Brazil is an emerging marketplace, yet it ranks third worldwide for podcast listening — an exciting prospect for Léo Neumann, who helps to strategize and produce Audible Originals that Brazilians will love. Working from São Paulo, he and his teammates are passionate about representing Brazil’s wide range of people, stories and voices in the content they deliver, and ensuring Audible’s listeners are consistently wowed.

What is life like at the São Paulo hub?

Here, the team supporting Audible shares a floor in Amazon's office. The energy is fantastic and shows in the way we all collaborate across the org. The challenge of launching Audible’s service for Brazil truly united us. We even have a fun tradition where we honor a member of the team by dressing like them for the day! It's voluntary and respectful and always a blast — a real testament to our team bond.

How do you exemplify Audible’s People Principles in your day-to-day work?

We are absolutely customer obsessed. Because we're in an emerging marketplace for spoken word content, we're very hands on throughout production to ensure we deliver creative excellence for listeners. We stay closely involved to make sure each creative decision serves our listeners, telling our collaborators, “We're your first audience.” We’re passionate about expanding the local understanding of what immersive audio can be.

Can you share a time you had an Audible leader empower you to take on a challenge or explore a new area?

I've been empowered by the confidence placed in me and my knowledge of the local creative industry. We were tasked with expanding our Audible Original slate locally, so our strategy was to strengthen our narrative non-fiction catalog by partnering with Brazil's top media outlets. We developed a model in which we provide investment and audio expertise while our creators and producers bring their media connections and promotional reach. Our first major collaboration was with Piauí, Brazil's magazine equivalent of The New Yorker. We brought them Silenced: The Role of the Press in Sexual Abuse Cases, which they helped polish and then promoted extensively to their audience. The trust from co-branding was invaluable. The series won the 2026 IAPA Award for Journalistic Excellence in the “Journalism with an Equality Perspective” category.

How do you draw inspiration from culture and technology?

Since launching our Audible Original slate, we've prioritized reflecting our audience's diversity, in our content, creators, and subject matter. Our most successful titles are consistently inclusive. The majority of Brazil's population is Black or Brown, and as Brazil's advertising and TV industries were having important conversations about representation, we noticed audio was underexamined. We worked with consulting groups to encourage and support the production of a groundbreaking study on the form racism takes in audio: through accents, sound design, music choices and storytelling technique. The research exposed hidden biases in the audio industry and provided a roadmap for greater inclusivity and creativity that is inspiring us and our producers to be even more purposeful.

Other than the people, what do you love most about Audible’s culture?

The People Principle, “Articulate the possible and move fast to make it real.” Brazil is an exceptionally unique marketplace — it’s particularly exciting due to its scale (Brazil comprises nearly half of South America’s size and population) and the fact that we rank third globally in podcast consumption. It’s essential to our growth that we find local solutions and maintain autonomy. Our team constantly acts quickly to improvise new approaches to uniquely local challenges. 

What are some benefits you find invaluable for your personal well-being?

Flex time is crucial. I have a four-year-old son — or as he prefers to call it, “five-ish” — and even with the challenge of launching and helping to grow Audible’s service, I've been able to be quite present in his life. This is extremely important to me, and I'm grateful the company accommodates that.

What’s one quality people interested in working on the Audible Originals and audiobook production team need in order to be successful?

Being genuinely passionate about helping every project reach its creative peak. No matter the genre, we pour ourselves into making sure the content Audible’s listeners hear is the absolute best it can be.

What made you choose to work at Audible, what made you want to stay?

What drew me to Audible still inspires me today: pushing the boundaries of what local audiences believe audio storytelling can be. Many times, we’re giving customers their first truly immersive experience of a genre. Sometimes it's their first encounter with premium scripted audio — that's a profound responsibility for our team. At the same time, we're increasing the ability of Brazil's creative industry to meet our global creative standards. These two missions are intrinsically connected and fuel our passion for creating exceptional content.

What was your first listen? What inspired you to check it out? 

The Audible Original, Mujeres de Fuego (Women of Fire), narrated by the Mexican singer/songwriter Natalia Lafourcade, about the indigenous women who resisted and defended their land against state-criminal collusion. I was already a fan of Natalia, but the content made me realize the impact of spoken word and it’s still one of my favorite Audible Originals. 

What are you currently listening to?

Fela Kuti: Fear No Man, which reshapes how we experience his music. Biography and its subgenres are my favorites by far. With our historic election coming up, I’m also listening to the second volume of Lula's biography, written by Fernando Morais.

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