🏀 Dunks, chaos, TikTok, silly songs, pizza 🍕 Mariah Smith 📺
💌Podcast The Newsletter is your weekly love letter to podcasts and the people who make them.💌
Bonjour!
This week we’re getting to peek into the podcast app and listening life of Karo Chakhlasyan, COO of Chartable. He was most recently the Vice President of Audience Acquisition at Wondery where he developed and executed marketing strategies. When Karo is not in the office, you're likely to find him taking care of his cactuses.
App I use: Overcast (Main player) + Spotify (JRE)
Listening time per week: Yikes! 15 hours++
When I listen: Most of my consistent listening happens in the morning until my first call. From there it's all about the pockets of time I could find in between tasks, calls, responsibilities, life, etc...
How I discover: It's really recommendations from other podcasts or scrubbing through the Chartable trending charts.
Anything else? Our industry is showing no signs of slowing down. From the scope of content produced to the technology our stories are delivered through, podcasts continue to evolve at a rapid pace. It takes a vibrant community to make that happen, so props to all the tape syncs, ad-op teams, software engineers, everyone in between, and of course the listeners!
xoxo lp
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👋q & a & q & a & q & a👋
Mariah Smith
Mariah Smith is a comedian, writer and producer in Los Angeles. She is also the host of Spectacle: An Unscripted History of Reality TV. Follow her on Twitter here and Instagram here.
Kindly introduce yourself and tell us what you do!
I'm Mariah Smith and I'm a writer, producer and comedian known for the podcast Spectacle: An UnScripted History of Reality TV and Keeping Up With the Kontinuity Errors that tracks the continuity errors in Keeping Up With the Kardashians.
How would you describe how your brain works? Keeping Up With the Kontinuity Errors seems like something that would be impossible to track. What about this idea made you think...this has to happen?!?
Oh my goodness, I come from TV so I've always had an eye for detail and errors in editing which is how KUWTKE came to be. I also consume so much pop culture at a rapid rate, it sort of stays with me and I can recall, almost to the day, when something happened or when someone wore something. As for the initial idea, I was working as a production assistant on Vh1'S Best Week Ever, and I was in charge of covering KUWTK and that's when I noticed all of the continuity errors. So, I created a Tumblr that I thought would be seen by 5 people and by the end of the week 10,000 people had looked at it, so I decided to keep going with it.
Can you talk about the format/structure of Spectacle?
So, with Spectacle we break down each show we're talking about with specific moments and more global commentary on the shows. We hear from people who were on the shows themselves, journalists, experts who give us insight and a little more understanding about each program.
Why is this kind of journalistic approach to reality TV important?
I think it's important to treat all pieces of art, reality tv included, with respect. Reality TV is a cultural phenomenon that's impacted our pop culture, ways we see celebrities and politics. It's nothing to look down upon. So, with a journalistic approach we're treating the genre with equal weight as we would prestige TV or important moments in history.
Can you tease us with anything exciting coming up?
I'm really excited for people to listen to our 90 Day Fiance episode. It's so insightful, yet hysterical. We have great guests, Marcy Jarreau and Nicole Byer and some other amazing experts.
🚨If u only have time for 1 thing🚨
From the outside, these three mini-stories about teenagers surviving a deserted island, a man trying to find meaning in a warzone, and the number and concept of zero, seem to have nothing in common. But Throughline ties them all together to tell a larger story about chaos, and how we try to find order in it. Each story is incredible, but the one about the teenagers is what will stick with me. Rund Abdelfatah talks to Rutger Bregman, who was fascinated about a true Lord of the Flies story—a group of six young boys survived for a year alone on an island. What happens is the opposite of the plot of Lord of the Flies. They collaborate to settle disputes and find food and shelter. When they are discovered they are in somewhat good shape. It’s the survival of the friendliness. The Lord of the Flies has influenced the way we think about human nature. But should we be looking at the stories of these boys, instead?
💎BTW💎
🎙️This week on Celebrity Book Club, Chelsea Devantez talked to Joanna Quraishi about Dolly Parton's Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business. There are so many celebrities we feel like we don’t know, that they have built a wall around themselves. But it seems that Dolly has written this book with honesty and complete openness. Chelsea and Joanna talk about Dolly’s feminism, and her refusal to be labeled as a feminist. She doesn’t call herself one, but can we call her one? How can her unapologetically feminist fans ration the fact that Dolly seems to be doing the work, but won’t name what she’s doing? This is a smart look at Dolly and her book, and per usual, Chelsea brings so much respect, humor, and seriousness/light to the celebrity she is highlighting.
🎙️Jameela Jamil opens up this episode of I Weigh by talking about what an interesting Women’s History month we are having—from the murder of Sarah Everard and the sickening response to it, to our mistreatment of Meghan Markel, to the shooting in Georgia. But then she interviews one of my favorite comedians and artists, Jamie Loftus. I think this is one of the funniest episodes of I Weigh, Jamie brings out a very funny side of Jameela. They talk about how the funny/disturbing/creative/sad ways they protect themselves from danger while walking alone late at night. Jamie talks about speaking out against sexual harassment and the negative reaction she received for doing it—from women. And she gives a great overview of her new podcast Lolita Podcast, which you should binge right now if you haven’t listened.
🎙️I love The Pod Spotter because I can’t get enough of interviews with podcasters. But it’s also just so up my alley—many of the people Zack interviews are with the makers and hosts of some of my favorite shows. (Everything is Alive, Canary, Bodies, Relative Unknown.) So if you like my picks, I think you’ll like it, too. Zack also always asks the questions I’m dying to hear answered, and shares the greatest, most thought-provoking moments from the shows he’s highlighting. On a recent interview with Mónica Ortiz Uribe and Oz Woloshyn, he gets to the heart of Forgotten: Women of Juarez, about why the balance of Oz being an observer of Juarez, and Mónica being a Juarez insider, makes them the perfect (if maybe unlikely) match to pull of this fantastic, investigative show.
🎙️After to listening to Oz and Maria talk about their insider/outsider relationship, it was interesting to hear a conversation about TikTok between Jon Caramanica (a TikTok insider) and Caryn Ganz (a Tiktok outsider.) So if you feel like a TikTok outsider or insider, you will enjoy this conversation. Jon explains that TikTok has essentially become a place for artists to test their music in this rowdy and reckless space. There are so many interesting ways that musicians and labels have leveraged TikTok, in what is sort of a golden age. Drake fed a song to a TikTok dancer before the song came out, in an effort to make it go viral. Beyonce was placed on a track that went big to introduce her to the space. Smaller artists are getting signed because of what they’re able to do on the platform. And music is being created that is tailored to what labels think people will want to make viral dances to. (Eerie!) Surely some of this was inevitable, but like so many things, it was accelerated in the pandemic. This clip made me want to spend more time on TikTok before the record labels and brands have completely ruined it. The appetite brands have for authenticity will surely destroy TikTok, and inevitably its authenticity.
🎙️Deeply Human uses psychology, biology, and anthropological to explain what makes us human and why we do the things we do. I am fascinated with pain—I have had some pretty debilitating injuries and spent January to March dealing with so much wrist pain (from typing too much!) that I couldn’t brush my hair or lift a teensy caper jar! Now the pain is gone, and I can’t remember what it felt like. That’s trippy. Did I make it up? No? Am I sure about that? No. This episode of Deeply Human about pain explains that hurting is a private experience, that pain is a room for one, and we don’t have a great way to describe it. It is all encompassing yet completely ethereal. This episode considers what is happening to us when we go through pain, and why people unnecessarily subject themselves to torturous levels of it. It will make you think differently about the next time you are in pain and how you choose to experience it.
🎙️Every Little Thing has a collection of tiny embarrassing tales from listeners, with the aim to have the ELT audience vote for which they think is the most embarrassing. The first story starts with “okay, this is probably too gross to say on air…” and the last one is so oddly specific, speaking to the awkward experience of being a teenager, that it gave me chills. I cannot decide who “wins.” The one about “pajama day” is not embarrassing to me, but any story involving a “pajama day” is hilarious. There is an awkward funeral story, a MRSA-ridden bare-assed story that couldn’t be worse until it gets worse, and more. I liked listening to these stories because embarrassment, like pain, is relative. I wonder if anyone else had that same reaction to the last story, and it says about me that I find that the most embarrassing? What does your most embarrassing story say about you?
🎙️Odessa is a podcast from The New York Times following kids at a high-school in Texas that has partially re-opened during the pandemic. We get to hear about the logistics of going to school during Covid (many of these students have jobs they have to work while they’re in zoom classes) but also about their mental health. The latest episode talks about how the school band has helped lots of kids feel connected, and you get a sense that all kids are missing when they’re not in school. It’s more than just the lessons. I love this series because you really get to know one of the students, Joanna Lopez, who is living through something so polarizing and contentious. But she’s just a normal teenager, trying to be a normal teenager. A small anecdote describes how Jonna fell in love with the cymbals, and it illustrates the fact that kids don’t need school for class, they need it for all the other stuff school provides. Like the chance to practice with your bandmates, attend a football game, or go crazy on the cymbals. There is a subtly to this story, but there is also urgency. High school feels eternal but actually goes by in a flash. Odessa is capturing the experience of American teenagers in Covid, and will be so interesting to listen to in 50 years.
🎙️Spinsters covers the NBA in the kind of way that I want to experience the NBA. It’s story-driven, human, funny, and smart. The Why People Don’t Think Women Dunk episode is a perfect example of this. Haley O'Shaughnessy and Jordan Ligons bring up this question, that I’ve never actually considered before, and back it up with history and science to fully explain that yes, women do dunk. But why they don’t get credit for it. (And when they don’t, why they don’t.)
🎙️There are some shows I listen to every week and walk away thinking, “dammit this show is superb, why don’t more people listen to it?” Burn it All Down is one of those shows. I have written about it before, but I’m begging you to give it a try if you haven’t. It’s a panel of whip-smart, loveable journalists who know their sports, love their sports, and are calling bullshit on the massively underreported inequality that women’s sports (from bobsledding to The Olympics to trans athletes) get in comparison to men’s. It’s one of those shows that I listen to and I feel like I know the hosts. They offer this balance of serious and personable. It’s so much fun to listen to, and I always hear about news stories that aren’t getting coverage elsewhere, or perspectives I’m not hearing anywhere else. It’s an entirely new way to look at sports. It’s the way we should be looking at sports. I love the friendly openings, the great content, and it feels so GOOD to go through the “burn pile,” (where the hosts call out some wack shit) and hear everyone say “BURRRRRRN.” I say it with them.
🎙️Snap Judgment has an amusing story about two women, Katie Crouch and Katie Crouch, who have more than just a name in common. They’re both writers who seem to be following each other from California to New York and back. Katie #1 is fascinated with her doppelganger, and Katie #2 seems to want to have nothing to do with hers. When Katie #2 writes an Ozy piece about Katie #1, it provokes a response article from Katie #2, and they end up meeting. This segment feels a little like a Heavyweight episode—it’s trying to figure out the different motivations of these two women. Although they have so many superficial things in common, when they meet they realize that the similarities stop there.
🎙️Song-a-Week is a podcast hosted by Paul Rust and Michael Cassady that brings you a brand new song every week, about things like denim vests and TV and fast food. I have been listening to one episode each day, and I’ve noticed that having this tiny burst of silliness makes my day better. The songs are actually well-written and produced, and the topics are so oddly specific that you feel like you’re experiencing something truly unique, that could only be enjoyed on a podcast. (I’m not trying to compare Paul and Michael’s band, Don’t Stop or We’ll Die, to They Might Be Giants. But I’m getting those vibes. Silly songs taken with the uttermost seriousness.) About 95% of the podcast is sung, Paul and Michael sing everything from reviews to plugs and introductions. They’re effortlessly funny and this podcast is like eating cake…I’m not quite sure yet how it’s contributing to the greater good, but it makes me happy in the moment and gives me a temporary happiness high.
🎙️On With Friends Like These, Anna Marie Cox had a hallelujah episode with Rebecca Traister about Cuomo and power. Rebecca points out that Cuomo’s nursing home incident and his history of sexual harassment are one and the same and part of Cuomo’s story of the white patriarchy. I was talking to my Grandma the other day, and my Grandma wanted to let Cuomo off the hook, and I didn’t know what to say. I wish I had listened to this episode before that call. Rebecca and Ana Marie talk about why exactly Cuomo’s behavior is not acceptable, even if you don’t care about his victims. This is a sign that his office was toxic and ill-functioning. Isn’t that reason enough? Rebecca also has a wonderful soliloquy about the #MeToo movement, what it missed, and how we can start the conversation about how more subtle and less clear-cut forms of harassment (aka creepiness) devalues women to a debilitating degree and damage everyone’s abilities to do their jobs. We can’t change the system, but we can stand up for and believe women. That is what we all can do. Listen to my favorite moment from this episode here.
🎙️Wesley Morris and Jenna Wortham are kicking off the new season of Still Processing by addressing the N Word, something that is fresh in their minds, as the semi-cryptically point out. (Their colleague, white health reporter Donald McNeil Jr., was recently fired for saying the N-Word to a group of students.) This episode illustrates the very different ways Black people relate to it, and what it would be like for someone like Wesley, who grew up never saying it, to hear it in music lyrics during a spinning class with a bunch of white people. Jenna talks about the powerful ways artists use the N-Word to create a space for Black people, a place that they can feel is just for them. And she proves her point by sharing songs from Solange, who talk about Blackness in a way that makes me, a white person, feel like I am listening to (and probably not singing along to) a message that I can enjoy, but it was not meant for me.
🎙️I’m still making my way through Anything for Selena, and the episode about race is I think the best, and what makes this show so good. Maria is talking about Selena’s skin color, and how she was basically white-washed over the years, by being represented by lighter-skinned women in TV and film. Maria remembers being praised for her light skin as a young girl, and in a wow moment for me, comes to the conclusion she can’t think of herself as a woman of color anymore. This podcast is about Selena, but it is also about Maria. Her close connection with Selena and Tejano music is what makes this podcast a love song. And this was a dramatic climax.
🎙️Here Be Monsters has a sound-rich episode on three types of animal vocalizations, described by the people who recorded them. This episode is like a nature walk (something I am in desperate need of these days)—it takes you to a lek in the early morning to witness a sage-grouse mating ritual, the Amazon forest to hear a baby monkey crying for its mother, and the site of some anxious rats. These sounds are incredible audio snapshots of nature, and the excitement the field-recorders have for their clips is contagious.
🎙️After you’ve finished your nature walk, join Josie Long on a gallery tour via Short Cuts. Josie invites us experience a transformative audio journey, the self-portraits of a fat activist, the mind of a courtroom sketch-artist, and a portrait of a woman who sold to Christies for $33.6 million. Josie has this way of making you feel like there is no separation between her and you, or the stories she is telling you. For most of these stories, she is showing us things we can’t technically see, so this episode is an example of what Josie is able to do with Shortcuts—give us an experience that defies the logic that tells us we can only see with our eyes. I also listened to this amazing Short Cuts piece about Cherry Blossoms. A woman takes you through her cherry blossom garden and describes their short life, their symbolism, and how they help tell the story of Japan at war.
🎙️My grandma Joyce was just recalling memories of being a little girl, and her mom, my Great-grandma Stella, making pizza for the neighborhood kids. (My Grandpa Pecky was an immigrant from a small town near Naples, Italy.) It was hard to believe that pizza, or Italian food, would ever been seen as something foreign or strange. When my grandma was young, Italians were experiencing racism, and their food was looked down upon. The Food that Built America tells the story of how it went from immigrant food, to everyone’s most coveted food, by telling the story of Pizza Hut and Dominos and their founders, Dan and Frank Carney and Tom Monaghan respectively. And how both the Carneys and Monaghan changed the way we think of Italian-Americans. The two companies had different approaches to pizza. Pizza hut went heavy into franchises, and Dominos invented pizza delivery. The styles of pizza were different, too. But both brought pizza to the American palate and can be credited with impacting the diet of nearly every American, and shifting the ways people looked at Italian-Americans. (Even though none of these guys were Italian.) This piece is full of interesting facts about the chains. (Did you know Tom’s brother sold his 50% share in Domino's for a used 1959 VW Beetle? Or the strange way Pizza Hut got its name?)
🎙️The Experiment features the story of Yusuf Ahmed Nur, who agreed to be the spiritual advisor to Orlando Hall, a Muslim man on death row, when nobody else would. Yusuf was there for Orlando’s execution, an uncomfortable thing to do, and we get to hear what made Yusef step up. When he died, Orlando was surrounded by people who hated him, who wanted him to die. But he also had a friend there, in Yusef. Yusef, a Somali immigrant who volunteered at his local mosque, says, “you feel like you’re complicit, that you are cooperating with the system. They assign you a role to play in this execution.” He talks about his decision to stay in Indiana and try to make things better there, instead of leaving and the power of sitting with your discomfort to make a change for good. But this episode really makes you think about the death penalty, and where you fit on the scale of agreeing with it, being opposed to it, and being a part of it. Even if your participation is positive.
🎙️I never write about Our Body Politic, but it has been a big part of my weekly podcast listening. I never skip an episode. On OBP, Farai Chideya rounds up some of the best people to cover often underreported news in a unique way, with passion and different perspectives. (Full disclosure: Our Body Politic is a Tink client!) It was a huge treat to hear Juleyka Lantigua-Williams of Lantigua Williams & Co. on the show to talk about the murders in Georgia and the strength of Trumpism in a post-Trump world. Juleyka is a podcast Boss—join her Clubhouse meetings Podcasting, Seriously twice a week. I am always there and hope you join and say hello!
🎙️Helen Zaltzman produced a valuable episode of The Allusionist, where she talks to musician and writer Christa Couture, a disabled writer who has lost two children and been through divorce. She offers the answer to a question I think we all have asked: what do you say to someone who has experienced loss? This isn’t just a regular interview about her life (you get to hear about it, she is a wonderful speaker.) The Allusionist is a show about language, so this episode talks about the way we fail in expressing sympathy and how we can do better.
🎙️On Culturally Relevant, David Chen talked to @joyofnapping about the murders in Georgia and anti-Asian violence in general. They speak heavily about sadness and anger, and what it’s like to be so angry when your whole thing is being the model minority. They have been angry for a long time. The end of the episode broke my heart. David and Joy talk about the conversations they have to have with their parents about being careful in public spaces. Asian immigrants often have come from war-torn countries. And many of them are asking, “why did we come to America?” Which is the saddest thing I can think of. This is a foundational problem of America. Joy and David get to why it’s been so overlooked. I left this episode not only feeling sand and angry, but hopeless.
🎙️I love you!