👂What People at Podcast Movement Are Listening To👂
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Bonjour.
Today is Monday, August 28th. There are 24 days until my trip to Disney World. I was at Podcast Movement last week, listening to people instead of podcasts. So instead of giving my own recommendations, I’m giving recommendations of the people I met at the conference. Enjoy!
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xoxo lp
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Chris DeRosa & Dominick Pupa
Chris and Dominick are the co-hosts of Fixing Famous People. Follow the show on Instagram. here.
Describe Fixing Famous People in 10 words or less.
CD: That conversation you have with friends about celebrity scandal
DP: Two raspy queens talking shit about the misery that is fame.
What’s the structure of the show? What can people expect from an episode?
CD: Each episode Dominick, I, and a hilarious guest unpack our “client” for the week, who is a celebrity who has found themselves embroiled in tabloid scandal. (Examples include Harry & Meghan, Mindy Kaling, Ariana Grande, and Ellen Degeneres.) Once we recap why they’re being vilified in the public eye, Dominick and I take turns pitching our ideas of what we think they should do to get back into the good graces of society. At the end of the episode, the guest decides whose pitch is the winner, and we send the idea to our celebrity client.
Fill in the blank: You will like Fixing Famous People if you like ______.
CD: Celebrity Tabloid Gossip Through An Insider’s Lens.
DP: Graham Norton, 30 Rock, RuPaul’s Drag Race and Succession. Equally.
What makes you the perfect host for this show?
CD: I think coming from the jobs that we do, we know the power that the press, social media, and a good party line have on the general public. People with horrendous pasts are now beloved actors, TV hosts, and musicians. We work on shows where one season a person is the hero, the next season they’re the villain, and the 3rd season they’re the hero again, so we’ve seen this cycle perpetuate over and over again, often because we’ve had a hand in making it happen. We know the book of tricks because we’ve created it, and nothing gets past us.
DP: I’m a Reality TV Producer and a comic. I’ve been a manufacturer and an immersed critic of pop culture forever. People rise, people fall, some don’t get up. Being a witness to their journeys has given me a lot of insight, and most lessons I learn from famous people are what NOT to do.
How are you and Dominick similar/different? What do you each bring to the table?
CD: We’re both similar in the sense that we come from the same industry. We’ve both dealt with infamously difficult talent, had to go up against them on set (and win), and always be 5 steps ahead of everyone else in order to stay on schedule. We are from two different generations, so while he can speak to Madonna, I can speak to Britney Spears. I’m pretty good at impressions and talking about culture, while Dom does standup, so he can turn just about any comment into a joke. When it comes to producing the podcast, I think I’m a bit more plugged into the podcast world and know who would make funny guests, and Dom is a master at giving good edit notes. He takes 1h30m of content and cuts it down to a tight 45m-50m episode. He’s yet to be wrong.
DP: What Chris said, although when he hears what I have to say about Britney we’ll probably have a slapfight. As a creative team, even though we’re from different generations we somehow find joy and disdain in the same things. But we differ in surprising and important areas, like ranking the best dressed at the Met Gala. When it comes to running a podcast, Chris is a master at big picture (the podcast and format were his idea) and my strengths lie in the details, pulling time and keeping shit moving. 3 decades of network notes will make a person almost robotic about it. Keep it tight, keep it right, make sure we’re laughing no matter how serious. Life is timing, even in a podcast.
If you were going to make a podcast with one of the stars you’ve worked with, who would it be and what would the podcast be?
DP: A cast member from a Bravo show I EP’d called Blood, Sweat & Heels. Her name is Demetria Lucas and she’s an insanely talented author/blogger/screenwriter and just all around cool individual. The podcast would just be us talking shit and cutting up. Like this one is!
Why did you decide to go the podcast route for Fixing Famous People?
CD: Podcasts are achievable and relatively low-cost to make. Dom and I both come from television, where just turning the cameras and lights on for 12 hours costs more than I make in a month. Podcasting is one of the only mediums where my creation can be next to that of a celebrity’s that has the backing of a major network. You can’t find that in the theaters and you can’t find it at home on the streaming platforms.
DP: A podcast is the easiest way to become a part of someone’s routine. Moreso than than anything visual. You’re with these people when they need company. At the gym, on a run, in the car, as they’re falling asleep.
How did the idea come to you?
CD: I was on Kate Casey’s show Reality Life with Kate Casey and we were discussing the Harry and Meghan docuseries on Netflix. I said something like “If I just had 15 minutes in a room with Meghan she’d be running the country.” The next day I was talking to Kate about wanting to start a new podcast, and she parroted the words back to me. “You already have your idea, you had it on my show.” she said, and the wheels started turning from there.
Are there too many podcasts?
CD: As much as I with every cell in my body want to say yes, I don’t think there will ever be too many podcasts. Something that we gained by having so many (too many) streaming services is that we can have niche content from storytellers that aren’t marketable to Middle America. A story no longer has to appeal to everyone, it just has to appeal to someone. Now, as much as that doesn’t always translate to monetary success for networks, there’s something really amazing about the fact that my friend and I can record something over the internet and people who enjoy it can have it once a week. I don’t have to try to grab every pair of ears from every walk of life in order to exist, and I don’t have to fight a gatekeeper to allow me to do the thing I want to do. I do that quite literally every day in my day job.
DP: There can’t be too many of anything. Except guns.
Hot take:
CD: Tom and Raquel are just par for the course on Vanderpump Rules. I don’t know why this scandal has gripped America in such an insane way.
DP: I think “Bravo” should be its own gender.
Self-care tip:
CD: Invest in good bedding and good towels.
DP: Magnesium, ginger, turmeric. Get them into your life.
Anything I didn’t ask you about that you want to say?
DP: Just that I love you.
👂What People at Podcast Movement Are Listening To👂
Pretty much in the order that I met them…
Brittany Wilkins, The Coin: Black History on the Other Side: One Mic Black History, Engineers That Invest
Anna DeShawn, E3 Radio: 1972
Fela Davis, One of One Productions: Ice-T's Daily Game
Imran Ahmed, Great Pods: Bombing with Eric Andre
Christiana Cromer, Descript: Exploration: LIVE!
Ashley Hamer, Descript & Taboo Science: Sing for Science, That's Absurd Please Elaborate
Mike Jensen, Rhapsody Voices: Invisible Choir
Lisa Namerow, CNN: Pivot, All There Is with Anderson Cooper
Toby Ball, Crime Writers On & Strange Arrivals: Alabama Astronaut
Roger Nairn, JAR Audio: How Long Gone
Jen Moss, JAR Audio: Island Crime, Nice Genes!
Paul Riismandel, Signal Hill: Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris
Joey Scarillo, #5Things: Classy with Jonathan Menjivar
James Cridland, Podnews: Search Engine
Jeremy Enns: I Will Teach You To Be Rich, Brains
Emmeline Berry, Pocket Casts: Stuff the British Stole
Cassi Young-Paxton, My Worst Date: A Way with Words
Max Branstetter, MaxPodcasting: The Shallow End
Annabella Pena, The Podglomerate: The Broski Report, The Squeeze
MaRah, Sistahs Who Kill: Jokes On You
Jeff Weiner: Wild Chocolate
Jay Yow, The James Altucher Show: Tonebenders, Twenty Thousand Hertz
Jesse Adler, Patreon: The Ancient World
Chris Hutchins, All the Hacks: I Will Teach You To Be Rich
Scott Johnson, What Was That Like: Dogma Debate
Michael Osborne, Famous & Gravy: Search Engine
Heather Mason, Realm: The Opportunist
Matthew Krekeler, Girl Dad Nation: Dadville, World’s Greatest Con
Cooper Katz McKim, HISTORY Channel: Heavyweight
Lauren Bright Pacheco, Murder in Miami, Murder in Illinois, Murder in Oregon, The Murders at Whitehouse Farm, Symptomatic: Skyline Drive
Phil Bechtel, Kid Stories Podcast: Dragonfly Tales
Katy Hearne-Church, Canva & Queens Podcast: That’s So Fcked Up
Harmony Jiroudek, Descript: Huberman Labs
Vickey Finkley-Brown, Black Writer Therapy: The Fire Inside Her
Rebecca Lavoie, NHPR & Crime Writers On…: Specifically the military episode of Classy: Class and Combat
Elaine Appleton Grant, Podcast Allies & Sound Judgment: Famous & Gravy
Randi P'Pool, P’Pool Media: Believable: The Coco Berthmann Story
Carly Bromley, P’Pool Media: Scamanda
Marina Hanna, Reelworld Film Festival: TV, I Say w/Ashley Ray
Lloyd George, Cre8tor Hub: Scamfluencers
Amanda Freberg, The McElroys: Saw Bones
Amy Daniels, Kitten & Clucky: Thank You for Saying NO
Ellie Rubinstein, Pocket Casts: The Knowledge Project, The Opportunist
Les Alfred, Balanced Black Girl: EXPANDED
Lindsay Bowen, attorney for podcasts: Whatever Happened to Pizza at McDonald’s?
Stephanie Arakelian, Impact Theory: V Interesting
Jonathan Menjivar, Classy: Bandsplain
Katie Fuchs, The Lippin Group: The First Ever Podcast
Arielle Nissenblatt, Descript & EarBuds: Near Death
🎙️I love you!
📦 From the Archives 📦
[From March 6, 2020] How have I never heard of PUF, also known as Jemima Wilkinson? An American preacher born in Rhode Island to Quaker parents in the late 1700s, Wilkinson claimed to have died and come back to life as a genderless evangelist named the Public Universal Friend (PUF) in 1776, and afterward shunned their birth name and gendered pronouns. PUF’s followers developed into the Society of Universal Friends, a group of mostly unwed women who believed in free will, opposing slavery, and supporting sexual abstinence. (Hence why they were so short-lived.) Throughline, a show that goes back in time to understand the present, has a truly unbelievable piece on PUF and the power of micro-histories, the complex stories PUF tells us about social, religious, and gender shifts during the American Revolution, and why PUF is important today.
From the Desk of Tink
Today we’re talking to Kelly Corrigan of Kelly Corrigan Wonders.
Describe the show in ten words or less: High EQ conversations for people who want to know more and feel more.
Who is it for? Lifetime learners with a sense of humor.
Which episode to start with? I like Helen Fisher on relationships, connection and sex, Julie Lythcott-Haims on parenting blunders and repairs, and Claire Danes + Kate Bowler on living a good life.
Favorite listener interaction: Every Sunday I share a eulogy, graduation speech, anniversary toast, etc sent in by a listener. I recently met a widow who ran to me and said, "you read my husband’s eulogy. He would have loved you so much." We just held each others hands until finally, I said "Aren’t we lucky to love people so much?"
Dream guest: I’ve met a lot of my heroes — Bryan Stevenson, Melinda French Gates, Steve Kerr, David Byrne. But I’m still chasing Dave Chappelle.
Would love to be a guest on…10% Happier or Armchair Expert.
Dream partnership: I’m working on a secret plan for 2024 right now and if it comes through, it would definitely be the collaboration of my dreams.
If I could force one person in the world to listen to my podcast it'd be…Michelle Obama, maybe with her husband.
What do your parents / kids / family think you do? Too much.
Do your kids think you're cool? My oldest told me her college friends all think I’m "the wacky one." She smiled when she said it. It didn’t seem like such a bad thing. But it definitely wasn’t cool.
Loving this tradition.