🚢 Drama time: there's bad cruise news. But good news: Arielle and Shreya take over!👯♀️
🍭 👂 You're in for a treat! 🌈 🤸♀️
Bonjour!
After months (year?) of planning and counting down, our fearless leader Lauren Passell was supposed to be on her Disney Cruise! Unfortunately, her mom tested positive for Covid (she’s fine!) and they were turned away, so she’s not in the Bahamas on Disney’s private island right now. PLEASE send her your love. She needs it this week. Next year in Disney!
We’re so honored to have been asked to take over for the week. We think that combined, our hours spent listening to podcast *might* equal hers. Incase you don’t know us, I’m Shreya. I write Inside Podcasting, co-host The Download, write content for FRQNCY Media, among other podcast endeavors for the independent creators. And I’m Arielle. I run the community at SquadCast.fm. I write EarBuds Podcast Collective. I co-host Sounds Profitable. And a few other podcasty things.
In case this email is too long, here’s something we loved. Here’s something we think will make you think differently about dinosaurs. And here’s the coolest new show we heard this week.
ps If you are pleased with Podcast The Newsletter, please spread the word.
👋q & a & q & a & q & a👋
Stephen Satterfield
Since 2007, Stephen Satterfield has spent his career redefining food and beverage as means of organizing, activating and educating. He is the founder of Whetstone, a groundbreaking magazine and media company dedicated to food origins and culture from around the world. Explore Whetstone podcasts here. Follow Stephen on Twitter here. Follow Whetstone on Twitter here. Follow Whetstone Radio on Twitter here.
Why are the stories food tells important?
The only activity that we all participate in as humans. It is synonymous with humanity because it tells the story of who we are and how we came to be.
What led to you starting Whetstone, both the magazine and the Radio Collective?
I started the magazine in 2017, which, even though it wasn't that long ago the landscape of food media was much different. There was less diversity in contributors and subject scope. WHETSTONE was antithetical to the media being made in that moment and that our focus was not on Chefs or restaurants rather the traditions and rituals of cooking and how it informs identity and community.
Congratulations on High on the Hog being nominated for a Peabody! If you wanted the viewers to have one key takeaway from that, what would it be?
Thank you! A personal takeaway would be that narrative correction can shift culture.
From your experience in the space, how would you describe the relationship between food and equity?
Incongruous! Just like all parts of our society. And the stakes are life and death.
You’ve worked in so many verticals – audio, video, and culinary to name a few. What is the common thread that weaves through your contributions in these spaces?
Food is a never-ending story. That is a wonderful and rich place from which we get to create.
hey.
✨Lauren created a podcast swap database for podcasters who want to set up promo and feed swaps and other sorts of partnerships. Fill out the form to enter your show into the database, then browse the shows that have already been submitted to find your new podcast friend. Learn more in Podcast Marketing Magic, (there is a bunch of other shit in there you should probably read) and on tinkmedia.co.
✨Lauren is hosting another podcast marketing session with Radio Boot Camp on 6/6. This time it’s an hour longer, which means an hour of more fun. (And you can TOTALLY nerd out.) Sign up here.
✨Lauren is gonna be at PodFest later this month in Orlando. Will you be there? She’d love to meet you.
✨Arielle is gonna be at Blk PodFest with SquadCast later this month. Will you be there? She’d love to meet you.
✨Arielle Nissenblatt spotlighted the podcast Dead and Gone in her newsletter and podcast.
🚨If u only have time for 1 thing🚨
We’ve gone all in on ACCESS: A Podcast About Abortion this week. They put a new episode out this week about crisis pregnancy centers and how deceptive they are to pregnant people seeking help. Garnett Henderson introduces us to this episode, which is a live-taping of a panel she was on recently. While the show has been on hiatus since January, it’s well-worth a listen to the back catalog to learn about some fundamental aspects to the debate that you might’ve missed along the way. If you want something more timely, we recommend this episode of Boom! Lawyered with Jessica Mason Pieklo and Imani Gandy which gets into the nitty gritty of the leaked SCOTUS opinion draft from this past week. For more recommendation on this topic, check out this thread from Arielle.
⚡️News from Sounds Profitable⚡️
This week in the Sounds Profitable newsletter, we read a guest article from Alexia Bedat of Klaris Law on Why the Podcast Business Won’t Turn Into The Film/TV Business. She writes about how podcasting has its own unique qualities that will (hopefully) keep it from following exactly in the footsteps of TV, film, and radio in terms of “Hollywood-like” deals being minted.
Did you know that you can read Sounds Profitable here, but that you can also listen to each article here?
P.s. Shreya is the co-host of one of Sounds Profitable’s podcasts, The Download, which is a weekly podcast about the business of podcasting.It covers important pieces of news in the industry and why it should matter to us. Listen here.
💎BTW💎
🎙️Truthers: Tiffany Dover is Dead, hosted by Brandy Zadrozny (NBC News) is SO good. I will admit that I was initially attracted to it because of the beautiful cover art, but the entire series is worth your time. It’s still releasing weekly episodes as we try to uncover whether or not Tennessee nurse Tiffany Dover actually did die when she got the Covid shot on live TV in December 2020. Listen here. –Arielle
🎙️Consider This - I always love listening to NPR’s Consider This. I’m based in NYC and it’s such a great way to learn about local news. But I’ve been traveling a lot lately and have been LOVING the show’s geo-location feature, wherein the second half of each episode is pulled from NPR affiliate station of the city you’re in. I was able to quickly learn about some local Seattle news when I was there last month. Speaking of Seattle news, I’m also a fan of Seattle Now. And speaking of local news, I’m a fan of ATXplained. More on that in a few bullet points. -Arielle
🎙️TANGOTI - Bridget Todd is FAST. Not only is she an incredible voice in the fight to debunk internet-based misinformation, but she also responds incredibly quickly to big news stories via her podcast. Two weeks ago, she put out an emergency episode with producer Michael Amato about the Musk/Twitter situation. And this past week, she shared an episode of Stuff Mom Never Told You that she guested on. In it, she talks about how abortion access is a tech issue. I’ve really learned a lot from the way she looks at and explains the world. P.s. she has a newsletter. -Arielle
🎙️The Opportunist - I listened to this entire series SO quickly. I actually finished the whole thing (6-ish season) a month ago but I’m still thinking about it and wanted to tell this newsletter about my love for it. I had dinner with my friend from Salt, Natalie Gregory, a few months ago, and she told me she was working on a show through her job at Kast Media. I listened on my car ride home because her elevator pitch was phenomenal. And ever since, I’ve been a HUGE fan of The Opportunist. I tell everyone about it. And now you! Not only is the writing completely captivating, but the stories the team chooses to go after are off–the-beaten-path examples of fraudsters and grifters doing their thing. In a world of scam podcasts, The Opportunitist absolutely stands out. -Arielle
🎙️Dr. Gameshow - My friend Noah, who literally became an ordained rabbi yesterday (I’m so proud), isn’t the biggest podcast fan, so when he tells me about a show that he loves, I jump RIGHT on it. He told me about Jo Firestone and Manolo Moreno’s Dr. Gameshow from Maximum Fun last week and…I can’t stop listening. The concept of the show is that the hosts play original game shows that have been sent in by listeners. It’s ridiculous and goofy and reminds me of the freewheeling nature of early podcasts like Comedy Bang Bang!, wherein comedians are given mics and asked to go do their things. And those things are often very hilarious. Also! On the episode that I first tuned in to, Firestone and Moreno talked about their podcast hosting provider, Simplecast! Shoutout to our friends over there! -Arielle
🎙️ATXplained - I was in Austin this past week for Outlier PodFest, which was lovely. While I was there, I wanted to learn more about the city so naturally, I went to my podcast app of choice (which, these days, is Goodpods). I typed in “Austin news,” and up pops ATXplained. I hit play on this episode called Is Treaty Oak Still Alive? What followed was an incredibly reported episode about a very old oak tree in Austin, what it represents to Austinites, how someone tried (and failed) to poison it, and more. I LOVED it. -Arielle
🎙️Bowery Boys - What do you call it when something is usually up your alley but then on a particular day is REALLY right up your alley? The Bowery Boys always does it for me but this episode? WOW. In this episode, hosts Tom and Greg go to the Old Croton Aqueduct and tell us, while they’re on the ground reporting, about the history and significance of this trail. I visited this walkway last summer with my parents and it’s the coolest thing. Ever wonder how residents of NYC received drinking water in the 1800s since the two rivers surrounding Manhattan were either too brackish or polluted to consume? Hint: this aqueduct has a lot to do with how people were able to live in southern Manhattan. -Arielle
🎙️PEOPLE Every Day - I incorporated PEOPLE Magazine’s PEOPLE Every Day podcast into my daily listening ~a year or so ago. It’s quick, smart, and plays with format in a way that I think more daily shows should take on. I don’t really seek out pop culture or gossip-ish news aside from this show. Hosts Janine and team do it perfectly – it never feels salacious and they always try to tie it back to why it matters to you. I’ve especially been enjoying Janine’s coverage of the Amber Heard / Johnny Depp trial. -Arielle
🎙️Gastropod - I lived in St. Louis for a summer and saw Monsanto signs everywhere. I’d heard before that summer that Monstanto didn’t equal good but I didn’t know why. I did some research at the time, moved away, and forgot about it other than the occasional news headline. Thankfully, Gastropod’s Nicola Twilley and Cynthia Graber have opened the door again to this discussion. In this episode, they break down good and bad weeds, and why Monsanto is sometimes referred to as MonSatan. -Arielle
🎙️Invisibilia - I’ve been listening to a lot of Invisibilia lately. I hadn’t listened to the show in at least two years but a recent episode title intrigued me and now I’m back in. All in. “Poop Friends” was the episode in question. It starts off asking the question: don’t you have that designated friend that you discuss poop with? (I have several). Actually, they have an entire series on friendship; how it forms, how it’s changed, how it gets complicated. I loved it. Listen in and be my podcast friend!-Arielle
🎙️Bad Table Manners – As a brown woman in North America, I’ve faced many a misconceptions about South Asian, or “Indian” food, in my time here. This Whetstone show does two things – it gives me the vocabulary to address those misconceptions AND it also unearths misconceptions I might have about my own people and their food. I am in love with (read tearing up over) every single episode of this show. But if you want me to pick one, start with this one titled “Where There Are No Butchers, There Are Cinnamon Buns.” -Shreya
This week we’re getting to peek into the listening life of Aakshi Sinha, a podcast lover researching at Matriarch Digital Media and helping with marketing and outreach at Tink Media and Radio Boot Camp. Follow her on Twitter here.
The app you use to listen to podcasts to: Spotify. I listen to a lot of music too, and I love being able to do both in the same app. I also love creating playlists, 65 and counting!
What speed do you listen at?: 1.2-1.5x hits the sweet spot for me.
How do you discover new shows?: Newsletters, podcasts, Twitter, and just searching topics on Google and Spotify. I have learned that there is a podcast episode, if not a podcast, for whatever you are feeling or going through. This thinking led me to find some amazing podcasts exactly when I needed them the most. I discovered PANTS when I was missing The L-Word, How To The Pot when I tried weed for the first time, and so on.
What's a show you love that more people should know about?: Most of my favorite podcasts help me feel less alone in the world. I discovered and fell in love with the In-Betweenish podcast last year. I moved a lot as a kid because my dad was in the Indian Army. Also, I identify as queer. So I’ve always questioned where I belong and the boundaries around us, blood versus chosen family, nationality, language, gender, sexuality, etc. I have struggled with not finding a place, thing, or person home, and this show has interviews that feel like home to me. Through her thoughtful but incisive questions, the host, Beatriz Nour, really gets to the heart of the conflicted feelings interviewees bring to the conversation. I love this podcast, and it’s an added bonus that one of the interviews is with someone I look up to a lot in the sound art space, Axel Kacoutié!
Anything else you might want to add when it comes to podcast listening: Podcasts are lovely to start conversations with friends. Whenever I hear something that makes me think of a friend, I immediately send it to them and tell them why. Most of the time, they listen to it, and afterward, we have an amazing conversation that makes me feel so connected to them. This has been the thing that has helped me stay in touch with my friends through the pandemic, and I am so grateful for it!