OUR TEAM

Jessica Alpert
Co-Founder

Prior to founding Rococo Punch, Jessica was managing producer for program development at WBUR—Boston’s NPR News station. In this position, she developed new podcasts and programs while also launching and nurturing WBUR’s newest projects. Her projects included Modern Love: The Podcast (with The New York Times), Last Seen (with The Boston Globe), Edge of Fame (with The Washington Post), Endless Thread (with Reddit), and WBUR's first children's podcast—Circle Round.

Her work has been broadcast across the the globe and downloaded by millions of listeners. She has cast and directed top talent from the stage and screen. Her work can be found on NPR, PRI, the BBC, The Atlantic, MIT Tech Review, Bust Magazine, The New York Times, Boston Magazine, The Boston Globe, and The Washington Post.

Originally from Texas, Jessica received her undergraduate degree from Columbia University’s Barnard College, her masters in Latin American and Jewish history from Indiana University, and is a Fulbright Scholar. Today, she lives with her husband, twin son and daughter, and two cats near Boston.

John Perotti
Co-Founder

John Perotti is co-founder and Chief Content Officer of Rococo Punch, an award-winning independent podcast studio, producer of the shows The Turning: Room of Mirrors, Queen of Hearts and Welcome to Provincetown to name a few.

Before Rococo Punch, he worked on NPR’s Car Talk, Here & Now, Only A Game and he was the manager of podcast production at WBUR, creating and producing new podcasts. He was on the team that developed the wildly successful Modern Love: The Podcast , Circle Round, and the first season of Last Seen. While at WBUR, he produced a wide range of live podcast events from small comedy clubs to major theaters on Broadway. 

In addition to originals, he oversees Rococo Punch’s for hire projects, developing and producing content for clients like Vox, Condé Nast, LAist, Fatherly, This Old House, PBS Kids, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, and Boston University School of Medicine.

He lives in Boston with his wife and their kitten overlords.

Andrea Asuaje

Andrea Asuaje is a senior producer at Rococo Punch.

Prior to her work at Rococo Punch, Andrea was a reporter, producer and co-host of WBUR’s radio series and podcast, Kind World. She’s also worked at WGBH and various news organizations in Florida, including The Palm Beach Post and The Miami Herald, where she developed her skills in digital storytelling and social media community management. 

Andrea completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Florida and received her master’s degree in journalism with a focus on radio and podcast production at Boston University. She lives in Boston with her partner, their rabbit Falafel and her enormous collection of baking supplies. She’s always on Twitter.

James Trout

James Trout is managing technical producer at Rococo Punch.

JT, or more formally James Francis Trout, has been an audio engineer since 2007, working in recording studios, concert venues and radio stations wearing many hats along the way. He strives to bring his wealth of audio know-how and love for music to every project.

Before joining the Rococo Punch team, JT spent 9 years working in public radio. Most notably he served as the Senior Technical Director for NPR’s Here and Now and Only A Game.

He can mostly be found tinkering with recording equipment or playing guitar.

Catherine Fenollosa

Catherine Fenollosa is a senior producer at Rococo Punch.

She is a longtime public radio and podcast producer. Catherine has worked on a variety of programs from news to entertainment. Her reported radio pieces have aired on NPR, WNYC, WBUR, Marketplace and others. She produced Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me 20th Anniversary Albums, StoryCorps Griot album, WBUR’s The Connection, WNYC’s The Next Big Thing, and podcast episodes for Esquire Magazine, The New Yorker, Poetry Magazine and Alec Baldwin’s Here’s the Thing. For years, Catherine has been a producer for Car Talk on NPR.

Mike Garth

Mike Garth is a senior technical producer at Rococo Punch.

Mike is an audio engineer and sound designer with over two decades of radio experience.  Before he came to Rococo Punch, he worked at WBUR in Boston where his work had been broadcast on Morning Edition, All Things Considered, On Point, Here & Now, Radio Boston, Open Source, and Only A Game .

In addition to his time in radio, he has also been producing his own music. His love for all genres of music and vinyl records led him down a path to beat-making and, later, songwriting. He has produced five hip-hop albums.

Mike enjoys interesting podcasts, documentaries, and streaming series; he enjoys listening to his records, cooking, trying new restaurants and bars, and is a big fan of Boston sports

Erika Lantz

Erika Lantz is a host and senior producer at Rococo Punch.

She aims for musicality and emotional depth in her work, and her reporting has won national awards for innovation in audio storytelling.

Before Rococo Punch, Erika worked at PRX, WBUR, and APM, and freelanced as an independent producer and editor. Her work has aired on Snap Judgment, NPR’s All Things Considered, Here & Now, APM, and the CBC, among others.

Erika studied at Yale University and the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies. She taught audio production at the Transom Story Workshop and led the first major podcast workshop in Armenia.

Elin Lantz Lesser

Elin Lantz Lesser is a producer at Rococo Punch

Elin is a videographer and photographer based in Minneapolis. In addition to creating videos for corporate clients, artists, and independent businesses, she is the director of photography and editor of a feature-length film run by a group of artists in Minneapolis.

Elin’s work is fueled by a previous career in psychology. With a PhD in clinical psychology, her years of academic research shape how she understands stories and people in the videos she creates, and her previous work as a therapist gives her an uncanny ability to interview, put subjects at ease, and get to the heart of the story.

Emily Forman

Emily Forman is a story editor and producer at Rococo Punch

She got her start in audio as a reporter at a public radio station in Southeast Alaska in 2013, and cherishes the collection of KCAW mugs she's acquired in the years since. Her work on gun violence in Milwaukee was nominated for a Peabody Award. She's also covered health for Side Effects Public Media and NPR. Prior to joining Rococo Punch Emily was a producer at Gimlet.

Meredith Honig

Meredith Honig is a producer at Rococo Punch.

She has spent the last two decades working on the other side of the tracks...in video. Despite her questionable past as a Series Producer and Writer for several History Channel shows, Senior Producer for educational programming featured on WGBH - Boston's PBS station, a brief stint as Creative Director for a marketing agency, a one time gig in the Austin TX independent filmmaking scene, and part of an all female duo traveling through South America and Africa filming a documentary about international aid, Rococo Punch has accepted her into their world of audio storytelling. And she is nothing shy of a convert.

Since working with RP, Meredith has helped produce Finding Raffi, a 10 part narrative series. At the heart of all these pursuits, is a love for challenging material, talking with interesting people, and getting at the essence of what makes a good story great. Oh, and red wine.

Meredith studied at Bennington College and the Duke Center for Documentary Studies, where she mostly learned that she feels most at home with like-minded creative misfits.

Rob Rosenthal

Rob Rosenthal is one of the best-known teachers of audio storytelling in the country. Ira Glass of This American Life once said "Rob is, arguably, the best radio teacher in the country." Since 2000, Rob has taught legions of audio producers who now work at radio stations, networks, and podcasts including This American Life, Radiolab, Gimlet Media, Neon Hum, 99% Invisible, and NPR. He launched the audio program at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies and taught there for eleven years. He now teaches the Transom Story Workshops on Cape Cod and around the United States (and Australia!).

Ken Shulman

Ken Shulman is a veteran print and broadcast journalist who writes on topics ranging from sport to science for an equally wide spectrum of clients including The New York Times, Newsweek, The New Yorker, the BBC, PBS, MIT, Harvard, and National Public Radio. Author of non-fiction books on art and astronomy, he is a two-time RTDNA Edward R Murrow winner for excellence in broadcasting and was named a Champion of Justice by the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. 

An avid musician and singer, Ken brings a fine ear for tone and rhythm to audio projects. He is currently the host of Away Games, a television travel show and learning platform. He enjoys cycling, soccer, science, film, and skiing, and works in seven languages. Ken is a graduate of Middlebury College and holds a Masters Degree in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School.