Sophie Kuebler is amplifying female voices one podcast at a time

Sophie Kuebler is tired of being introduced as "the woman sound designer." Not because representation doesn`t matter, but because she wants to talk about plug-ins, not gender politics. She wants to geek out about spatial audio processing, not explain why so few women work in sound. She wants normal tech conversations with other sound engineers, not to be constantly positioned as the exception.

«As a sound engineer that loves sound, that loves technology, that loves plug-ins, I just want to sit at the table having a normal tech talk like all other sound engineers as well», Kuebler says. «With my project Never Stop Candy Bang I thrive to focus on my career as sound designer. Talking about the inequality in sound can be a part of the conversation but not the whole conversation. I just want to geek out about sound, technology and methods in my work».

This tension shapes her approach to Never Stop Candy Bang, the podcast she co-founded in 2025 with Pete Candeland, the animator and director known for creating Gorillaz music videos. The show features conversations with industry professionals about sound design, animation, and film production. But Kuebler deliberately structured it to focus on craft and technique rather than making gender the constant subject.

The Representation Paradox

The statistics are stark. Women comprise only 4% of sound designers working on top-grossing films, with 97% of films having no female sound designers. Female podcast listenership has tripled over the past decade, growing to 45% of all listeners, yet only 27% of podcast creators are women.

Never Stop Candy Bang reflects this balance. The podcast deliberately features across the entire film industry related to sound and vision. From film director, to sound designer, to film producers, animators, vfx artists and musicians young and old. Recent episodes have covered career transitions, freelance work realities, and specific technical approaches to sound design. The format creates access to professional knowledge often confined to exclusive networks. But it does so by focusing on craft rather than constantly foregrounding gender.

What She Actually Wants to Talk About

Kuebler`s most ambitious project demonstrates the technical geekery she craves. Her 3D cinematic audiobook is her attempt to show a new form of storytelling, even a new genre which applies film-grade sound design techniques using Dolby Atmos methodology. Where a script is written for sound not as commonly done the other way around. While this project focuses on the question of production steps and the impact of 3D audio on storytelling, the production process to ruralise and build a virtual three-dimensional world becomes a center point of her work.

«Immersion is what impresses me every time I go to an IMAX cinema», Kuebler explains. «I wanted to recreate this immersion and that type of feeling for audio books».

She sees three-dimensional spaces everywhere in movies, museums, games and audio books. Given so much extra space also gives so much extra opportunity to creatively fill it with life, with sounds, with story. This is what she wants to discuss. The technical challenges of positioning sound in three-dimensional space. The creative decisions about when density serves the story and when silence does. The workflow innovations required to manage complex spatial audio projects.

Streaming platforms have expanded their spatial audio offerings significantly, with Apple Music, Tidal, and Amazon Music now supporting spatial audio playback. Netflix and Disney Plus have released select content with immersive audio mixing. The technology exists for independent creators to produce spatial audio at quality levels previously requiring major studio resources. These are the conversations that energize her.​

"Attention being such a high currency these days I love creating audio experiences that transport listeners into a space and time for deep listening," she says.

Building Without Being Boxed In

Her path into sound design took unexpected turns. She completed a marketing and communication apprenticeship in Berlin before transitioning into the music industry. From 2017 to 2020, she served as Account Manager for Boiler Room Latin America in Mexico City, producing live music broadcasts to global audiences. She co-founded Yu Yu Club during the same period, handling artist bookings and event production.

These experiences taught her how sound creates atmosphere in physical spaces, knowledge that translates to film work through better instincts about pacing and emotional impact. She later completed a bachelor`s degree in audio production at Frankfurt in 2023, then moved to London where she now works as a freelance sound designer and mixer.

Her current work spans commercials, documentaries, corporate videos, and game audio. Commercial projects require quick turnarounds. Documentary sound design calls for naturalism that supports content without drawing attention. Game audio involves interactive elements where sounds trigger based on player actions. Each format demands different technical approaches and problem-solving strategies. This variety keeps her work fresh and prevents creative stagnation.

She also founded NSNS Magazine as a publication covering music, sound, and storytelling with emphasis on Latin American artists and producers. Her Sophie Sound project combines fictional storytelling with real interviews with sound supervisors and industry professionals. Her writing has appeared in Animation Obsessive and the German Audio Association magazine. Each platform creates space for technical conversations about audio craft.

The Nuance She Wants

Research shows that 45% of women podcast consumers are more likely to consider brands that support women-hosted or produced podcasts. Representation clearly matters economically and culturally. Kuebler doesn`t deny this. She just wants room for complexity.​

She wants to normalize female presence in sound design without making gender the constant focal point. She wants to create platforms that expand access to sound careers without turning every conversation into advocacy. She wants to be excellent at her craft and have that excellence recognized on its own terms, not qualified by her gender.

«I don`t want to distinguish between male and female sound designer anymore», she says. «I just want it to become normal that there are people of all genders, of all nationalities, all classes and of all sexual orientations. Why is it always talked about as abnormal when sound is done by someone but a man?».

This is harder than it sounds. The industry pipeline remains broken. Film schools and audio programs stay male-dominated. Internships go to people with existing connections. Women face assumptions about their technical capabilities. These structural problems won`t fix themselves through silence.

But Kuebler`s approach suggests a different path. Create platforms that feature women doing excellent technical work. Have conversations about craft that include diverse voices without making diversity the constant subject. Build infrastructure that expands access while maintaining focus on professional expertise. Normalize female presence through consistent visibility rather than constant explanation.

Never Stop Candy Bang embodies this philosophy. The podcast brings younger talent, including women, into conversation with established professionals. It covers technical topics that matter to practitioners. It creates educational content about career development and industry standards. It does all this while centering sound design itself rather than gender politics.

What Comes Next

Projects Kuebler has contributed to have screened at international film festivals and been distributed through streaming platforms in multiple countries. Her podcast reaches listeners across several continents. Her writing appears in publications with international readership. Her 3D audiobook methodology offers a model for immersive audio storytelling that other creators can build from.

She continues advocating for structural changes in how the industry approaches sound. Most film and television projects bring sound professionals in after picture is locked, limiting creative possibilities. She wants directors and producers to involve sound designers during pre-production planning, treating audio as a fundamental storytelling tool from project inception.

Through Never Stop Candy Bang and her other platforms, she works to shift these practices while creating space for technical conversations that energize her. She documents that women work in sound design. She explains pathways into sound careers. She normalizes female presence through consistent visibility. But she does so while insisting on her right to geek out about plug-ins, to have normal tech talks, to be recognized for craft rather than constantly explaining why she exists in this space.

Women now consume podcasts at rates approaching men, with 52% having listened monthly. They seek content that reflects their experiences and amplifies voices like theirs. Kuebler`s platforms meet that demand. But they do so on her terms, centering the technical craft she loves while refusing to let gender become the only story worth telling about her work