as a digital producer in television news. Abukar was an Edit Mode inaugural fellow, during which he edited two features and a mini-series for Bay Area NPR affiliate KALW. He also teaches audio journalism.
selected projects.
Step into the dark world of RUN, FOOL!, where Rodney Barnes serves up a weekly dose of spine-tingling terror. Each episode delivers a fresh, fear-filled ghost story from a different time and place, brought to life with gripping and immersive sound design. Too scared? ... RUN, FOOL!​
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Role: Managing Producer/Editor
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Chameleon: Wild Boys tells the strange tale of two young men who arrived in a Canadian town in 2003, claiming they’d been raised in the wilderness with no contact with the modern world. The town embraced them, and the media flocked to the story, but there was one problem: not a word the boys said was true. Nearly 20 years later, journalist Sam Mullins digs into the truth behind the deception that captivated his hometown.​​
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Role: Lead Producer
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Chameleon: Hollywood Con Queen unravels one of the strangest scams in history: hundreds of Hollywood gig workers were tricked into flying to Indonesia for a fake movie. This investigative podcast explores how desperation, disinformation, and Hollywood's power dynamics fueled the con, shedding light on deeper issues in the film industry. ​​
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Role: Associate Producer
*My reporting on this project helped solve the crime.
other work.
Night Shift investigates a series of mysterious deaths at a Missouri VA hospital, where a nurse is suspected of killing dozens of veterans, the hospital leadership covered up the alleged crimes, and the FBI bungled the case.
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Role: Fact-checker
A crew of 47 on the Alaskan fishing boat "The Danger Ranger" faced disaster when they had to abandon ship in freezing waters, leading to one of the most daring rescues in modern U.S. Coast Guard history.
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Role: Associate Producer
In the aftermath of 9/11, anthrax-laced letters were sent to journalists and politicians, killing five and triggering the worst bioterrorism case in U.S. history. What started as an unprecedented case soon turned into an unsettling mystery.
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Role: Ep. 3 Reporter + Production Support
WJCT is a public media organization based in Jacksonville, Florida, that operates WJCT-FM (89.9), an NPR member station delivering news, talk shows and music.
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Role: Government & Education Reporter
Dr. Ronald Dante, a hypnotist-turned-con man, manipulated his way through decades—from Hollywood nightclubs to self-help scams—hypnotizing women out of their fortunes, taking out hits on rivals, and founding a massive fake university.
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Role: Lead Producer
Maine Public is the state-wide public media organization that operates Maine Public Radio, an NPR member station, providing a mix of national and local news, talk shows, and music.
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Role: General Assignment Reporter
press.
Selected Press:
"Wild Boys Wins Podcast of The Year," The Hollywood Reporter
"The best podcasts of 2022," The Atlantic
"The Best-True Crime Podcasts of 2022," Vulture
"Best Podcasts of 2020," Rolling Stone
"The Best Podcasts for Everyone," Wired
"7 Podcasts About the Art of the Scam," NYT
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Nicholas Quah, Vulture
Simon Hill, Wired
Laura Jane Standley and Eric McQuade, The Atlantic
"Hosted by Vernon native Sam Mullins and produced by Abukar Adan, Wild Boys starts out as a quirky mystery and becomes something tender and soulful by the end as it sits with the emotional aftermath of this strange spectacle."
"The brilliance of Wild Boys is that it shows the manipulative power of perspective."
"This weird, compelling, investigative podcast [Hollywood Con Queen] unwinds a satisfyingly twisty tale that’s mercifully free of blood and violence."