What do podcasts do better?
Dangerous fridges, Captain Marvel, poetic rap, anthropological adolescence, classy mash-up, Tinder for home ownership, controversial books.
Tom Webster has written a lot about how podcasting can grow beyond the niches and reach more mainstream audiences. Every time he does, I feel myself ready to rally and go off on a mass marketing campaign to teach everyone about the wonderful world of podcasts. Kinda like that time Lauren and Arielle took over Washington Square Park in NYC. This week, Tom shared some thoughts that I wanted to include here, because I haven’t stopped thinking about them and I hope they’ll spark some ideas or incentive in you to talk to other people in your life about podcasting. We’ve got so many great podcasts for them to enjoy! But like Tom says, we just gotta figure out the best way to talk about them.
The work to be done is to do a better job understanding non-listeners, understanding what really motivates them, and to accept the fact that they are right – they really don’t need you. No one needs a podcast. But everybody wants a something. And the key to expanding podcasting is not to “educate” people about what we do. It’s to listen to what they want, and appreciate who they are…
In short, let’s not be afraid to put the gloves on when we talk about podcasts. We have spent enough time telling people about what podcasts are from a purely descriptive or technical sense – but why should you care? What do podcasts do better? What evil do they take away? What existing stressor can we identify that podcasting makes easier?
This week’s podstack
TILclimate - Don’t throw away your refrigerator
I listen to a lot of climate shows but sometimes I still struggle with understanding all the science, terminology, and jargon, which also makes it difficult to explain to others the things I found interesting. Thankfully, TILclimate is really good at helping with that problem! The episodes are short (under 15 minutes), but focused and always ensure to explain any complicated or new terms. I think what really makes it even more engaging is just how invested you can tell host Laur Hesse Fisher is! She’s inquisitive but always remembers to take a step back and be the voice for the listeners who are eager to learn and need things to be clear. I so appreciate it! The episode that really proved this to me was the refrigerants one because wow I had no idea about the materials used to make our refrigerators and air conditioners work and how intense they are! I probably had the least amount of prior knowledge for this episode and came out of it knowing more about what needs to change for the future of our hot, air conditioned world to be sustainable. If you’re still thinking about all the wildfires of this past summer, I also highly recommend their episode on why and how those fires are changing. We need forest fires, but the changing variables in our environment are making those necessary fires more dangerous. (transcript)
Women of Marvel - Captain Marvel
I’ve really been enjoying the new season of Women of Marvel and kept almost writing about episodes each week. They’ve added a lot of fun segments to this season that explore not just the history of each character, but also teach us more about real-world connections. Like a little lesson in bees vs wasps during The Wasp episode or talking to a professional archer in the Hawkeye episode! The time finally came to write about the show because they did an episode about my favourite character - Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel! They talk about Carol’s origin story, how her character evolved for the most recent version that was the inspiration for the Captain Marvel movie, and what draws people to the character. I loved the parts about why and how they changed her uniform from being less dominatrix to more functional. It’s also such an honest conversation about Carol’s flaws, as told by one of her recent writers Kelly Sue Deconnick. If you’re curious about the world of Marvel superheroes, but want to know more about the women who rule there, this is the perfect show for it! This episode gave me chills and made me even more excited for the new movie.
Movement with Meklit Hadero - "What's the Freshest Fruit?" ft. Felukah
I love the way Felukah talks about writing and poetry at the beginning of this episode. She calls it dorky, but she made a promise to herself to always write and that poetry would be there for her when the rest of the world isn’t. It’s such a beautiful way to think about that form of expression. Since that promise when she was young, she’s gone on to discover how to express her writing and poetry through music and was finally able to make the leap to working as a rapper. Like the talented and warm interviewer she is, host Meklit Hadero weaves us through Felukah’s music, the influence that moving to New York had on her, and how she learned to shift her music to include more of herself and her Egyptian background. I love the way her music is mixed in between the conversation to give you a sense of how her story translates into her songs.
“Where did boys learn that it was kind of their birthright to evaluate girls’ looks out loud and in front of them and to other people?” This question opens the episode as Kate Ellis remembers that pre-teen/teenage time when crushes start developing and how she noticed the boys start talking so much more about girls’ appearances. She describes it as a painful dawning of awareness. This season of SAPIENS is all about adolescence and that awkward phase of life where we’re growing up and coming of age, but with an anthropological approach and contrasting stories of growing up Samoan. Since Kate and co-host Doris Tulifau are wondering how much coming-of-age experiences are impacted by culture, they’re also referencing the work of anthropologist Margaret Mead. This first episode introduces different experiences of adolescence and Mead’s work to set the stage for understanding how much of it is nature vs nurture. Between the hosts’ narration and personal stories, interviews with experts, and great music, I was so quickly hooked. (transcript)
The Mash-Up Americans - Jonathan Menjivar Rewrites His Story On Class
This episode feels like the best bonus follow-up episode after an exceptional series – it’s a genius combination! Rebecca Lehrer and Amy S. Choi are the perfect duo to continue the conversation around class in America with Jonathan Menjivar. If you listened to Jonathan’s podcast Classy, about all the ways we are impacted by class, you’ll love this discussion. The Mash-up Americans has always been a space to talk about the realities of life in America and they do it so well. Together, these three explore how their parents feel about or even recognize class, how they feel about their changing class status in society, and all the ways American society fails to even acknowledge these things. So much of their conversation leads back to the guilt and search for belonging that all different people experience as they move through the world. (transcript)
In This Economy?! - Home Ownership?! In This Economy?!
“In this economy?!” has almost become a catchphrase for me – it’s just so easy to say in response to so many things these days. And this show captures how accurate that feeling is! Would you ever consider entering into home ownership with someone you met through an app that works kinda like Tinder? You swipe through profiles and find someone who might be a good match for this business agreement. In this economy, home ownership is requiring some more creative approaches than your parents might’ve needed. This episode introduces you to new ways of attaining a home and all the logistical things that people have done to ensure it works effectively for everyone involved in the purchase. It’s really fascinating to hear about! This show is taking a question, like how can I afford a home in this economy?, and speaking to different experts to find answers that might help.
Missing Pages - Paradigm Shift: The Colleen Hoover Story
I’m not a big reader and I’m not on BookTok but I’ve definitely heard of Colleen Hoover. I had no idea her rise to fame all started with some self-publishing. She might’ve done better than others because she got in on self-publishing when there weren’t as many others doing it, but it also helped that her books are attention-grabbing. It sounds like that might be for a combination of good and bad reasons, but through Bethanne’s analysis in this episode, you learn about this unique example of how publishing and social media are interacting now. The key might be the emotionally charged reactions her books cause, whether they be positive or negative! Like so many things, what happens when the desire for press and popularity ignore the negative impacts? (transcript)
More sweet treats
A collection of books by women podcasters.
Congrats to the winners of the 2023 International Women’s Podcast Awards!
This might play on repeat to get me into the holiday spirit.
Thank you for reading! If you listened to something this week that made your heart sing, your imagination wander, or your brain ponder, I’d love to hear about it!