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Society and Culture

No Shortcut to Insider Access

No Shortcut to Insider Access

How Ear Hustle and Other People’s Problems have navigated access and consent to give listeners a fly-on-the-wall experience.

I love podcasts that give me a glimpse into a world I would have otherwise never been able to see; shows that make you feel like you’re getting special behind-the-scenes access. I’m talking about podcasts like Ear Hustle, which chronicles […]

Learning to Be Unladylike

Learning to Be Unladylike

Cristen Conger and Caroline Ervin discuss their approach, chemistry, and lessons over their popular show's three year run

If you’ve never laughed out loud while pondering how to smash the patriarchy, you’ve probably never listened to Unladylike. Since 2018, co-hosts Cristen Conger and Caroline Ervin have treated listeners to entertaining episodes exploring pop culture, health, beauty, politics, and […]

What It Sounds Like When People Connect

What It Sounds Like When People Connect

Why Erica Heilman’s Rumble Strip Conversations Sound Like No One Else’s

Pick an episode of Erica Heilman’s independent podcast Rumble Strip. Odds are, one of the first things you’ll notice is the intimacy of the conversations. Rumble Strip is usually composed of one-on-one interviews, but even in group interviews or solo […]

How to Navigate the Podcast to TV Pipeline According to Pros

How to Navigate the Podcast to TV Pipeline According to Pros

Advice from Lee Eisenberg, Marshall Lewy, Eli Horowitz, and Aaron Mahnke

“People are always looking for IP, people are always looking for good stories,” says Lee Eisenberg, a longtime TV producer, who is turning WeCrashed into a series at Apple TV+. The evidence of that is in the steady stream of […]

How to Get Listeners for Your Podcast About the Environment

How to Get Listeners for Your Podcast About the Environment

Digging in on Land Use, Climate Change, and More

Environmental issues—you know, like land use and climate change—should be an easy sell to listeners. After all, they’re big massive things that impact our world, right? Not so fast. Though so many people claim to be concerned about these issues, […]

How to Host a Podcast With Your Partner That Doesn’t Suck

How to Host a Podcast With Your Partner That Doesn’t Suck

The real life couples who host Couples Therapy and Sawbones tell us how they bring their chemistry to the mic

“Can I just throw this out there? We actually love each other.” Andy Beckerman, writer, performer, and podcast veteran, is speaking to me, along with his fiancée—writer, performer, and standup comedian Naomi Ekperigin—about Couples Therapy, the popular comedy podcast the […]

Podcasts Must Find the Small Moments to Give Life to Big Secrets

Podcasts Must Find the Small Moments to Give Life to Big Secrets

How Dani Shapiro makes guests' secrets come to life on her memoir anthology show Family Secrets

As Dani Shaprio finished up the manuscript for her memoir, Inheritance, people kept telling her their secrets. The book was about her shocking discovery—after submitting her DNA to a genealogy website—that her father was not actually her biological father, and […]

The Rise of Influencer Podcasts

The Rise of Influencer Podcasts

In a world of views and likes, podcasts feel authentic

The episode starts with an upbeat jingle as the show’s host welcomes listeners back for another 45 minutes of semi-scripted audio content. Her voice is young, but sophisticated. Her tone is casual, but authoritative. She is in control as she […]

Making Making Gay History

Making Making Gay History

If a podcast could will itself into existence, this would be how

Eric Marcus and Sara Burningham first met over the garden fence of their abutting backyards in the Manhattan neighborhood of Chelsea in 2010. As their friendship grew, Burningham discovered that Marcus was sitting on a bumper crop of content, and […]

Behind the Scenes of Hysteria

Behind the Scenes of Hysteria

A conversation with Erin Ryan about the show's creation and ongoing production

Erin Ryan is among the quickest, funniest people I know. We once worked one desk over from each other at the blog sweatshop that was early 2010s Gawker Media, her at Jezebel and me at Gizmodo. She moved on to […]

Preparing the Perfect Pandemic Pod

Preparing the Perfect Pandemic Pod

Stay F. Homekins, Round Springfield, and more play the right chord for These Times TM

“This is episode 24. We did not expect to still be doing this!” This line from Paul F. Tompkins opens a recent episode of the Stay F. Homekins podcast, in which Tompkins and his wife Janie Haddad Tompkins discuss, well, […]

How to Pitch a Podcast to Radiotopia (with examples)

How to Pitch a Podcast to Radiotopia (with examples)

How Helen Zaltzman became one of podcasting's most beloved mentors and built the hit show The Allusionist

How do you  pitch a podcast? People on the web Have Answers. A Google search tells me I need to “know the right person” (1,000-word essay), “listen to the shows” (lo-fi YouTube vid), or “if you’re doing good work, the […]

Metrics Schmetrics!

Metrics Schmetrics!

Dylan Marron found a new way to measure success that keeps him motivated

Dylan Marron has created two praise-worthy podcasts, but he—intentionally—does not know how many listeners he has. Conversations with People Who Hate Me features Marron facilitating loving conversations with online feuders who are encouraged to get to know the human on […]

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