⚽️ Hooligans ✂️ nine pairs of scissors 🌴 palm tree fandom 👻 haunted suburbs 🏠
🍭 👂It’s Donald Duck's birthday. He is turning 50 and we are throwing him a parade. 🌈 🤸♀️
Bonjour.
Today is Monday, October 7. In case this newsletter is too long, this podcast derailed my entire week, listening to this was really special, and I can’t believe I got to be part of this fascinating conversation about the state of podcasting in 2024.
Have a nice weekend.
xoxo lp
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👋q & a & q & a & q & a👋
Akilah Hughes
Akilah Hughes is a writer, comedian and podcast host based in LA. She was the founding host of Crooked Media’s “What a Day” podcast and published a book of essays with Penguin Random House called, “Obviously: Stories from my Timeline.” She’s a WGA Award-nominee and a USC MacArthur Foundation Civic Media Fellow. Her work combines humor, politics, and being supremely online. She is the creator of Rebel Spirit.
Describe Rebel Spirit in 10 words or less.
One Virgo’s dedication to progress and justice with Kentucky accents.
How would you describe the sound / vibe of the show?
The show sounds incredible with a ton of archival footage and interviews, but the vibe is very much a procedural murder show if there was no murder but the mystery was how a school can still get away with having an objectively fucked uo mascot and team name.
Why did you make it?
I truly felt compelled to. The reality is, even if my experience in small-town Kentucky was 20 years ago, there are kids right now who are Black cheering for a team inspired by the confederacy. So that needs to change. And to me it’s a perfect metaphor for why ugly traditions on a grander scale die hard.
Fill in the blank: You will like Rebel Spirit if you like __________.
The Last of Us (I could elaborate but it really does feel like a parallel.)
What (and when) was the moment when you decided this would be a podcast?
Kinda the first time I spoke to the producer at my management company. I had written about it several times for a variety of outlets, but actually trying to affect change seemed like something more long-term and episodic.
Why is audio a great format for this project?
Beyond the beautiful, buttery southern accents, I think there’s a vulnerability in audio that rarely comes across in nonfiction video. I interviewed a ton of people, and whether we were discussing their high school mascot, designing mascots, or why NFL players would now be scared out of taking a positive stand for ANYTHING, there’s a much more human and emotional tone than I think you get from the posturing of video.
You decided to go with biscuit, were there other ideas that were left on the cutting room floor?
No I always thought biscuits were a positive representation for the south. Also food mascots are the cutest ones.
What was the most surprising thing that happened making Rebel Spirit?
The lengths that the school and Boone County Board of Education have done to cover up the truth about the history of the town and the history of the mascot. They talked a very big (lying) game and have been pretty silent since we debunked their story in a single trip to the county library.
You get some really great tape on this show. Was it hard to get? What’s the process for agreeing people to allow themselves to be recorded?
Well there *were* several people who declined to go on the record, but I think the truth is this isn’t a scary topic once you start talking about it. Once we reached out people almost immediately wanted to add their voice if they could.
What’s your biggest goal for the show?
More than anything it’s to change the mascot. It’s great that people are enjoying it and hearing it, but I want for the kids at my Alma mater to have something to cheer for. After that I’d really hope that this is a springboard for more schools to write a new story for themselves and just dump the tradition of having offensive mascots. Not all traditions are worth holding on to.
What do you wish you could go back and tell yourself before you started making it?
I think to negotiate for more episodes. Sounds silly but the story is sprawling and there’s so much we didn’t get to cover. It’s a fruitful sandbox to play in.
What’s a podcast you love that not enough people know about?
Once Upon a Time in Nashville is one that came out this past summer that kept me company while I cooked dinner every week. I’m too chicken to be into true crime as a rule, but this spared us the gore and was a riveting story about corruption in a city that has grown way faster than anyone was ready for.
What’s a podcast you love that everyone already knows about?
Jamie Loftus is just PEAK on Sixteenth Minute. I believe very deeply that it will be a referential text for the future when we can finally be removed enough to examine social media of the early aughts as the foundation to what’s going on now.
Are there too many podcasts?
I mean yes but it’s not illegal.
If you could make a new podcast, don’t worry about budget, whether or not anyone would like it, or even if it’s feasible…what would it be?
I do also think scripted podcasts are cool, so maybe I’d make a heist show about two people who believe the Disney Vault is real and attempt to heist it to get a copy of a movie no one else remembers.
What didn’t I ask you that I should have?
You didn’t ask for a picture of my very cute dog, Fauci. But it’s fine, he’s on IG @fauci.kpup.
🚨If u only have time for 1 thing🚨
John Meagher set out to make a “lighthearted documentary about Northern Ireland that has nothing to do with The Troubles” and failed miserably. The piece, on the Illuminated feed, touches on the history and trauma of Northern Ireland and is funny and fascinating. It starts in John’s dreams, where he has been having recurring nightmares about some sort of ritualistic sacrifice ceremony since he was a wee boy. But the nightmares feel like memories. He goes back to his hometown to confront the nightmares, to find out if they’re real or why they feel so real. It turns out it has a lot to do with The Troubles and the trauma ingrained in the people who live in Northern Ireland, and his dreams are a souvenir of his people’s stress. It’s in his DNA. (Stephanie Foo writes about this beautifully in What My Bones Know.) I loved this piece for so many reasons, one of them is for John’s beautiful accent. I mean, just like I enjoy looking at beautiful people for absolutely no reason, I could listen to someone with a beautiful Irish accent talk about nearly anything. But this was exceptional.
notes
📣 📣 📣 Arielle Nissenblatt has left her position at Descript / SquadCast after 4+ years of community management and content creation. Every single podcast company should want her. My advice is to scoop her up before someone else does.
✨Next Chapter is one of Tink’s oldest and most beloved clients, and Jeremiah Tittle of Next Chapter one of my oldest friends in podcasting. If you have met JT you will never forget him. He is one of those people who makes me excited about the industry. We had a conversation about podcasting on his podcast Your Next Chapter: Podcast Pioneers and Innovators and it was one of the most fun conversations I’ve had on a podcast. Listen here.
✨One of my favorite readers actually made THIS after reading my review of Modern Love in the last issue, and you can buy it.
✨Don’t forget that Ian Chillag made THIS shirt after my review of In The Scenes Behind Plain Sight.
✨WHAT ELSE CAN WE MAKE? I’ll start a store.
✨Read ⚰️ Marketing Scares Month ⚰️ in Podcast Marketing Magic.
✨Arielle Nissenblatt spotlighted Cultivating Resilience in her newsletter and podcast.
✨Sam Clafin from Bagman was on Rattled & Shook for a special childish fears episode.
💎don’t miss💎
🎙️On season two of Legacy, The English Disease, Sam Diss is trying to better understand hooligans—why football (soccer) subculture is filled with so much anger and violence, and why hooligans seem to be rearing their angry, swearing heads back into the zeitgeist. This is not a football podcast, Sam is using football to try to figure out what it means to “feel something so true in your bones that nothing else matters.” What are hooligans running from, what are they running toward? He’s extremely thoughtful about the way he is tackling this, talking to lots of people, going through history, telling stories, pulling up old tape, and stepping back. He’s good. This is a podcast about violence, really. It’s like violence is this big thing we’ve been studying from the front but Sam is studying it from the back. I think I should mention that I listened at 1x, something I rarely do for anything that doesn’t have insanely high production levels. There were so many ads my my ears started bleeding all over the floor. Listen here.
How I discovered it: I read about it in Podnews.
🎙️In 2023 I decided I’d give an Apple Podcasts rating and review to a new show every single goddam day and tweet the review, because I believe we all could probably be better about leaving reviews for shows we love. This was harder than I thought. The entire time this was happening the host of the podcast That Hoarder: Overcome Compulsive Hoarding was cheering me on, saying “great work! You can do it!” It became a joke between the two of us. And we became friends. And I listened to her show, and I loved it. And I interviewed her. Then Death, Sex & Money stumbled upon her interview, and the show, and they liked the host (who is anonymous because she isn’t ready for the people in her life to know she identifies as a hoarder) too. This woman, we’ll call her Elizabeth, is sweet, smart, interesting, and hilarious. An absolute delight. Anna Sale reached out to Elizabeth for an interview, and you can hear Elizabeth on Death Sex & Money on an episode called My Secret Life as a Hoarder. Anna asked the perfect questions to really understand something like hoarding. She was thoughtful and careful yet not afraid to ask questions that might be invasive to someone who prefers to be anonymous. (We also learn that she isn’t tidy, something I never would have guessed.) What struck me was how much of me I saw in Elizabeth in myself, and I bet almost everyone could find something in her story directly relatable. Anna helps Elizabeth unpack this to a level Elizabeth hasn’t been able to achieve with a therapist. Hoarding, in Elizabeth’s case, makes a lot of sense. You should listen to this to learn from Anna, the master of interviewing, and get to know “Elizabeth,” what they call her on the show. And listen to That Hoarder. It’s not just for hoarders it’s for people who want to understand hoarding. (The first episodes are Elizabeth’s audio diary, trying to come to terms with her hoarding alone, later episodes feature interviews and more structure.) I pressed play on the episode at the exact same moment that Elizabeth did, we listened together and DMed each other the whole time, which felt really special. One of the most special moments I’ve experienced listening to a podcast episode. Thank you, ELIZABETH. And thank you, Anna, for the Podcast the Newsletter a shout out! Listen here.
How I discovered it: It was one of the first podcasts I listened to.
🎙️My week was derailed this week after discovering Where We Parked, very loose conversations about theme parks from Defunctland’s Kevin Perjurer and Jack of Theme Parks Shouldn't Exist. These two are going wayyyy down rabbit holes you didn’t know were there to explore the worlds of stuff like EPCOT Center's never-realized Person of the Century Poll and Walt Disney World’s palm tree fandom, I am serious. (They aren’t all Disney-related. There’s an episode on Sea World, Central Florida’s Gatorland, and Fun Junction USA.) A good place to start is an absolutely hilarious episode I listened to about this a documentary Kevin unearthed called “In Search of Excellence” that features Disney World, ends up being made for a grocery store with a very odd founder and an even odder history, that is so weird it’s actually poetic. There is an episode about the 50’s Prime Time Cafe so long and so good that involves a lengthy thought exercise / improv skit. They’re not just two random dudes talking, but they are two theme park experts just talking. This show isn’t highly produced, it’s an audio hang out. But it’s one I really couldn’t pull myself away from. Listen here.
How I discovered it: Kevin casually mentioned it at the end of an episode of For Your Amusement he guested on.
🎙️Never Post (Mike Rugnetta, Hans Buetow, Jason Oberholtzer) is a fantastic show about the internet that has always had a goal of making a fun, interesting and sustainable show independently, without VC funding or startup capital. They started the show with a really interesting independent media roundtable that included Alex Sujong Laughlin, Gita Jackson, and Rusty Foster. They asked me to be on an episode with Mia Lobel and Ronald Young, Jr. to talk about the state of podcasting in 2024. I can’t believe I was IN this conversation, which would have been fun enough to listen to. All three of us come from very different places and have very different levels of optimism when it comes to the industry. (One of the questions we threw around was, is this an industry?) Days after recording I kept thinking of the millions of things I wish I had said that I didn’t, and I think if you have interest or knowledge in the industry your mind will be racing, too. Here’s how I knew it was a good conversation: nobody wanted to leave (Hans and Mike had to kick us out!) and Ronald and I jumped on another call later. It seems like this is a conversation everyone is having right now—Alex Goldman, Slate, the entire Tink team, you, probably. Listen and let me know what you think. Let the team at Never Post know, too. Listen here.
How I discovered it: Former client—Tink helped with the launch!
🎙️I’ve been thinking about podcast criticism a lot and how we need more of it. Lord knows I’m not doing it. I’m a cheerleader for podcasts, I’m not challenging them! Maybe I will get into that someday, but for now there are a lot of reasons I don’t, and I always go back to this 2016 episode of Code Switch about rep sweats, or “the feeling of anxiety that can come with watching TV shows or movies starring people who look like you, especially when People Who Look Like You tend not to get a lot of screen time.” Gene Demby and Kat Chow explain what they are and how they have shaped our culture. In there is this amazing story of Jeff Yang’s Village Voice review that destroyed the Margaret Cho-starring TV show American Girl and Asians on TV in general. People still blame him for the show getting cancelled, and Asians having to wait twenty years have their own TV show on a major network, Fresh Off the Boat, which coincidentally, Yang’s son Hudson went to star on. So does he regret writing that review? This is one of those episodes I listen to and send to people often. Listen here.
How I discovered it: Longtime listener
🎙️Unsurprisingly the new season of Slow Burn, on the rise of Fox News, is incredible. Josh Levin is talking to hosts, reporters, and producers who built Fox News, many who’ve never spoken out before, collecting these tiny moments that turned Fox into basically nonexistent to seemingly invincible. Details as small as an American flag pin on someone’s lapel that shifted the news network a little further right, and further and further still. I know there is a huge difference between CNN and Fox News, but Josh explains how we got there, and it is both surprising and makes so much sense. (CNN was reporting, Fox News was talking about the reporting. CNN had an audience, Fox News had fans. People watched CNN with their remotes in their hands, ready to change the channel. Fox viewers didn’t do that.) The shocking thing is how quickly this has all happened, how recent some of these stories are. Also shocking, the real origin of the name Fox & Friends. This isn’t just a great history, it’s fucking juicy. Listen here.
How I discovered it: Longtime listener.
🎙️I kind of think of Sam Sanders as America’s podcasting sweetheart, and I wasn’t the only one upset when It’s Been a Minute was cancelled. I have been keeping up with Sam on Vibe Check but it’s not the same. I have missed a Sam Sanders culture show. Culture is Sam’s language. He is fluent in it in a way nobody else is. He’s a personality and skilled host but also a human. Over the years we’ve gotten to know him, his highs and lows, his new dog, the loss of his mom. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that he is back with another culture show, The Sam Sanders Show. Nature usually does return to itself. Two episodes dropped on Friday—interviews with Joel Kim Booster and Sasheer Zameda. (I was a happy listener because Sasheer talked very earnestly about her love for Disney World.) Sam if you are reading this please bring back Culture Geist!!! Listen here.
How I discovered it: Press release.
🎙️I swear to god MUBI is one of the best film podcasts and it’s completely underrated. (lol it has won like 15 awards, I still don’t think enough listeners know about it.) On it, Rico Gagliano (remember Dinner Party Download?!) brings us documentaries about cinema, the stories are thoughtful and beautifully produced. Seasons have focused on movies that have great importance in their home country, but are lesser known internationally, cinema’s best needle drop musical moments, and my favorite, surprising stories that took place in individual theaters. There’s a new season coming soon but in the meantime Rico has temporarily passed the mic to Anna Bogutskaya of The Final Girls to talk about how haunted house movies have mirrored our relationship with our homes. The first episode is about Poltergeist, which Anna points out is about the fake promises of 80s suburban America as much as it is about an ectoplasmic manifestation. Poltergeist is about real estate, safety, and so much more than I realized. I’m really excited for this season. Listen here.
How I discovered it: I think through Martin Austwick, who does the music.
🎙️On Hollywood Africans, award-winning journalist Barbara Angopa and filmmaker Amaka Ugwunkwo are looking at African characters and plots in movies to point out how often they are silenced, underestimated, objectified, infantilized and vilified. It’s a complete rewatch of movies like Captain Phillips, Tom Hank’s movie about an American merchant mariner who was taken hostage by Somali pirates, which pretty much ignores the fact that the Somali pirates are humans. They’re watching the moments and nuances that white directors and filmmakers either didn’t think about at all or did and hope you didn’t notice, slash, didn’t think important. They even reimagine how the movie could be made, using their personal experiences, current affairs and social contexts. People loved Captain Phillips (I didn’t see it) but it’s amazing how watching it with a different lens can turn something supposed to be so exciting and heroic to just plain lazy and boring, and turn the macho manly hero protagonist into a dick. Listen here.
How I discovered it: I read about it in Podnews.
🎙️Drew Ackerman’s Sleep With Me, the podcast truly intended to lull you to sleep, has a new mini-series, Dreaming of Newhart, that might not because it’s so interesting. It’s a surreal fictional television recap of The Bob Newhart Show and Newhart, inspired by the 1990 series finale of Newhart which revealed that the entire show was a dream. Drew is using ChatGPT to analyze the show if it were a dream. I’m not a fan of creators using ChatGPT except for this time. The AI being bad works in Sleep With Me’s favor. The pairing of these shows makes sense, too. Both Drew and Bob Newhart have this dry sense of humor and dull pacing that makes it work. Listen here.
How I discovered it: Long time subscriber, but Wil Williams forwarded me a press release about the series.
🎙️I love you!
📦 From the Archives 📦
I love Bizarre Albums because each episode is a piece that explores an album almost too incredible to believe, each one truly deserving of Tony Thaxton’s well-produced deep dive. I dare you to look at the episode list, peruse all of the album covers, and not choose several to add to your queue immediately. The episode Mrs. Millers Greatest Hits tells the story of a casual hobbyist singer, Elva Miller, who caught the attention of Capital Records in the 60s, but not because her voice was anywhere near good. Her covers of songs like “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’” and “Downtown” are pretty kooky. Listen, I have no idea how to describe these insane songs. Mrs. Miller’s voice sounds painfully restricted and set to a high pitch she can’t quite hold. It sounds like she’s fretting over he lyrics of the songs, and the music doesn’t even sync up with her singing, which we can hardly blame Mrs. Miller for. The producers seemed to be in on the joke, which is that these songs are so bad they go past bad and back to good, but then back to bad because they are just bad. But Mrs. Miller is not in on the joke. She sings with the confidence of someone who has hit the top 100 charts. Which she has. Bizarre Albums tells this story in all it’s glory. Poor Mrs. Miller?
Drew's mini series Sleep With Me stories recapping Star Trek TNG has been boring and perfect for sleeping.