“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 pair have been hosting together since July 2018. He’s examining what it is about their relationship dynamic that translates so seamlessly to the show’s audience. “We entertain each other off-mic all the time," he says.
As heartwarming as this sentiment is, romantic love between a show’s co-hosts isn’t nearly as predictive of a show’s quality as you might think. Looking out over the podcasting space, there are hundreds of shows hosted by couples, ostensibly just as in love with one another as Beckerman and Ekperigin, who aren’t able to replicate the pair’s formula for success. More than just unsuccessful, many of these shows are unlistenable—the equivalent to being the third wheel on an evening out with a couple whose inside jokes aren’t as endearing as they think they are.
On the opposite side of the coin, Sydnee notes that, while she and Justin will occasionally delay recording sessions until an argument simmers down, they’re equally fixated on managing the inverse: the ways creative tensions might boil over into personal ones.
“On paper, it [...]
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