✨The most exciting thing Tink has ever done🎄 Christmas tree lit 💁♀️ people vs Karen 🚀 Space Mountain🎢
🍭 👂 TRUST ME! 🌈 🤸♀️
Bonjour.
Today is Monday, December 18.
On Friday, Tink announced what I think is the most exciting thing we’ve ever done—Podcast Group Therapy. Our Podcast Therapy sessions are so popular, we wanted to open it up to more people, at a lower price point. Learn more here.
And, in case this issue is too long…this meditative piece stopped my heart and made me feel sad and peaceful and warm all at the same time, I started this one morning and could not sleep until I had finished it—episode 11 shocked me, and learn about the most exciting thing Tink has ever done here.
xoxo lp
👋q & a & q & a & q & a👋
Mike Kelton
Mike Kelton is a comedian, producer, writer and director living in Brooklyn, NY. Mike hosts and produces a supernatural docu-comedy podcast called Beyond with Mike Kelton. Mike also makes videos of his mother on instagram that are worth a look.
Explain Beyond in 10 words or less.
A supernatural comedy docu-pod or my real life diary.
How do you structure the episodes? Do you bring your mic around with you all the time? I love how each episode kind of feels like a diary entry, no two are the same.
Thank you! Each episode has a life of its own which tends to call for its own unique format - from a production standpoint, it’s exhausting! But, typically, when a new supernatural topic shows up in my life - usually by way of recommendation from a friend or synchronistic stumble upon, I treat anything related to it a bit like an audio diary as I try to record as much as I can using voice memos on my phone. Next, I literally try all of the different spiritual modalities that peak my interest or come my way. This happens many different ways but ultimately we always tend to interview spiritual and magical experts in these various fields using real audio equipment. After that, I do my best to actually try the practice to see if it helps the issue I’m currently facing. Once I feel like there is a story worth sharing with real life take-away and some otherworldly magic, my producer Tracy Soren and I go through all the footage (docu-style) and I write a story based on the way things unfolded. Once a story is there, I pepper in jokes when needed to keep the audience with us and not lost in the ether of spiritual existentialism.
Each episode goes through so many versions and so many jokes - it’s such a process but always worth it because each one has a magic of its own that is so creatively fulfilling in its own right.
How is the new season different to the one we enjoyed 4ish years ago?
I like to think this season is a bit more nuanced with an even deeper peak into my own personal life and some of the things that I have really been struggling with in the past couple years. Like my own growth as a human, I hope to think that the show has evolved. I started developing this show almost 6 years ago and in that time, a lot has shifted in my own personal life which I hope is reflected in the storytelling of Season 3. This new season should reflect some of these changes and hopefully give the audience a bit of a deeper understanding into the learnings that have come along with getting older, finding a partner, and working through some of the real things people work through in their mid-30’s…or whenever, growth isn’t linear babe!
How much of the show is fictional? I guess what I’m asking is…did your neighbor REALLY move out of your old apartment?
Deadass, 98% of the show is real! These stories are all extremely true. We change some names and small details for storytelling purposes but if I share a story on the pod, babe, it’s real! That’s what makes this show so fun and what makes me believe in magic…I’m not trying to sell anything or start a cult (but I have thought about it), I’m just telling stories and sharing my experiences and that’s what makes the title so perfect. It’s all BEYOND!
Who is the podcast for?
Go with me here…The pod is for anyone who has ever felt curious looking up at the stars on a clear night. It’s for anyone who might feel constantly disillusioned with the robot world we are living in and share a hope that there is some kind of reason for being alive amid all of the constant chaos in our modern world. It’s for queer people that grew up not feeling seen in the one particular place they had to connect to something greater. It’s for believers and non-believers alike who like to laugh and finally, it’s definitely for people named “Carol”.
Have your beliefs changed since you started the podcast?
No but my curiosity has grown. The more I learn and experience, the more I realize how little we understand about cultures, traditions and magic that lived here long before we were born. Just because modern culture has progressed with each iPhone update doesn’t mean we are spiritually and emotionally evolving…in fact, we might be digressing. Some ancient ways and practices have taught me more about myself and how to be in community with others, proving that there are so many lessons to learn from supernatural and/or magical practices. Staying curious is the greeting lesson this podcast has taught me.
Are hexes better than therapy?
Lol. No. I think therapy is maybe the best thing in the world so it’s a hard comparison but I will say that learning about Hexes and getting a better understanding does make me respect the craft and the practice so much more. I think Hexes can be super beneficial and give anyone a bit more agency over the power they wield and how they walk through the world. But also, therapy slaps so hard so unfortunately, therapy takes the cake here.
What’s the best fan interaction you’ve ever had?
OMG - this is the best! I love Beyond fans so much and feel a deep connection to them. I get so many incredible emails and DM’s from fans that truly make my heart sing but I have to say the best is a fan named Ryan who came up to me and my now husband at the airport in Austin, TX and just yelled “TEAM HAUNT” at me and Andrew. It truly startled us but then I realized, it was a Beyond fan and we chatted and LOL’ed so much. It snapped Andrew and I out of our travel stress and made me feel so seen and supported by my “Carols” ( I’m #TeamHaunt and Andrew is #TeamTilt.) What is crazier, a year later, I ran into Ryan AGAIN on the Upper West side after seeing a movie with our good friend and fellow magical Beyond expert, Elana Kilkenny. Weird vibes, for sure!
What’s your biggest hope for the podcast? That can be…something that will happen to you in the story, or some big award, or some number of listeners, or getting some brand deal, or having someone famous listen, or turning the show into a theme park, etc.
Biggest hope - the pod reaches 1.1 Million listeners by the end of 2024. Then my hope is that, like a good pop album, it serves as a project for people to come back to whenever they need a dose of connection, inspiration or magic to help them feel a bit less alone in the rapidly changing robot world we are all living in. Final hope is that this show helps lay the groundwork for a visual version of Beyond on TV sometime in the future.
Are there too many podcasts?
No - make MORE ART PPL!
Self-care tip: Start telling people when they hurt your feelings. It’s a form of self-care and will help improve your relationships. Second tip - baths. I love baths!
Hot take: Trains are the best way to travel.
🚨If u only have time for 1 thing🚨
Drifting Off with Joe Pera is a calming podcast intended to help you fall asleep, and the episode Christmas Tree Lit calmed me to the max (Joe talks about finding peace in staring at a Christmas tree, lit up in darkness, while everyone else is sleeping) but I was too in love with the immersive sound and Joe’s storytelling, which feels like a massage, to fall asleep. This episode embodies coziness—listening to it, I felt like I was looking at a lit up Christmas tree in darkness while everyone else is sleeping, something that Joe says is a theme of his life. (He asks us to consider the themes of our lives, and I want to steal his.) Whitmer Thomas tells Joe a story that feels like it was pulled from A Christmas Story, and Joe then does a perfect and beautiful reading of The Fir Tree, by Hans Christian Andersen, for a segment that made me feel warm and sad. I ended it feeling like I understood the sadness of being a fir tree, it was kind of like what Ian Chillag does to me on Everything Is Alive. I want to gather my family around the fire on Christmas and make everyone listen to it together.
hell yeah
🎙️Sign up for my next Podcast Marketing 101 Radio Bootcamp here—I promise you’ll come away with so, so, much, and have a lot of fun. It’s January 22, 2024.
🎙️I’m also teaching a Radio Bootcamp class on podcast monetizing for anybody on February 26 at noon ET. The class is capped at 12. Sign up here.
🎙️Read my latest Lifehacker piece, The Most Devastating Podcast Cancelations in 2023.
🎙️Read about Podcast Group Therapy, aka the most exciting thing Tink has ever done, here.
🎙️Arielle Nissenblatt spotlighted Daily Tips That May or May Not Help You with Arielle and Ned in her newsletter and podcast.
🏆 The International Women’s Podcast Awards awarded Josie Duffy Rice, Taylor Vaughn Lasley, Sherri Scott, Florence Barrau Adams, and Gabbie Watts’ Unreformed: the Story of the Alabama Industrial School for Negro Children with the Moment of Compelling Storytelling award.
~sponsored~
Ever wondered why we drink milk? Or what we used before passports to cross international borders? What can oracles of the ancient world tell us about technologies of the future? The new podcast Don't Drink the Milk delves into the hidden histories of these familiar things. From beer to homeopathy, we travel the world to find out how these everyday things made their way to you – by force, by chance or by choice – linking events of the past to today's debates along the way. Listen here.
💎BTW💎
🎙️Last week, I was completely swept up by The Bakersfield Three, a fifteen-part true-crime about a group of friends in Bakersfield, California who went either missing or were murdered around the same time. I started episode one in the morning, snuck in listening time at every moment I could, and was done by the end of the day. The Bakersfield Three moms teamed up, working as one, in an unbelievable ways, to raise money for Secret Witness and for sonar equipment for their community…but also to help solves the case, boots-on-the-ground style, and provide each other with support. (This is a show about moms—I felt gutted imagining them driving around with shovels and sticks in their trunks so they could easily search for their kids’ remains—imagine looking for a body in a desert or swamp that was once part of you.) Host Olivia LaVoice uses their findings with her own, untangling the web they wove before their disappearances / murders, attempting to sort out what happened, what their last days were like, and how everything is connected. Olivia spends time with each person, interviewing the people in their lives. These interviews are devastating. And the thing that seems to connect these people is that each one had one tiny slip that sent them on a downward spiral. The Bakersfield Three is a thorough, intimate piece that unfolds like a door-stopper novel you can really…cozy up with, if murder is the kind of thing you like to cozy up with. (My mom started listening and gave the very valid feedback that the first few episodes were confusing. There are a lot of characters to keep track of, but hang in there. It gets easier and is worth it.) There are strange romances, three moms that become united heroes, three people who seemed to have everything going for them until they didn’t, and there’s one hell of a twist. (It’s also a look at how opioids can break a community.) I don’t want to spoil anything, but something happens in episode 11 that had me floored. Happy binging. Listen here.
🎙️Uncovering Roots is a narrative show that features stories with an eye on the SWANA (South West Asia and North Africa) region and indigenous people across the globe. The first episode is part of a three-part mini series about Arshaluys Mardigian, also known as Aurora, who was just 14 years old when she lost everything during the horrors of the Armenian Genocide. Episode one is powerful but not easy listening. Host Maxim Saakyan takes us through the atrocities, which are stomach churning. Hearing Arshaluys’ story reminds me of watching a horror movie and wondering how the bold protagonist could possibly be alive, physically or spiritually. In episodes two and three we learn how after two years under Ottoman occupation, she emerges not unscathed, to America via Ellis Island, where she is further exploited for her story that was made into a film called Auction of Souls (starring her,) which is now considered lost, meaning there is not a single print or master of it anywhere. The rest of the series is about the missing film (the controversial artwork…that link is not for the faint of heart,) Arshaluys’ disappearance from public life and how she lived out her final days, talking to people who knew her. This story is harrowing, devastating, and a bunch of other words that don’t do it justice, yet it’s carefully and elegantly told in a way that you feel drawn in, not so horrified that you must look away. Listen here.
🎙️There was a time in 2020 when Karens were in the news a lot lately. They’re still wreaking havoc but the media coverage has turned down a bit. The funny thing about Karens is that they end up eating up everyone’s attention, leaving the victims of their crimes in the dust. And isn’t that just so Karen? Imperfect Paradise had a fascinating series about a Karen, but instead they focused on her targets—Sadie and Eddie Martinez, a Latino couple who were falsely accused of attempted kidnapping a white mom-fluencer’s children in Petaluma, California. This women (her real name is Katie) was messing with the wrong couple. Sadie and Eddie fought back. Katie went to trial, and jail, not for her Instagram posts (which she made after the non-existent kidnapping…full white woman tears) but for lying to the police, which she did three times. (In audio we can hear her explaining why they would be kidnapped…the couple was “rough looking” and her kids were “very good looking.”) Even if you were going to try to have empathy for a mom who was maybe stressed and anxious about Covid and all the tumult that came with 2020, that empathy disappears when you realize she might have been doing it for the gram, and that she might be in Qanon. This series is about a big lie and the woman who did not get away with it, plus the “Save the Children” environment that sparked her…creativity. Reported by Emily Guerin, who did another project I loved, California City. Start the Imperfect Paradise series here.
🎙️Earwolf Presents has a series called “I Hate Christmas,” hosted by Christmas-hater Niles Abston. He’s positive he hates everything about the season, but isn’t so stuck in his ways he’s not willing to be swayed. And that’s what his guests are trying to do. Change his mind. I’ve been listening to the whole series but really loved the episode with Ashley Ray (of TV I Say,) who tried to convert Niles to a Christmas movies lover. In a bit of a surprise reversal, it seems like Niles is a little more on board with Christmas movies than he was on the other topics in the series (songs, snacks) and Ashley has her own hate list of holiday films. I listen to Ashley, I love her commentary on her own TV podcast. But she is wrong about Home Alone not being a Christmas film. I was arguing with her but also fascinated with what she had to say. Go listen and argue with her in your head if you want. It’s a great conversation. (She mentioned a holiday movie I have never even heard of, The Night Before, which Justin and I had a lot of fun watching.) Listen here.
🎙️I found another amusement park podcast—On For Your Amusement, Ryan Bergara and Byron Marin are exhaustively evaluating the world’s most popular theme park attractions to determine if they are world class. They cover the history of the rides and bring on guests to comb through all the ins and outs, and they put the rides though a series of 10 tests to determine if the ride holds up—the average tourist test, the Leslie Stahl test, the smart phone test, the Tony Stark test, the Hollywood test, the Simpsons test, the signature moment test, the premature detraculation test, the exit poll test, and the fine wine test. (The ride must get a 7/10 to be considered world class.) Ryan and Byron are amusement park nerds who cover the rides with knowledge and appreciation. I listened to an episode about Disneyland’s Space Mountain, with Defunctland, and much like the show Podcast the Ride (a show I love,) it offered a thorough review that was fun to listen to, but unlike Podcast the Ride, the guys were succinct. The episode was an hour, as opposed to three hours, and it felt packed with facts and smart observations. Listen here.
🎙️I have been leaving an Apple Podcasts rating and review for a new show every day of 2023, and tweeting about it. Along the way, there has been one Twitter account that has been cheering me along, which feels nice (“You can do it!” “You’re almost done!”) because this project has been more annoying that I thought it’d be. It’s the handle for Overcome Compulsive Hoarding, a show that began as an audio diary of the host’s life, an anonymous outlet for somebody with this strange condition, and then moves to an ongoing conversation with therapists, academics, researchers, children of hoarders, professional organizers and influencers about it. I gave it a listen and was pretty interested. It’s not just for hoarders, it’s for all of us. It’s a look at why we hoard and how we look at hoarders. Hoarding is a misunderstood mental illness. (You know how we have pretty much stopped saying we have OCD unless we really have it? Maybe we should stop joking or exaggerating about being hoarders unless we are being serious.) The episode hoarding vs squalor talks about the differences between the two, which are not mutually exclusive. But they both have huge impacts on the people who do it, and the people in their lives. Dr Jan Eppingstallas, the guest, also talks about Diogenes Syndrome, a social withdrawal disorder that is often linked to hoarding and squalor. It’s looking at these things with empathy and understanding. There are real reasons why they happen. Another episode tackles homelessness and hoarding, a topic rarely discussed. I thought this would be like, a self-help podcast. (Blame in on the name or my narrow mindedness.) But it’s really a show about how our society and circumstance drives people to unhealthy habits, and the way we ostracize them for it. I also recommend going back to the first episodes. The sound isn’t great, but we get to hear about where the host is coming from and why she decided to make the show. It’s is completely opening my eyes, and is a new surprise favorite of mine. And to think that I discovered it because someone was being nice to me on Twitter. There’s a real marketing lesson, there. Listen here.
🎙️Who doesn’t love those “Very Special TV Episodes” from the 1980s and 1990s when a sitcom would break tone to deliver a very serious message about drugs, AIDS, stranger danger, or drunk driving to kids watching with their families? And more importantly, where did they go? Mo Rocca has an episode of Mobituaries memorializing the death of these Very Special Episodes, reminding us that they go back way further than you might think (loved hearing the Leave It To Beaver clip,) that some of them weren’t so bad, after all, and what their death has to do with Seinfeld. Why they went away reflects a shift in the way we watch TV. They’re still there, just hidden. This episode is a great piece about a tiny corner of TV history and the evolution of Very Special Episodes. Listen here.
🎙️Carrie Jade Does Not Exist. (That’s the name of the podcast.) But she is a woman who took on over six different identities, using each one to infiltrate the lives of various vulnerable people (she milked a fake diagnosis for Huntington’s Disease,) maintaining her lies to build their trust. Sue Perkins (a comedian who was also a presenter on Great British Bake Off) and journalist Katherine Denkinson are tracking down every single person and the victims who fell prey to Carrie Jade’s cons. Hearing the stories, it’s hard to believe Carrie Jade is “one” “person,” or that Samantha Cookes (the actual person) was able to pull this off for so long. It’s a classic internet hoax story told by a duo that makes the story sail. Samantha Cookes is a dirty stinking liar, but I’m giving her points for creativity. I gobbled up each episode (they’re kind of scary) and persona. Listen here.
🎙️Plenty of podcasts explore horrifying things like murder and the paranormal, but Lusus focuses on the horrors of mundane things that if you think about it, are the scariest things ever because they’re so mundane. usual horror genre to life in Lusus. OCD, climate change, hypochondria, budgets. OH. MY. The production level of this show is amazing, you’ll need to listen on your noise-canceling headphones. The first episode, Doppelgänger, was creepy the whole way through and popped out to surprise me in a way I wasn’t prepared for. Listen here.
🎙️Morrison Mysteries is back for a season that features Keith Morrison reading A Christmas Carol. I recommend turning it on when you’re sick of the Christmas playlist that has been on repeat since Halloween. It’s my new favorite Christmas album. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I like a man who sticks to his strengths. I’m not saying that listening to Keith Morrison read absolutely anything is my kink, but I’m not not saying that. Listen here.
🎙️I love you!