Has the podcast industry entered its messy teen years?
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I’m writing this from my backyard, where I can see the devastating effects of squirrels on corn stalks. My downstairs neighbour has done an incredible job turning our garden into a little urban farm—but late at night, I’ve been hearing animals getting into all sorts of mischief, thwarting our efforts. There’s nothing quite like being awoken by the banshee screams of mating coyotes at 3 a.m. As my roommate described it, the sound was akin to “demons blasting forth from hell.”
For me, part of the fun of living in a city is listening to its soundscape. The drumming of the train chugging over the track. The leaf blower, a guitar solo (albeit, an annoying one). The chorus of birds rustling through the vines wrapped around our telephone wires. The lyrics of a neighbourhood walk-and-talk, where friends tell each other about the butt blisters they get from their Peloton when they think no one else can hear them.
This week on Vocal Fridays, we’re listening to Walking in Place Pod. I’m still taking silly little walks on most days, and if you are too, pause your podcast and see if you can make the sounds of the city sound like a symphony.
In Big Podcast News: Eric Eddings and Brittany Luse are BACK with For Colored Nerds, this time, on Stitcher. For context, read about their fight with Gimlet/Spotify for intellectual property of The Nod, the show they made with Gimlet. We’re thrilled they’re back!
Has the podcast industry entered its messy teen years?
On that topic of Eric Eddings and Brittany Luse: there’s a lot to be said about intellectual property there. For Colored Nerds was the name of the podcast they produced together, independently; that’s the show that got them noticed by Alex Blumberg at Gimlet, as detailed by a 2017 profile of the show in the New Yorker. After they started working at Gimlet, they pitched a show that became The Nod.
In June of 2020, Luse spoke out on Twitter about the issues she and Eddings were running into re: intellectual property. The Nod was Luse and Eddings; they pitched it, hosted it, and, as she noted in her thread, it even bears their faces. And yet, they didn’t own the rights to the show, which means that they wouldn’t see a cut of any ad revenue, and they needed permission from Spotify to do just about anything with the content.
We’ve talked about this issue before. Podcast IP can be really lucrative—you can option it into a television show or movie, which can bring in a lot more money than ad revenue does. For a long time, networks tended to retain those rights, causing headaches and heartbreak for hosts/producers who wanted to do more with their shows, especially if they’d been cancelled. But as Luse said in her conversation with The Verge, “The industry is no longer in its infancy; the industry’s maturing, and so I think people’s desires for what they’re looking for out of ownership deals and things like that are changing.”
I do think that the revival of For Colored Nerds at Stitcher signals a shift in power towards creators. There’s a sign that it’s moving away from being uncharted territory that favours those already in power towards something hopefully more equitable. But things can still get very messy, and an incident from earlier this year involving the hugely popular Armchair Expert shows that even the most successful teams can still have amateur mistakes backfire in a big way.
Earlier this year, the Armchair Expert feed featured a new show from Kristin Bell and Monica Padman, called Shattered Glass. The show featured interviews with women who made some sort of chip into shattering the glass ceiling, like Gloria Steinem. There was just one problem: there was an existing show with the same name.
When we’re making a new show, coming up with the title can be a huge challenge. When we have a list of possible names ready, the first thing we do is search in Google and Apple Podcasts, checking whether a show already exists with that name. It can be really disappointing to think you’ve found the perfect name for a show, only to find that someone else has already taken it.
They were eventually sent a cease and desist letter, and were forced to change the name. It’s now called We Are Supported By, which is… a little bit confusing (the name makes it kinda look like an extended ad). But I do think this whole incident is another signal that the podcast industry is growing up a little bit. It’s not the wild west anymore—you can’t just take a name and run with it. There are consequences, and I think that’s a sign of growth.
Now Magazine is hiring is hiring two positions, but you should apply now, because applications are due August 7. They’re looking for a staff writer, digital and social media and a staff writer, food and local business. There’s no salary posted, but they’re both full-time unionized jobs.
Gimlet is hiring is hiring two remote eligible jobs (within the Americas) right now—a news producer for The Journal, the daily news podcast from the Wall Street Journal, and a supervising editor for Reply All.
The Nocturnists is hiring is hiring a part-time producer/editor to help make their Shame in Medicine 10-part audio documentary storytelling series. Apply here by Wednesday, August 11.
Pacific Content is hiring a full time showrunner and a producer for a three-month contract.
The New York Times is hiring a new producer for Sway, hosted by Kara Swisher. Hot tip: every boomer wants their podcast to sound like Sway, so you may as well get some practice by working on the show itself.
Okay, this one is REALLY cool. This might be my favourite call for pitches I’ve found since starting to write this newsletter. Duolingo is looking for pitches for their English podcast, which will be accepted on a rolling basis, but submit by August 15 for the best chance of having your pitch considered. They’re looking for true, first-person stories about specific themes listed in their very thorough pitch guide here. Link to submit is here. Rates start at $700/story.
We love a Writers Co-op workshop! Next month, on September 21, Wudan Yan and Jenni Gritters are hosting a workshop on how to build passive revenue streams as a freelancer. They’ll be joined by three guest entrepreneurs, and tickets are $30.
Speaking of workshops… our very own associate producer Sabrina Brathwaite is hosting a series of workshops on planning intentional rest. For freelancers (and, well, humans in general), finding space for rest—and prioritizing it—can feel like just another thing to add to the to-do list. And, if we’re being honest with ourselves, for a lot of us, it’s the first thing to get kicked off the list when there’s too much going on. Per the event page: “The Intentional Rest Planning workshop is designed to take you from spinning your wheels with little energy leftover for yourself, to stepping into a place of being able to tackle your commitments with an action plan of when, and how, to rest.” Sabrina will be hosting five workshops between September and November, and tickets are $60 on Eventbrite. Sign up for her mailing list by September 1 for 10% off!
This week, I’m listening to Walking in Place, hosted and produced by Ashley McDonough. The show is a series of audio walking tours through Toronto, designed to be listened either as you walk through the neighbourhood, or listening at home. The walks are more history and context-setting than dreamy and esoteric (for a dreamy and esoteric audio walk I highly recommend The Slow Now) but McDonough does a great job of weaving the history into the place itself. I love hearing the stories behind how streets got their names, and what buildings or bridges or creeks used to stand where I am, and the rich sound design makes it that much more poignant. Recommended for people who miss walking tours, or who just want to learn more about the history of Toronto.
On this week’s episode of Well Said, Heather Reisman is in conversation with Malcolm Gladwell about his latest book, The Bomber Mafia.
This week on Building Good, Jordyn Burnouf joins the show to talk about how Indigenous-led clean energy initiatives are paving the way forward in the fight against climate change.
We want to hear from you! What are you looking for in your podcast news? Let us know on Twitter, Instagram, or at info@vocalfrystudios.com.
Thanks to Emily Latimer for editing this newsletter, and to Katie Jensen for designing it.
We’ll see you again on August 13. Until then, here’s an update from digital producer Emily's barn kittens.
Yours in friends and fries,
Michal
