🔥 Arson love, wagon-o-fat, Bruce Beach 🏖 Alex Schmidt 💡
💌Podcast The Newsletter is your weekly love letter to podcasts and the people who make them.💌
Bonjour!
Today is Monday, June 14. There are 345 days until I go on my next Disney cruise. This week we’re getting to peek into the podcast app and listening life of Arielle Nissenblatt, community manager at SquadCast.fm, a remote content production software that makes it super easy for creators to produce high quality audio and video content. Arielle is the founder of EarBuds Podcast Collective, a weekly podcast recommendation engine that sends a newsletter and puts out a podcast. She is also the co-creator of the Outlier Podcast Festival series, which brings together indie creators and industry leaders. Arielle co-hosts the podcast Counter Programming with Shira and Arielle.
App I use: I mostly use Castbox.fm but have recently been getting into Goodpods. I love Castbox out of habit, loyalty, and their extensive search features. I've been enjoying Goodpods because I think it can, if used more widely among listeners, be a great way of fostering in-app conversations and connection.
Listening time per week: 25-30 hours. I wake up and listen to a bunch of the daily morning shows (The Daily, Up First, What a Day, The Daily Zeitgeist, Snacks Daily, People Ever Day). Around lunchtime, I go for a weekly podcast like Criminal, 99% Invisible, The Only One in the Room, Fake Doctors Real Friends, Financial Feminist, or Savage Lovecast. I'll go for a walk sometime in the evening and listen to a few episodes of a limited series podcast such as Blindspot: Tulsa Burning, The Line, Unfinished: Short Creek, Floodlines, Lolita Podcast…The list could go on all day.
When I listen: When I wake up, during lunch, whenever I go for a walk, at night while cleaning my apartment. On weekend, I plan long walks so that I can get some listening in.
How I discover: I subscribe to a ton a podcast recommendation newsletters: Find that Pod, Podcast Review, Podcast Delivery, Inside Podcasting, 1.5x Speed, Bello Collective, Podcast Gumbo, Hurt Your Brain, This Week in Podcasts, and more. I go through these newsletters with my podcast app open and subscribe to any that strike me. I also get recommendations from the lists that are curated by my own newsletter, EarBuds, where each week's podcast recommendations come from someone new.
Anything else? Curation is the future of podcast consumption! Thanks for all you do, Lauren!
xoxo lp
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👋q & a & q & a & q & a👋
Alex Schmidt
Alex Schmidt is comedy writer and host of Secretly Incredibly Fascinating and hosted & produced more than 150 episodes of The Cracked Podcast. He is also a a 4-Time Jeopardy! Champion and created the bison emoji, then made a mini-podcast about that experience. Follow him on Twitter here. Follow Secretly Incredibly Fascinating on Twitter here.
When you were on Jeopardy, what was the fun fact you gave about yourself at the beginning?
I won four times, so I got to play five games and share five facts. In the last one I talked about my Grandma Schmidt, which I will always be glad I got to do on TV.
In every fact-sharing situation, I was in a near fugue state, because it was hard to hold a conversation with ALEX FREAKING TREBEK without dissociating a little. I’d watched the show on ABC-7 Chicago every afternoon growing up. I carried around Trebek's book in middle school. Talking to him was like talking to Television Itself.
Three things I always say about ‘Jeopardy!’: Alex Trebek was everything I hoped he’d be. The whole crew works to get every contestant in the best possible headspace to succeed. And you should take a shot at being a contestant! I give free tips on it!
What did you learn about making the bison emoji happen, and the podcast that followed?
Funny enough, podcasting was a big spark for the whole emoji proposal adventure. I got to hear podcaster Mark Bramhill talk with Roman Mars about the process on 99% Invisible. So I had a nice time following in those footsteps.
Learnings: I learned the Unicode Consortium is a ragtag group of nice volunteers. I learned about the vast range of people who find meaning in American bison. I learned what I’m willing and able to share about myself online (content warning for my podcast miniseries: there are themes of grief and loss in the last episode). Also I got to interview Mark, and got a nice message from Roman about the miniseries, so that brought the podcasting part full circle.
Why did you start Secretly Incredibly Fascinating?
Two reasons: I received a shove, and I took my time.
I plunged into this new podcast from a hard situation. I had hosted “The Cracked Podcast” for 3 years. Also produced it for 2.5 years, and put together live touring shows. But then new owners bought Cracked.com. Last year, they demolished that podcast. They fired me, all of a sudden, in the middle of an already-hard 2020.
In hindsight I’m really glad I took my time figuring out what to do next. I spent a few months on the question of “what’s the podcast I’ve always wished existed?” After lots of format and approach experimentation, ‘Secretly Incredibly Fascinating’ was the answer. I’m glad I didn’t hurry that. And I’m glad I decided to make a better show that's different from what I was making before.
Why are you a good host for Secretly Incredibly Fascinating?
I have comedy chops, and I have a background in historical research, and I’m genuinely curious about the world. I’ve also lucked into a lot of friendships with funny people who are willing to guest on episodes. Add that all up, and it’s like I was constructed in a laboratory by a mad scientist. Or maybe grown in a vat? I wouldn't know, I don’t follow the mad science journals/blogs. Anyway the wrinkle with that mad scientist is they aren’t after wealth or power. They want to spend a funny hour learning what's cool about vanilla and house keys and that one painting of a farmer. And I think a lot of fun, curious people want what that mad scientist wants. 'SIF' is the show for them.
One reason I like listening to you on podcasts is that you are so funny but also kind and I think this is rare. How do you do that? I often feel like when I'm trying to be funny, it often is coming from a mean place.
That’s a very nice question, and I'm gonna blow right past being bashful about how nice it is.
I’ve never seen much joy or benefit in doing “mean” comedy. And I think positive comedy has a lot of room to grow as an art. We're all still figuring out how good it can get. Also, most cruel comedy I come across feels tired to me. I feel like I've watched that roast before, and it wasn't great the first time.
One thing I like about the premise of ‘SIF’ is the intrinsic humor of any close look at seemingly ordinary stuff. I am not kidding when I say “this is an entire podcast episode exploring the color beige”. I'm also aware that it's a funny way to spend time. I'm glad it's funny!
Are there too many podcasts?
I love that the system is so open. I hope it stays wide open. I love that anybody can dive into it. I think if it feels like there are “too many” podcasts, that’s part of the longtime discoverability issue with podcasts. It’s hard for You The Listener to find everything you'd love. So newsletters like this are great, because they’re one of the few things that helps fix that.
With the sheer number of podcasts out there, every listener has a surprising amount of power to support a podcast. My show is listener-supported, and the handful of people who back it make it all possible. And every time somebody spreads the word about the podcast, it makes a meaningful difference. So if you're a fan of podcasts, you ought to be excited about that situation! Look how freakin' *powerful* you are!
🚨If u only have time for 1 thing🚨
I set aside time to enjoy the new season of Mija and I felt like I was curling up into a comfy chair with a good book. The first season (if you have been reading this newsletter for awhile you will know) was one of my favorite pieces of audio in 2019 and was a 2020 Webby winner. Also incredibly cool: The show is available in English, French, Spanish, Mandarin and Arabic. The first season followed the fictional world of Mija, a daughter of Columbian immigrants, by dedicating mini-episodes to all of her family members and illustrating their myriad of experiences as immigrants. The new season’s Mija tells the story of her Egyptian immigrant family's journey from Alexandria, Egypt to London and beyond. These are sweet, short stories offer colorful details that bring each character to life, and each tiny episode feels like a treat that deserves your total attention. I didn’t want these to fly by too fast. The act of listening to Mija is the act of entering another world, building your empathy and love for people and stories, and feeling like you are being cared for. I know that sounds nuts but it’s true. It’s soothing and meditative.
💎BTW💎
Jamie Loftus tweets of the week:
🎙️Regular readers of this podcast know that I am obsessed with Jason Feifer’s Build for Tomorrow (previously Pessimists Archive)…and it’s not something I would expect from the Editor-in-Chief of Entrepreneur magazine. I love to see Jason Feifer host this inventive, mind-bending storytelling show and also a show that interviews entrepreneurs about how they tackle business challenges (Problem Solvers.) And I can’t believe it, but Jason had me on Problem Solvers to talk about how I started my company, Tink. (Extra surprising because the previous episode was with Chris Bosh?) Jason did a great job turning my gobbeldy-gook into a cohesive episode, making me sound cooler than I am. If you’re interested in hearing how I actually turned my obsession into my job, listen to it! (Or if you’d rather hear something from Chris Bosh, listen to that episode. It’s really good, too.)
🎙️I have been bingeing old episode of Mortified and I recommend it—storytellers read from their childhood diaries, which are often embarrassing and always sweet. It really kind of shocks you back into childhood and the minds of kids. I get feelings of nostalgia for things I've never experienced before. There are often trippy moments of the storyteller reading premonitions from their younger selves—do we match up with the people these little, wonderful people dreamt that we’d be? My favorite story was the first in I Need a Vacation. A girl is so excited to her class trip to Washington, D.C. that she recalls every tiny detail, including almost everything none of us would give a shit about when traveling. And after a year without travel, I was excited by these tiny things, too. My mom keeps telling me, “you should read from some of your old diaries on this show. I have them. BUT I HAVE NOT READ THEM, I have no idea what’s in them. Maybe there’s nothing. But maybe there is. But I wouldn’t know because I have not read them.” Methinks the lady doth protest too much.
🎙️I don’t think we talk about the weirdness of Oprah’s Wagon-O-Fat enough, but that is exactly what Aubrey and Michael did for a new episode of Maintenance Phase. With the help of Kimberly Springer (co-editor of Stories of Oprah: The Oprahfication of American Culture) they cover the highs and lows of Oprah’s weight-loss journey, her relationship with an attractive, slim man named Stedman, and Oprah’s cultural influence in general. They’re not exactly dragging her (who on earth would do that?)—this episode is really focused on the fat wagon, future episodes will cover other facets of Oprah and dieting. But focusing on this topic alone is ample opportunity for tons of zany details to keep track of. But the episode ends with something I cannot get out of my mind: a report from a 1989 New York Times profile of her says that fat Oprah would hug studio guests more than thin Oprah, who maintained a far greater distance. “The touch of woman with a perceived sexual allure is scarier, more charged, dangerous. Her body seemed more loose, her movement more flowing when she was fat. When she is with Stedman, her body maintains its comfortable eloquence.”
🎙️The Nocturnists is back with more “Stories from the Pandemic,” this time taking a look at the problems surrounding the hero trope that we lazily fall back on when we try to put the plight of healthcare workers during the pandemic into words. This episode offers the voices of heroes who are saying they never wanted to be heroes, or just feel really complicated by that word. This show has done such a fantastic job telling stories of the pandemic…they have risen to the occasion of documenting it with power and beauty. I hope our grandchildren will be listening to these episodes in school to get a concrete idea of what the world was really like, the emotional juggling healthcare workers were forced to do, and the minute and personal details of the people impacted the most.
🎙️On Family Ghosts, storytelling genius Gastor Almonte remembers being a kid in East New York, when his older cousins would constantly try to scare him wearing a Beetlejuice mask. His solution to this problem is donning a Batman costume, complete with backwards underwear so his opponents could see the Batman logo that was intended to be on his backside. This is a story of childhood bravey and facing your demons, how a kid can try to solve a problem. But there’s a twist that I won’t reveal—decades later Gastor discovers something about his cousins that changes what he believed about his family. This was one of the most delightful stories I’ve heard on a podcast recently, please listen to it.
🎙️Chelsey Weber-Smith opens their gender reveal party episode with their own sort-of gender reveal. I knew that Chelsey was non-binary, but had never heard them talk about growing up as a non-binary kid in a pretty binary world in this sweet/funny way that almost made me melt. (I want to go back to 1980-whatever and give Chelsey a huge hug.) Then Chelsey outlines the history of gendered baby items and how we used to predict the biological sex of babies, and why we even care.
🎙️Alligator Candy is a pretty quick and well-written true-crime podcast hosted by David Kushner, whose 11-year-old brother Jon was murdered in 1973 while biking through a suburban Florida forest to buy candy for David. This isn’t a whodunnit, we find out very early that a man named Johnny Witt admitted to his wife that he and Gary Tillman molested, mutilated, killed, and buried Jonathan in a shallow grave. This was weeks after being spotted in the same woods looking for a child to kill for sport, with a bow and arrow. It’s pretty much a worst case-case scenario story at every turn. But David spends more time on the ripple affects the murder had than the murder itself, on his family and community. David lets you into the heart of the story and there’s a delicate, emotional way he tells it. (Not shocking the writing is good or that he is able to do this—Alligator Candy is based on his 2016 memoir of the same name.) I think this is a good one for the people who are maybe a bit averse to true crime. This one could go in so many directions, but it ends up feeling right.
🎙️Telling Stories interviewed someone I love, Zak Rosen of The Best Advice Show and Pregnant Pause with Zak and Shira. On this episode he talks about cherishing the state of mind in which we know nothing, and challenges us to create a piece of audio where we ask someone to teach us something. (So in-line with The Best Advice Show.) He also talks about how strange it is to turn the microphone on himself.
🎙️So I listen to The Best Advice Show every day, and was excited to see Phoebe McIndoe of Telling Stories on to offer very cool advice about identifying bird calls in your neighborhood. It’s like your own personal treasure hunt! In this beautiful episode, you even get a poem. It’s the best 3 minutes you will spend in 10,000 years.
🎙️I often listen to music and wonder what Switched On Pop’s Charlie and Nate would say about it or wish that I had an MTV Pop-Up Video-like app where I could hear their commentary on my Spotify Discovery list. So like, why do I love J. Cole’s The Off Season so much? I don’t know! And they don’t either, but take us on a JOURNEY to try to find out, focusing on the history of the 12/8 shuffle, why hearing it makes you “feel like there’s a gear being cranked inside your butt,” and Bernard Pretty Purdie, the man who might be behind it. It’s also a great ode to J. Cole, and if you’re looking for more of him, listen to this interview on The ETCs with Kevin Durant—I learned so much about J. Cole, his basketball career, and his hustle.
🎙️Ibram X. Kendi’s new podcast Be Antiracist gives listeners the opportunity identify and reject racist systems by talking to guests who are doing the work. Things kick off in what initially seemed (to me) an unexpected way, making ties between racism and ableism (the two are “roots of the same tree.”) Dr. Kendi’s brother has a disability, so he saw firsthand the completely out-of-proportion disadvantages people in the Black disabled community have. A conversation with Rebecca Cokley, one of the country’s leading voices on disability rights, stirs up questions about capitalism and self-worth, what we value in our country vs. what we should, and the insidious things that are happening to the Black disabled community right underneath our noses. This episode was dedicated to Dr. Kendi’s brother.
🎙️Resistance offers intimate and personal, lesser-known stories of people who are active in the opposition of white supremacy. (One of my favorites is one I have written about before, F Your Water Fountain.) These are the kinds of stories I wish I had read about in history class, but I guess it has been worth the wait because these episodes are beautiful. Get Back in the Water is about a couple, the Bruces, who tried to stake out a respite for Black people during an unjust times along a beach in Southern California in the 1920s, and how that dream was destroyed. It opens up with mini-stories of way Black people still don’t feel welcome on the beach, and tie it to this story in history, which is in our past but the ghost of it is far from gone. Community activist Kavon Ward has been trying to get the land, owned by LA county now, deeded back to Bruce family, and a bill recently passed do this. The story is far from over, but if the land is restored, it will be the first time land is restored to Black people. (The story is in development as a scripted Amazon historically-based mini-series by Plan B Entertainment, the studio founded by Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston.)
🎙️In 2021, the Accomack County volunteer fire departments were overwhelmed with arson calls—someone was setting fire to abandoned homes every day, there were nearly 90 fires in all. After some video footage caught a woman on the scene, the police were able to track someone down, but she was not the one burning down the county. She was, however, the mastermind behind the fires. So many episodes of Criminal could be episodes of This is Love and vice versa. This one, on the Criminal feed, a fucked up love story about fetish and manipulation, is one of them.
🎙️The Forbidden Apple studies the apex of LGBTQ+ and spirituality, and for the episode Homosexual in the bible, interviewed Sharon “Rocky” Roggio, producer and director of the documentary film 1946, who explains how “homosexual” was not interpreted in the Bible until 1946. I want to shout this episode out from the rooftops (though I doubt it would do much good to do so when it comes to the people who need to hear it.) I love a good Bible deep-dive, and this episode is not just about the word homosexual, but about how the Bible was made.
🎙️Hakai magazine’s The Sound Aquatic is beautifully capturing the sounds under the sea with real recordings that are supplemented by interviews with scientists so that we can get a better understanding of what we are hearing. Episode one opens with the story of the navy detecting sounds so loud mistakenly detonated a defensive mine. It’s just one example of how loud it is in the ocean, and how little we know about it. Fish, lobsters, and whales fart, grunt, and sing in amazing harmony, and I can’t think of many other opportunities you get to hear it. Plus this show is packed with lots of weird facts (Belugas have lips in their blowholes and hear through their jaws!) Covid forced the show to pivot to embrace the moment of a quieter sea, also known as the anthropause, which has offered scientists an avalanche of data.
🎙️Fever Dreams hosted a hysterical ride of an interview with Canada-based comedian and “Not Even a Show” host Chris James, who is famous for pranking prominent conservatives and MAGA and QAnon people on-air. He relays some of his funniest pranks and tips, and Chris explains his crafty way of out-dumbing the dumb, (he often has ideas more extreme than the ideas of the people who he is calling, which demonstrates how ridiculous they are) and why Rudy Giuliani is the easiest and most fun person to prank. This is a fun peek into conservative media radio, and now that I know that there’s a huge chance I’ll get to hear Chris tell Rude Giuliani, “I love you, but my dumbass liberal aunt hates you and calls you a big-headed boot-licker,” I might actually listen in myself.
🎙️I love a good podcast episode that turns me into an “Actually Guy,” meaning, at parties, when someone says, for example, “Mt. Everest is the tallest mountain in the world,” I can say, “Actually, there are three more that are technically taller.” (Please invite me to your parties!) Actually Guy your own ass with this episode of Unexplainable, which describes why it’s so hard to determine the height of Mt. Everest (it has to do with sea levels) and the mountains that, if we measured them from head to toe, are significantly taller than Everest. We also get to hear from the scientist who was tasked with traveling to the top of Everest to get a measurement when one of his limbs froze off.
🎙️I don’t think I’m alone when I admit I’ve been waiting to see what Reply All’s return will look like, without PJ Vogt (who left the show after exposure of his toxic workplace behavior surfaced) and instead with Alex Goldman and Emmanuel Dzotsi. Will it continue in the direction where it seemed to be headed? A show with a little bit more of a mission, covering hard-hitting topics like racism at huge media companies? Or will it stay close to its roots, which is kind of like semi-intelligent internet dumpster diving? On #174 Search Party (which sounded promising) Ashley Feinberg and Katie Notopoulos join Alex to go through each other’s search history. And you know, this is something I don’t mind hearing (they do it on The Daily Zeitgeist every day,) but it was not what I was hoping to see. The highlight of the episode was hearing that nerf patrol videos exist on YouTube, and that they are very strange and probably deserve their own deep-dive. (I’m begging someone to click on that link and explain to me wth is going on.)
🎙️I love you!