🎙An exhaustive review of Podcast Movement (jk,)🍍 the pineapple war, 💭 why we need to talk about dreams, a long line of divorces 💔
💌Podcast The Newsletter is your weekly love letter to podcasts and the people who make them.💌
Bonjour!
Today is Monday, August 9. There are 289 days until I go on my next Disney cruise. If you don’t have time for the whole newsletter: this made me cry, I got to share my Disney tips on this, and not enough people are listening to this.
This week we’re getting to peek into the listening life ofAnn Feuss, a Minnesota native who found her way into the media industry in NYC. Her first project at the New York Times was helping sell through a little indie news show that later became "The Daily" and cemented her love for podcasting. A few years later she moved to LA (to escape weather of all kinds) and met her kindred spirit, Rachael King, who convinced her to make the jump into the podcasting biz full time. Anne is currently the Head of Business Development and Marketing at Pod People, Rachael's amazing company that is a global production company and audio staffing agency.
The app I use: Recent Apple to Spotify convert (I like the recs better on Spotify!)
Listening time per week: 0-100 (literally) Depending on the week I'll listen constantly or not have time to squeeze in a single episode.
When I listen: Anytime I'm in the car, on a walk, eating meals alone (which is frequently), doing laundry, stretching
How I discover: Pod People shows are my go-to. We have an internal Slack channel just for podcast recs, so I'm always paying attention to what my team is liking/not liking.
Anything else? Check out Pod People if you haven't already! We have a community of over 1,000 audio pros all over the globe and offer an array of free resources as well as quality job opportunities :)
xoxo lp
ps If you are pleased with Podcast The Newsletter, please spread the word.
If you been reading along for the past few weeks, you know how much I love Listen Notes and how I use it to discover under-the-radar shows. I wanted to show you how I used it to make my Harklist about skateboarding. (I couldn’t have made the list without it.) Typing skateboarding into the search bar gave me the option to search both episodes and podcasts with the word “skateboarding” in it, and I could then rank those results via recentness vs relevancy. (It’s how I found this strange episode featuring Werner Herzog reviewing a skateboarding video.) It’s indicated when top shows are in the top 10, 5, or 2%, so I know right away that I’m getting a solid show that I can trust, or something lesser known. So I looked up skateboarding then searched for other words like “Tony Hawk,” “Mariah Dunn,” “skate culture,” and “Big Brother Magazine.” These searched surfaced tons of general episodes about skateboarding, and lots of smaller more nice ones, too, that were exactly what I was looking for. (My favorite clip on the list is from 99% Invisible: The History and Beauty of Skating in Empty Pools.)
👋q & a & q & a & q & a👋
Janine Rubenstein
Janine Rubenstein is the host of PEOPLE Every Day. Follow her on Twitter here.
How is the show different than the magazine and how is it different?
The show is like your daily dose of the weekly print magazine, but it also has its own feel. It gives a perspective on why we’re all so fascinated with these stars and stories. In terms of the interviews, there’s just something about hearing the story. We’re able to have fun, play games, and get into some of those interesting, irreverent questions that may not make it onto the page.
What is your relationship to your voice and how would you describe it?
It’s funny, I grew up being told I have a weird, raspy speaking voice. I’ve been a singer all of my life, and that usually makes for an interesting tone, but mine got made fun of a lot as a kid. They’d liken me to Fran Drescher or Patty Mayonnaise from the cartoonDoug. That said, I’ve always been pretty proud of my singing voice, so I’d say it’s been a love/hate thing. I’m hearing now from listeners that my speaking voice is actually pretty warm and inviting, and you can “hear the smile in it.” So, take that, Arthur from 7th grade!
If you were going to start another podcast, don't worry about the logistics or whether or not anyone would listen to it, what would it be?
I think it would be with my siblings. I’m the youngest of four, and we are all firecrackers and have a ton of opinions that we like to argue over and share with anyone listening.
What's something that surprised you in one of your interviews for PEOPLE Every Day?
Well, the biggest surprise was Black-ish’s Anthony Anderson Zoom-bombing another interview I was doing. He got his wires crossed and logged on early and totally stole the show as I was interviewing my editor-in-chief about Princess Diana.
On PEOPLE in the '90s, Jason Sheeler has an ongoing segment where he is trying to track down Fabio. Which elusive celebrity would you love to interview on the show? Who is a hard get?
I recite the word, the statement, the out of body experience that is “BEYONCE” every night in order to manifest her majesty onto the show, so there’s that. But also, thinking back to the ‘90s, I was a diehard Jonathan Taylor Thomas fan, so JTT would be a treat. Though my husband might not allow it.
What other podcasts do you love?
I love Call Your Grandmother, Ratchet and Respectable and PEOPLE in the ‘90s!
🚨If u only have time for 1 thing🚨
Mark Pagan (Other Men Need Help + other wonderful things) recommended Soul Music in the Bello Collective Slack channel the other day, which means I have been unable to listen to basically anything else. I know people say you get emotional when you watch movies on airplanes, but is the same true for podcasts? I listened to the episode on Fairytale of New York three times and had tears rolling down my face as I sat crammed in my tiny airplane seat. The show, in case you don’t know, features one song and several beautiful stories from people who have found meaning in the song, and it’s mind-blowing to see the many ways music can touch us. If you’ve never heard these songs before, the episodes are next-level in their ability to tap into your emotions. But if you are already nostalgic or something about one of the songs, I am warning you, you will start choking on an airplane and then play the song on repeat for yourself for an hour straight. I also listened to We’ve Only Just Begun, Life on Mars?, and many more. I’ve pretty much challenged myself to find a single mediocre episode but there just isn’t one. GO FORTH AND LISTEN. Tell me which one makes you cry like a baby who pooped his diaper 8 hours ago and needs a nap.
💎BTW💎
🎙️I was at Podcast Movement last week (which means I did a lot more talking about podcasts than actually listening to them, so this newsletter is “short”) and can’t believe how much fun I crammed into a few days. (It’s easy to cram in a lot when the entire festival takes places in some sort of city-like venue that feels like a cruise ship. You could just walk around with a glass of wine from place to place and nobody will stop you!) There were big people there (Jill Scott, Mark Cuban, Charlamagne Tha God) and I got to meet some of my heroes. Twila Dang gave my favorite presentation on representation in the podcast space, in fact I thought what she had to say should have been the crux of the entire festival—how do set up the podcast community’s most vulnerable people for success? (When you ask white men what their biggest podcasting hurdle is, they say “getting more downloads.” And when you ask the BIPOC community, they have an entire list of actual hurdles.) Juleyka Lantigua stole the show at a conversation on podcast leadership by talking about one of the biggest problems in podcasting, getting real about analytics. (She also looked like a badass fairy princess…I was so transfixed by her flowy turquoise skirt that I didn’t even initially realize she was the one wearing it.) She also revealed a new look for her company. (Read more here.) I got one-on-one time with Adela Mizrachi of Podcast Brunch Club, and Adela is an idea machine and I am so excited to partner with her in the future. I met my good friend Cory IRL for the first time and we both swing-danced to Questlove’s set with a 75-year-old man who was dressed to the nines and kicked ass in general. I got to run around with Arielle Nissenblatt and it felt like summer camp. Acast threw a party with the best food and wonderful company at Mockingbird downtown Nashville. I got to speak about podcast promo swaps in front of a lot of people and didn’t even barf from nervousness beforehand (unlike last year.) I always think of myself as anti-social but I was with my people and got so much out of every second I was there. I am also very tired. But fueled with ideas for the year to come.
🎙️Ian Coss (producer for PRX and Radiotopia) comes from a long line of divorcees but is happily married, and in Forever Is a Long Time he interviewed every member of his family who has ever been divorced (which is everyone) and wove it all together with original music to tell a story about commitment that felt spiritual. Each story is worth a deep plunge, particularly the story about his grandmother in episode two. There were predictable divorces, surprising ones, and ones that set up Ian to debate free will and whether he was destined for divorce like his family. This podcast is no bummer-fest, it’s a very real and nuanced look at partnership, why we do it, and what it means. I was married in a Catholic church, so my husband and I had to go through Pre-Cana, which is like couples therapy, and I rather enjoyed it. But I think if you had sat me and my husband down on a couch with episodes of Forever Is a Long Time in our ears, we would have been better off.
🎙️Truth Hounds is getting funnier and funnier, and I don’t know if that’s because it actually is, or if I’m just falling in love with the format. It’s stylistically different than most comedy shows. It’s not joke-packed but it maintains a subtle dose of wry humor and hilarious situations. Anna and Kyle go to great lengths to give their friend the perfect day in Why does giving back feel so good? but the result is a day that almost feels like an annoying assault on their poor friend, who is forced to wake up early on his day off and take a quick plane ride to Pasco, Washington, with only enough time to return immediately after taking a few photos in the airport. Anna and Kyle'’s complete miss on their assignment to provide a fun day for their friend is funny because their characters don’t seem aware of it. I’d also like to address the interesting use of sound and music on this show—Anna and Kyle include real audio from their adventures, which makes each episode come to life. And the music makes everything feel just a little bit wacky. This show feels so different and almost risky, it’s defining a new kind of comedy podcast. This is the kind of show that if I saw it on paper I’d say that I wasn’t sure if it could work. But it’s making me laugh harder than almost anything else in podcasts right now.
🎙️Amanda Lund and Maria Blasucci just wrapped up their Playcation series of The Big Ones by planning their fantasy trips to Disney World. I always get nervous when I hear that comedians will be talking about Disney World—they usually just make fun of it, which I think is a lazy/uncreative thing to do. Maria and Amanda each planned trips (they each had a different set of rules they had to stick to) that sounded like so much fun. They did their homework. I was listening to this at the airport on my way to Podcast Movement on repeat because I was nervous about the trip. (I think this episode is my version of AMSR. I could listen to an entire show, every single week, for the rest of my life, listening to people planning their Disney trips.) On the unpacking episode they read a letter I sent them with my own Disney tips which was a DREAM to hear on-air. Listen to the Disney episode (best experienced on repeat!) and then go through the rest of the Playcation series if you haven’t.
🎙️I don’t think HiberNation is getting enough credit for putting out a smart, beautifully produced podcast rich in storytelling. Maybe it’s brought to you by HeadSpace, and people assume branded podcasts can’t be great? This one is. It has taken the subject of sleep in so many interesting directions, from the bullshit of sleep tech to the magic of slumber parties and the latest episode was about why we should tell each other about our dreams! (Ever since I listened to this episode of This American Life, one of my favorites, I have thought that was a serious no-no.) They talk to a family about a dream that came true in a devastating way, and a scientist who believes that the entire point of life is to make it through the day so we can go to sleep, and I would like to get behind that.
🎙️Doree Shafrir (co-host of Forever 35 and the former executive editor of Buzzfeed) was on Longform to talk about her new memoir, Thanks for Waiting: The Joy (& Weirdness) of Being a Late Bloomer. Doree was writing for the internet at peak internet meanness and talks a lot about how she found herself doing that very well, and how her writing has changed. But also about how she, as a young writer, was exploited by being encouraged to write mean things. And this was the Gawker machine. And as Gawker is about to be relaunched, we have to wonder if it can survive today in a world where meanness is less accepted. Doree has a few stories that paint a perfect picture of the media landscape in the early 2000s which say a lot about a history of a certain type of journalism.
🎙️Jamie Loftus was on Alison Rosen Is Your New Best Friend to talk about her hotdog research, her experience making My Year In Mensa, how she came up with Aack Cast, and how she has carved a career for herself making wacky but smart audio. Jamie does nothing expected, she is one of my favorite artists period, and listening to her talk about how she follows her inner compass to tell interesting stories is inspiring for anyone creative. And I love Alison Rosen. She’s a great interviewer, and I felt like I was hanging with friends.
🎙️Proof’s How Pineapple Became a Hashtag is about more than just pineapple, but the complicated geopolitical history of China and Taiwan. In February, China banned pineapple imports from Taiwan, citing “the presence of pests.” But it looks like this was China’s way of applying political pressure on Taiwan. Understanding the history of China and Taiwan will help you better understand the world (and even Trump’s America.) Here the pineapple is your vehicle to understanding China’s power, and Taiwan’s. Because this is also a story about internet culture, and how Taiwan’s reaction to the ban, and the hashtag that went viral (#FreedomPineapples), led Taiwan into battle, eventually winning the pineapple war. My husband is Taiwanese and I have asked him (and his mom) to explain the China/Taiwan relationship more times than I can count. Focusing on the pineapple makes this complicated issue more accessible.
🎙️Lemonada is covering grief in one hour, split up into six perfectly neat episodes, with the podcast Good Grief, which hands the mic to someone who has experienced something earth-shattering so we can eavesdrop into their grieving process. It starts with an interview with Jayson Greene, who made the news when his toddler was killed by a piece of masonry that had fallen from a building and landed on her head. (Every New Yorker’s nightmare, the nightmare we convince ourselves could never happen.) The stories are intense but Lemonada has a knack for discussing tough topics with this brightness and even humor, and that’s what this show is doing. (If you haven’t listened to the first season of Last Day, you should go listen now. The episode with Dr. Gabor Maté is one I revisit often. It has many mind-blowing moments about the trauma that we all carry with us.) I don’t recommend bingeing these, unless you’re ready go visit a dark place. But visiting these places is like going to therapy and talking through your own shit by thinking of other people’s stories. The episodes are beautifully done and they explore pain in a way that will force you to put yourself in another person’s shoes. I recommend an episode interviewing grief therapist and New Day host Claire Bidwell Smith, who lost both parents when she was young, and the way her father helped her to prepare for his death.
🎙️I’m still waiting for a podcast that dives into literary dramas, but this episode of Decoder Ring goes there by exploring the concept of selling out, and why Jonathan Franzen rejected his book The Corrections being chosen for Oprah’s Book Club because he didn’t want to align himself with someone so mainstream. (This seems funny to me because it’s like he didn’t want women reading his book, which he must have considered The Great American Novel for Men or something, yet The Corrections is chick lit (I guess, if you use that word that I hate)—it’s a story centered around women and family. And calling something chick-lit isn’t a bad thing, unless you think it is. Franzen is telling on himself. He went on to write two books—Freedom and another one so bad I cannot remember the name, that were much more centered around men.) It’s a story about an author and his fear of the “wrong” people reading his book, and it really lets us get into Franzen’s brain. He’s not the only one to feel like his book was too good for a daytime television host’s book club, but he was the first person to admit this aloud. This episode gets to the heart of what “selling out” really means, and this Franzen/Oprah thing is the perfect example. Because who among us can afford not to commercialize ourselves? We all try to stick to our values but the old version of selling out sounds like status anxiety or gatekeeping or snobbery. “We have already been bought,” points out Wesley Morris. Are we living in a post-sell out world?
🎙️Chris Gethard had what is now my favorite Beautiful/Anonymous conversation with a young woman who is worried about losing her DACA status. We learn what it must be like to bear the weight of being a dreamer every moment of your life—especially when you’ve done something stupid when you were a teenager, like this caller did. (It’s something teenager-stupid, not really stupid. Human stupid. The kind of stupid we all have done.) The point of Beautiful/Anonymous is that everyone has a story to tell, everyone is interesting. But this story was impossible to peel away from. It will make you rethink every privilege you have.
🎙️I just discovered The Comb, a show that “combs Africa for stories about the unseen forces that bind us together and tear us apart,” and have been churning through episodes. Each one focuses on a single story that speaks volumes about the modern culture in Africa. If you are drawn to podcasts to hear about the experiences of others, you will find this show addictive. Start with The Job Scam, which introduces us to a two men from Kenya and South Africa who responded to job postings that sounded promising, only to find themselves in nightmare situations that are dark enough to be pulled out of a horror story. The Comb illustrates the news through story, and is a window into a world too infrequently explored by people in the US.
🎙️Each episode of the Jewish Food Society’s Schmaltzy begins with a story about the intersection of Jewish life and food, and then is followed up with an interview with the storyteller. This format allows you to bask in the guest’s story and then do a deep dive into their feelings behind i to help you appreciate something you may not have noticed on your own. The stories are intimately told but also feel perfectly mapped out. Schmaltzy didn’t invent the concept that food is love, but it’s turned the idea into a collection of pieces that make me laugh and feel hunger and nostalgia for food stories I don’t even directly relate to. It doesn’t matter how you grew up, you will relate to the interconnectedness and what these stories say about our families and upbringings. I recommend you start with Life, Death and Coffee with Joshua David Stein, a touching story about Joshua remembering his grandfather while his grandfather was dying, and inspecting a trait he inherited from his grandfather—perfectionism. If you like The Moth, Story Collider, or The Nocturnists, you will love the format of this show, and the care taken to tell beautiful stories.
🎙️What a surprise to see Ross Sutherland, host of one of my favorite podcasts Imaginary Advice, on another one of my favorite podcasts, Imaginary Worlds, to talk to Imaginary Worlds host Eric Molinsky, simply because both shows have “Imaginary” in the name. This might seem like a silly reason to have a cross-episode, but it’s brilliant. What do these very different shows have in common, other than their names? Ross talks about what “Imaginary Advice” means, explains how he came up with the idea for one of my favorite series, Sex and the City (which is inspired by New York City’s Sleep No More,) and shares another of his excellent stories, Ten Thousand Years.
🎙️I love you!