🎹 How gay sounds 🏳️‍🌈 queer Jackass 🚑 show me the toes🦶what podcasters should never do🎙️

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Bonjour.

Today is Monday, June 12. In case this newsletter is too long, a beautiful audio memoir anti-rom com that takes place in the city of love here, a psychedelic Western here, where are this woman’s toes?

[I will never charge you to read Podcast the Newsletter. If you’d like to buy an ad, inquire here.]

xoxo lp

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👋q & a & q & a & q & a👋

Erick Galindo and Megan Tan

Erick Galindo and Megan Tan co-host WILD. Follow Erick on Twitter here and Megan on Twitter here.

Describe the new season in ten words or less.
EG: Couple breaks up then goes on awkward road trip.

MT: One man’s journey to trust love again after being in a toxic relationship. 

Erick, we’re getting to hear your story. Megan…what’s your role on the show?
MT: WILD Season II is a mirror reflection of WILD Season I: Episode 7: How Do I Love Someone? In that episode I told Erick my love story. In this episode, Erick tells me his love story. My role is to be the engaged audience member. The first listener. The person who you get to hear scream at the television or roll their eyes, whenever Erick is telling his story. I’m also a live laugh track. Lol. 

Can you tease something about the season? What’s a moment we can look forward to?
EG: If you’re a fan of season one of WILD, there are a bunch of easter eggs in there, especially in the final half of the season where some of the stories intermerge. 

MT: I think every good story makes you think you’re going in for one thing — let’s say love — but really you’re going to be swept up by something else. This season does that too. 

How do you bring in a feeling of place (LA) into the show?
EG: There is a lot of intentionality in that. It’s a roadtrip audio romcom so we were taking LA on the road. We wanted to make sure everything about our characters was LA from their vernacular to the music to the way they interact with the outside world. Like they are taking LA sensibilities on tour.

MT: Erick Galindo embodies Los Angeles. Point blank. It’s who he is. Naturally, it’s in the work that he does. Specifically from the lens of Southeast LA. So you’ll hear it in the music that is played throughout the episode, the language that is used, the accents that are present and that are missing. The lens is naturally through the lens of Erick’s LA lens because Erick was born and raised in LA. Are there any rules you think all podcasts should adhere to?

What was the hardest part about making this series?
EG: Taking a visual medium that uses a lot of shortcuts in terms of the language of film and trying to do that in audio with none of that.

MT: When we did table reads, it was hard to hear the show three-dimensionally. 

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🚨If u only have time for 1 thing🚨

Aline Laurent-Mayard is 35 and has never been attracted to anyone—not sexually, not romantically. On Free From Desire, they take us back to their childhood to tell the story of someone realizing and accepting their asexuality and aromanticism in a society that only talks about exactly that: love and sex. In Paris of all places! The story takes a twist when Aline decides to have a child via artificial insemination. This is an audio memoir that places you inside Aline’s brain—their voice carries you along to make you feel like you’re an eavesdropper on their entire life, from their first crush to raising a baby in a gender-open way. Conversations with experts, sociologists, and friends pop up to juxtapose Aline’s feelings about love with society’s obsession with traditional coupling. If you grew up in the 90’s and 2000's, you’ll love the pop culture references. Free From Desire is an anti-rom com with a twist for your ears.

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hell yeah

✨Read Do Podcasting Conferences Have a Problem With Women? (The Podcast Host)

✨ Read Reminder: repurpose that content (and how to) (Podcast Marketing Magic)

✨Read 12 Podcasts That Explore the Weirder Corners of the Internet (Lifehacker)

✨Arielle Nissenblatt spotlighted Taboo Science in her newsletter and podcast.

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💎BTW💎

🎙️Somewhere in the Mojave Desert lies town that was down-on-its-luck but saw a glimpse of hope in revitalizing itself when one a stranger named “Bug” blew in with a plan to transform Adelanto from a city of prisons to a city of pot. In Crooked’s Dreamtown: The Story of Adelanto, host David Weinberghe is tracing how it worked and then totally didn’t. It’s a story full of local corruption, bags full of weed, FBI raids, bribery schemes, and a murdered Russian oligarch. Juicy stuff. But I love it for its unique style. Somewhere in the first few episodes the story is compared to both a “psychedelic Western” and “The Music Man.” Each episode is narrated by a woman who seems to be telling us a story from her rocking chair on a porch in a dusty desert town. It feels a little fantastical, a little tall tale. It’s the entrepreneurial spirit of Johnny Appleseed, but weed. (Buggy Weedseed?) Listen here.

🎙️Daryl Allen was a gay man who, before dying of AIDS in 1991, wrote bundles of love letters and theatrical scripts that found their way to Dane Stewart, host of the podcast Resurrection. The podcast is a look at Daryl’s life and what we can learn about him from his writings and the people who outlived him, as well as a journey of self-discovery for Dane, a tribute to who Daryl was, and Dane’s attempt to give life to Daryl’s works. In learning about Daryl, we learn a lot about Dane, too, and we can feel the urgency of Dane’s investigation. He’s not just telling Daryl’s story because he wants to, it seems like he has to. Daryl’s story feels completely fresh but Resurrection feels like a communication with a ghost and a past that connects the history of a queer man living in the 90s to one living now. Daryl is gone and we don’t know who he would be today, or if he would have approved of this project. But looking at his life and death tells a story of him and so many other men who we lost to AIDS. Dane is able to show us how much more Daryl is and was than just his death, and Daryl’s writing gives a unique voice to a generation of gay men who are mysteries to us today. Resurrection is unlocking a mystery, opening up a treasure chest. It feels like Daryl is whispering to us through time, and Dane is our conduit. Listen here.

🎙️Sounds Gay tells stories of queer people whose lives have been transformed by music, but it isn’t just a bunch of conversations about it. That’d be good, but host Sarah Esocoff has done a lot of additional research into the histories of everything her subjects are touching upon to provide us with the necessary context to help us understand how music has shaped queer creators, the machine behind it. Sarah is using the people she’s interviewed to take mini excursions into the world of gender dysphoria and Filipinx identity, rap battles, and church music. This podcast feels radical, it has real guts. But it uses investigative storytelling to make us feel it for ourselves. Sarah’s not reporting from her recording booth. She’s out in the world backing things up with stories of queer musicians who are reflecting on the culture they were steeped in. Listen here.

🎙️I had no idea how queer Jackass was. American Hysteria has an episode about Jackass that is both an exhaustive history of the franchise that’s one of the best-written episodes of American Hysteria ever. (Chelsey reading the list of Jackass stunts is pure poetry.) And it’s also super gay. (Jackass believed it was “ridding the world of homophobia. Jon Waters was a fan and appeared on the show.) When I was a kid Big Brother was the only magazine I subscribed to, and I was not a skateboarder. I just thought it was hilarious and something I should probably not be reading. It, like Jackass, was counter culture. And I had no idea how it was the warmup to what would become Jackass. The history of Jackass is unusual and surprising, it definitely inspired kids to try an Anaconda Ball Pit, Bungee Wedgie, or Golf Course Air Horn, and it’s a story about American culture, making heterosexual America uncomfortable, beautiful danger, and it’s about more than just a bunch of dudes falling down. Listen here.

🎙️There is a bar in my neighborhood called The 13th Step, and I always thought it was insensitive and not funny enough to make the joke worth it. I thought it was in reference to falling off the wagon (there is another bar in my neighborhood called Off the Wagon) but I had no idea what The 13th Step really was. Technically, the act of “13th Stepping” is when a more experienced member of a 12-Step group – man or woman – pursues a romantic relationship with a new group member. But on the new podcast The 13th Step, it’s referring to how young women are often encouraged to sleep with older group members, coerced to cut-off ties with family and friends, and being assigned to exploitative sponsors. The new show focuses on Eric Spofford, who served thousands of people as the founder of New Hampshire’s largest addiction treatment network, but sources say he sexually harassed or assaulted women, including former clients or employees of his own treatment centers. (They’re allegations Eric denies.) Lauren Chooljian is reporting on why that misconduct remains unpoliceable and why America can’t truly address the addiction crisis until it takes “the 13th step” seriously. (She was sued for her reporting.) This is a new chapter for #MeToo storytelling and also about the importance and danger or journalism. Listen here.

🎙️Modern Love had a heart-tugger about a man, Bob Morris, who lost his father, only to discover that the intimacies of his father’s “lady friend” Arlene was lost in translation. Bob reads a moving essay he wrote about the end of his dad’s life, and Anna Martin interviews Arlene. It’s a mystery of love and death. Listen here.

🎙️On Heaven Bent, Tara Jean, who grew up as an on-fire Christian who spoke in tongues and took everything she was taught in church to heart, takes a look back at her upbringing and personal spiritual experiences season by season, first with the “Toronto Blessing,” the movement she was raised in, then the the Bethel Church, in Redding, California, then the Pentecostal spirit of revival to Nashville, Tennessee. Season four is coming in the fall, but in the meantime Tara Jean popped in for two episodes to talk about Krissy Dines, who lost her toes in a terrible domestic abuse attack and then claimed that they grew back during a healing service at Missouri’s James River Church. The first episode talks to a Christian whose skepticism led him to found ShowMeTheToes.com. He wants to see the receipts, Krissy’s toes. In episode two, Krissy explains why her toes aren’t anyone’s business but her own, and what makes her a believer in miracles. The combination of these two conversations will get you thinking about the purpose of belief in miracles and the repercussions it has on individuals and society. I don’t think Krissy’s toes are back, but I’m not sure I need to see them. She seems…hell bent…on sticking to her story, and its fascinating to hear that dedication. Part one is here. Part two here.

🎙️I can’t remember how I found out that Anna Delvey had a podcast, but here we are. The Anna Delvey Show. It is not good but interesting. Anna is recording from house arrest in the East Village, and is calling people like Whitney Cummings to explore “the preconceived notions of rule breakers, effects of adversity, validity of existing systems and status quo” and the Whitney Cummings episode was a fire hose of Whitney Cummings, Anna barely said a word. She giggles more than talks. The end is where things get good—Anna asks Whitney for (dating and) podcast advice, and Whitney says she shouldn’t have let her talk so much. And truly, that’s the advice. Anna Delvey is a top-notch scam artist, and as Anna points out, the best journalists are people who are comfortable sitting in silence (it doesn’t seem like Whitney is) so they can let the other person hang themselves because podcast guests are always shooting to be as interesting as possible. Whitney is willing to burn every bridge to make Anna laugh. The ability to sit back in silence is something Anna has, it’s what got her famous in the first place. You don’t have to listen to The Anna Delvey Show, I’ll fill you in if anything fascinating happens. But I do hope we get to hear more from Anna about house arrest and you know, her crimes. Whitney actually gave some solid advice that I’m going to be sharing with my clients: have a tagline to say at the end of every episode, something you care about that will stick in people’s minds. Whitney’s is “don’t ride elephants.” Anna’s could be “don’t be afraid to break the rules.” What’s yours? Listen here?

🎙️Genevieve Hassan is catching up with stars of your favorite TV shows, movies and music of the 1980s-2000s to find out how their lives unfolded after that thing you know them for on Celebrity Catch Up: Life After That Thing I Did. These are the people you haven’t heard from, and maybe because they aren’t technically timely interviews, Genevieve gets some great guests that will send you into a sound bath of nostalgia for the days of Scream’s Rose McGowan, Jerry Springer (this was the last interview he did before he died,) “I Think We’re Alone Now” Tiffany, and more. Genevieve is warm and has a friendliness that makes her click with anyone. Listen here.

🎙️I don’t usually write about shows over and over but if you aren’t listening to In the Scenes Behind Plain Sight I don’t think you’re listening to me, I mean why are you even reading this newsletter? The premise: Ian and Mike rewatch each episode of the fake hit 2002 - 2007 TV show Behind Plain Sight, sharing behind the scenes stories and secrets and talk about what’s going on in their lives now. I have listened to dozens of episodes now, several times each, and I still don’t think I understand Behind Plain Sight, but I don’t think Ian and Mike really want you to. This show is not about the show. It’s about rewatch podcasts, ad spoofs, completely out-of-place musical interludes, and two people trying and failing to make a podcast to the point that it’s so bad that you start really feeling bad for their producer Candice. I would absolutely wear a t-shirt that said “Free Candice.” It’s so genius that it’s like the one thing I wish I had thought up on my own. But I couldn’t have done it like Ian and Mike. Join the movement, become a Behinder (what they call their fans) and get listening.

🎙️Part How to Get Ahead in Advertising, part that episode of The Office where Dwight kills Angela’s cat, and part Shameless Acquisition Target, Jar Audio’s How To Get Ahead in Podcasting is a look at what not to do when you’re making a branded podcast. It is so bad that it goes past bad and back to good, and will almost certainly become your favorite, least-favorite (branded) show. You shouldn’t call your aviation podcast “Bombs on a Plane,” and in a perfect world you don’t end up with a cease and desist notification for stalking Samuel L. Jackson, but The Jar Audio Experience did and has, and you can learn how to make a branded show by doing the exact opposite of what Jar is recommending. Even if you don’t give a shit about branded podcasts, you’ll have fun. Listen here.

🎙️I did not think I’d want to write about The King Road Killings, but I want to write about The King Road Killings. It’s about those four University of Idaho students who were stabbed to death in their off-campus house in Moscow, Idaho. I started with the first few pre-episodes and felt like I was stepping into an explosion. Before episode one even dropped, there were two breaking news alerts about the indictment and arraignment of Bryan Kohberger. Episode one is setting us up for a story that’s happening right now. It’s a dreadful story that had me kicking the wall when I realized I was out of content. Listen here.

🎙️I love you!

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📦 From the Archives 📦

[From January 31, 2020] I start my day with a big list of shows that I “have” to listen to—things for work, shows my clients have been on, and there are usually so many things I’m dying to hear. I save my bingeing for the weekends. I started Monday morning with an episode of The Worst Sitcom Ever Made (Radio New Zealand) and told myself to listen to one ep, come back to the rest later. But I couldn’t stop. I felt like I was telling myself, “just one more potato chip” but was devouring the whole bag. The Worst Sitcom Ever Made is hosted by Geoff Houtman, who was part of the team that 25 years ago created what is known for many reasons as “the worst sitcom ever made.” Geoff is on a quest to find out what went wrong and to see if there are any lessons to be learned about failure in general. The project seemed doomed from the start–the people who came up with the idea left the project, they were working off a sitcom model for an American audience but they were writing for a New Zealand audience, the writers seemed disconnected from the story, etc. Geoff interviews the people who worked on this disastrous show that now everyone has a good sense of humor about. It’s all quite ridiculous and way too much fun to listen to.

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From the Desk of Tink

Today we’re talking to one of Tink’s clients, the host of the brand-new Indecent with Kiki Andersen, Emmy-award-winning journalist and comedian Kiki Andersen. Follow her on Instagram here.

1. Describe the show in ten words or less: Exploring taboo topics you can’t talk about at dinner.

2. Who is it for? Bored, angry, horny, curious minds. 

3. Which taboo topic has surprised you the most? Our first few episodes center mostly around sex and porn and how they show up in tech, politics and religion. I was surprised to learn about the erotic content casually hidden in the Bible. I was equally shocked to learn that there are people on this earth who wanna fuck trees. Really gives you a new perspective on “morning wood.”

4. What do you hope listeners take away from your podcast? Pretty much every taboo that exists today is there by design, by Washington, Wall Street, Hollywood or Silicon Valley. It’s important to ask yourself what purpose does your outrage serve and who profits from it in the end.

5. Dream guest: Jesus Christ

6. Would love to be a guest on: The Tim Dillon Show

7. Dream partnership: The AVN Awards

8. If I could force one person in the world to listen to my podcast it'd be… my college mentor. I ask a lot of important questions like, “how much jerking off is too much jerking off?” And I just want him to know I’m using my journalism degree.

9. What do your parents/kids/family think you do? I think my dad thinks I’m out here George Carlin’ing or speaking truth to power. One can dream! But I don’t think Carlin started out wanting to change the world. I do standup comedy. I propose ideas to drunk couples and bachelorette parties. If they laugh I’ve done my job, and if they learn something that’s just an added bonus.