It's Gonna Be May ️🔥
Front Line Firefighters and my first non-recommendation rant!
Hey Poddy People!
Over a week ago, there was a USC-Techstars Startup weekend, a glorified way of saying hackathon with pitches. I pitched a dirty version of an analytics site that was received really well. We ranked 4th. Thanks to some early customer discovery interviews before (you know who you are) and last week, I’m now building. This is part of the reason why I’ve been radio(podcast)-silent on the newsletter. This is the first time I’m doing a podcast recommendation with a non-podcast recommendation. Eeeek.
Let’s GOOOOO!!!
The Round-Up
The Ambies - Excellence in Audio by The Podcast Academy was a month ago. I was live posting on Substack the winning podcasts as I watched on Twitch. Check out the winners here.
I was watching the livestream, and it was for a good hour, around 800-900 concurrent viewers watching. At one point, it jumped to 7k. Who posted it on their socials?
I wasn’t the only one…
Results: It turns out the Twitch streamer was on the red carpet too, with Twitch folks on hand to assist. Once she left the red carpet to present, the stream to The Ambies jumped. Kudos to that team! It doesn’t affect our lives, so it was just a fun little investigation for me.
Building: Great Pods’ Critic Corner is now live. In the last newsletter, I said I was building a hub for writers to access their reviews and even add new ones. The last couple of years, I was manually doing it. Consider this my formal announcement if I haven’t reached out to get your login if you’re a professional reviewer that Great Pods has aggregated. It’s go time.
Have a podcast? Add to GP here with Podcast Screener by Great Pods.
Left the Coming Soon section- Also a quick shoutout to those who used Podcast Screener: Moonburn, Don’t Cross Kat, My Friend Daisy, Underbelly: Killing Kurt, Deep Cover (New Season), Targeted, Aftermath: Hunt for the Anthrax Killer, Good Bad Billionaire (New Season), Out of Frame, The Latest with Loren LoRosa, DC High Volume: Batman, Big Time, Confessions of a Female Founder, Surviving Trump: With Democracy On Life Support, La Vida Mas Chevere de Childfree Latinas, The Intercept Briefing, Mayo Clinic on Nutrition, The Five Books, Insiders: The TV Podcast, Dub Dynasty, Nonprofits Now: Leading Today, Death County, PA, The K-Factor With Beomhan, Second Wind, Yokai Detective Agency, The Toxic Talk Shit Show
The Podcast Show is coming up the week of May 20th in London. I’ll be over there speaking, thanks to Masala Podcast’s, Sangeeta Pillai for the invite.
On to my picks-ish this week…
Podcast: Fire Escape
Genre: Society, Documentary
Publisher: Snap Studios, Wondery
About: Amika Mota was a young mother, a midwife, and the daughter of a feminist icon. One night she caused a fatal crash that would separate her from her family and brand her as a criminal. Trapped inside prison, looking for any way out, she gets the call to join an all-female crew of incarcerated firefighters. When the alarm sounds, they drive out into the community on fire trucks as heroes – pulling bodies from crash scenes, saving lives and fighting fire. Every call brings her the chance to reclaim the world she lost.
TL;DR
A great podcast from beginning to end. Showing us empathy and forgiveness in the middle of tragedy. The extra episodes are worth it, not just for the short stories, but because the guest flips the script right back to Anna.
Anna Sussman has been a reporter, producer, and editor at Snap Studios for fifteen years. She’s been covering prisons designated for women in California for nearly twenty years. I met Anna during On Air Fest this year through some random circumstance, and we hit it off. Mainly because of my appreciation for her work with Glynn Washington at Snap Studios. Required Halloween listening every year: Spooked.
Glimpse of Anna from On Air Fest
Because of the California fires earlier this year, Fire Escape was already on my list. It was just the timing of the release, even though it doesn’t talk about the Alta Dena or Malibu fires. It was a glimpse at the front lines and the people who fight it from the incarcerated. If you know anything about the Western U.S. (Arizona, Nevada, California, Oregon, Washington), we have inmate programs that fight wildfires. There are variations on what that entails, but in California, inmates can actually be on the front lines.
Amika, with Anna’s sensitive reporting, really gives us a full 360 view, from the time she was locked up to when she was released. Everything from family, internal jobs, treatment (regardless of how you feel about this), release, external jobs, reconnecting with family, and her psychology. The remorse is felt in every episode. The “I know I can’t bring your family member back” is all there. But the podcast transforms into something else: a rehabilitation of those crimes through a well-known program of becoming firefighters. Many of these young women, some still kids, find purpose in saving lives, protecting homes, and preserving nature.
Anna’s experience as a journalist shows in the way she asks questions and weaves the story. Even reintegration into society after release is painfully difficult. You might think, “Well, they did the crime and they have to pay for it forever.” I thought that way, too. But I’m starting to question the blanket statements I grew up with. Long-time readers know: if a podcast makes me ask myself something, I’m really into it.
Then we get the bonus episodes, which are truly the icing on the cake. I texted Anna that I was thinking about interviewing her for this post, but listening to all the bonus episodes with some podcasting royalty answered everything.
Ear Hustle’s Earlonne Woods - Just released from prison.
Death, Sex, and Money’s Anna Sale.
They all ask Anna Sussman poignant questions, especially the kind that get her to be vulnerable. Why these stories? Why these women? Why did they matter so much to tell? It’s not sugar-coated. It’s layered and complex. Anna Sale saying, “I don’t have an answer,” is actually a great answer. We don’t have to have all the answers. Sometimes we just need to listen.
Anna Sussman ends one bonus episode saying, “You don’t know what you made…” and that feels real. We all take stories differently, like music, and I love that.
Yolanthe Fawehinmi • Independent (UK)
"Fire Escape is an immersive, chilling and heartbreaking story about a woman who continues to challenge the narrative around women in prison, and their fundamental right to live a full and worthy life."
This one is not a recommendation, but a rant. Sorry for my unprofessionalism.
Podcast: This is Gavin Newsom
Genre: Politics
Publisher: iHeart
About: I’m Gavin Newsom. And, it’s time to have a conversation. It’s time to have honest discussions with people that agree AND disagree with us. It's time to answer the hard questions and be open to criticism, and debate without demeaning or dehumanizing one other. I will be doing just that on my new podcast – inviting people on who I deeply disagree with to talk about the most pressing issues of the day and inviting listeners from around the country to join the conversation. THIS is Gavin Newsom.
I threw this on out of pure curiosity, but what the hell, Gavin? You’re out here chatting it up with Steve Bannon, The Mooch (Anthony Scaramucci), and Michael Savage like it’s a bro brunch. No pushback, no real talk. Just vibes and compliments. “You’re amazing, you’re a top podcaster, you were a Democrat!” Cool. What are we doing?
This ain’t strategy, it’s simping. If the plan was to meet the moment, it missed the mark. If anything, these guys are walking all over you, getting a free PR ride to your own base. You debated DeSantis with fire, where is that Gavin?
This podcast could’ve been something. Instead, it’s all butter, no substance.
Gavin needs to do better.
Anyway, here’s Wonderwall…
Jay Caspian Kang • New Yorker
“This Is Gavin Newsom” was the strangest political podcast…Newsom seems incapable of interrogating any right-wing position. Listening to Newsom get steamrolled by his right-wing guests for three hours, I wondered where his pride had gone.”
'Top of the Pods' this past week on greatpods.co!
5. Blink | Jake Haendel's Story - Corinne Vien Jacob Haendel
4. Vine: Six Seconds That Changed The World - Global
3. Guru: Don't Cross Kat - Wondery Media
2. Good Hang with Amy - Spotify
1. Gems w/ Miles and Julian - Independent
Stay safe, be kind, and feed the needy.
Listening with you,
Captain Ron
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"Anyway, here's Wonderwall" is my favorite.