Mind Your Own Business!🤔
New releases, Delayed releases, Kill Lists, Football-Soccer +Top 5!
Hey Poddy People!
I hope you’re having a safe week. When I skipped a week of writing, I kept thinking there wasn’t enough content of interest for a send. Every time I do that, I end up having TOO much in the next newsletter. Today’s edition is no exception. My bad. Just to speed up this intro…Let’s GO!!!
It’s LA Tech Week right now. I went to the A16Z podcast and networking event on Monday, followed by former podcast industry colleague, Victor’s (Apollo podcasts) new venture Saywise, putting together a panel at Techstars LA (Startup Accelerator).
On Sunday there’ll be a podcast-brunch-networking event former Snapchat HQ with WeAreLATech. If there are spots open, rsvp here.
You’ve already heard me gush over the excitement of the Sweet Bobby podcast launching as a Netflix Doc. Well, it was released. Here are my initial thoughts.
On the Chai After Dark (
) podcast with my friends, we got into the documentary.We were talking with Netflix UK PR about getting Kirat (the subject of the catfishing) on the show. After giving us a timeframe, they ghosted us. Sad.
Scamanda the ABC News production of the hit podcast, is delayed until 2025. Host, Charlie Webster posted it on her IG and USWeekly reported scheduling conflicts with Football and What Would You Do? programming. There goes that excitement.
Surprise! Rising on the Great Pods charts is QCode’s The Edge of Sleep w/ streamer Markiplier. It turns out they soft-launched a live-action version starring the streaming on Amazon Prime Video early this week then hard-launched today.
QCode also signed the popular And That’s Why We Drink podcast to the network.
(Pod Critic) and I had the opportunity to talk to the hosts 2 years ago. I still have that video up.
Love Is Blind’s new season is out, but Season 1’s married castmates, Lauren and Cameron, have a new podcast. Read more here.
Wondery/Tinkercast/Wow In The World launched a kid’s toy line. To be honest, it makes sense. Read more here.
Wondery/The Best One Yet podcast (a podcast I’ve followed since their Robinhood collab days) also launched a new podcast called The Best Idea Yet. Read more here.
Comedian Flula Borg and his 90s TV sitcom parody podcast, Flula Makes Five is getting a second season launching on Oct. 22nd.
Complaint: Yes, I’m going to complain. Hasan Minhaj and Whatsapp released a “podcast” on international love stories via the Whatsapp communities. I’m all about the evolution of the term podcast, but this is a HARD NO. It is not a podcast, but a glorified 10-minute voice note and it’s a poor quality audio voice note. That’s all. It was even harder to find this voice note while searching after it was promoted on Instagram.
Welcome to Started on WhatsApp: Love Stories
“In our new podcast, Hasan Minhaj chats with long distance couples from around the world and learns exactly how they make it work.
Our first episode is all about Ankita and Deepanker from New Delhi—a couple who moved past the friend zone while in different time zones. Check back next Friday for a brand new episode.”
Glorified Voice Note I can’t even properly send it if you are interested because the link process was janky. Poor experience.
Via Shell Game (
) game podcast and my friend Chetan, I tried NotebookLM because of the implications it may have on podcast creation from AI. It’s scary good, but still a little off. For Great Pods and what we do, at this time I only find this useful for accessibility reasons and for the newsletter itself. I fed it the newsletter from the last edition and this is what it spat out:
In the sphere of improved conversations, Trevor’s podcast has evolved from when I initially recommended the podcast and now giving space to his friend & cohost, Christiana, more space to join in. Especially in this episode with Ta-Nehisi Coates and the firestorm around CBS News’s conversation. Spicy.
Leaving Coming Soon: The World with Richard and Yalda, Informants: Lawyer X, Before We Go, Heal Your Gut, Save Your Brain, Tech Unheard, The Love Seat, Kill List, Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Season 3)
On to my picks this week…
Podcast: Mind Your Own with Lupita Nyong'o
Genre: Conversation, Personal
Publisher: KQED, Lemonada Media, Lupita Nyong’o
About: Lupita Nyong’o knows what home feels like. But where exactly is it? In Mexico, where she was born? Kenya, where she grew up? Or the States, where she’s spent the past 20 years?
Like Lupita, millions of Africans are spread out across the globe following family, searching for love, building futures and creating stories. It's these stories – wild and messy, intimate and joyous – that she wants to hear.
Welcome to Mind Your Own, a storytelling podcast navigating what it means to belong, all from the African perspective. Join Lupita as she shares tales of her own and dives into the lives of real people finding their way in new worlds of every kind.
This was relatable and enjoyable. Most immediately I was reminded of Trevor Noah’s early episodes of What Now? It’s not the first pod to do it of course where someone shares a personal story. Lupita, for example, shares a story of her life around the topic of the episode. After that, a guest tells a well-produced story about the topic. More often, I thought ”Dang, Lupita is just like us”. Duh.
How our moms are similar or what we consider home. Even the accent story from episode 1. I could relate because of the circles around me, followed by my name pronunciation.
Lemonada has great podcasts, but this one is by far the more relatable one to me. I feel that.
Lauren Passell • Podcast The Newsletter
"...her pacing that is perfect, her control of language, and you get the sense that as she is telling you she is really tapping into something, reliving the story in her own head. "
Podcast: Kill List
Genre: True Crime
Publisher: Wondery, Novel
About: Every day, hundreds of people go about their lives with no idea that someone has paid to have them killed. In the depths of the dark net, tech journalist Carl Miller makes a disturbing discovery: a secret “kill list” targeting hundreds of innocent people on a murder-for-hire website. When the police are slow to investigate, Carl is thrown into a race against time to warn those in danger and uncover the truth before it’s too late. From Wondery and Novel comes a shocking true story about obsession, control and the price of life and death.
There’s a style to Wondery that makes it a Wondery podcast. Even though Kill List was a collab with Novel, the style is something I’ve grown to know. Re-creation of a story, music supervision, and scripting all play a role.
Regarding the content, I didn’t think I was going to be into it. The critic reviews, put me over and into my ears. That’s why I like professional reviews and built this platform. It’s really good and I think for me, it’s because of the balance between the re-creation of voices, real interviews with people on the Kill List, and the host’s wins and losses bring it all together.
There’s shock and some satisfaction in the fact that one of the dark websites for contract killing was just a Bitcoin scam.
Driving through LA traffic, it’s a great companion.
Ximena Smith • Radio New Zealand
"...explosive premise...it's really gripping stuff..."
Podcast: The English Disease: Legacy
Genre: Sports, History
Publisher: Stak.
About: There was a time when football hooliganism was everywhere. For decades it dominated headlines, merging the two things England loves most: football and fear. Over the course of six episodes, writer Sam Diss digs deeper – beyond the stereotypes and tabloid headlines – to understand what first brought people to this violent, sprawling subculture, and how it has forced its way back into our society today. This is the untold story of The English Disease.
I do love my soccer/football. Did you know the word soccer was invented by England first? And they hate us for using the term? psssh. That’s not discussed here in the podcast. It’s all about Hooliganism and how it shaped certain parts of their society. What I found interesting on the relation with the 90s, Rupert Murdoch (not so cool billionaire), Sky News, and the creation of the English Premier League.
My note on the pod is that Sam’s voice is a little low and monotone and I have to take a break to continue with an episode, but compelling history otherwise.
Miranda Sawyer • The Guardian
"...a strange nostalgia trip...Diss lets the subject stretch, articulates his own mixed feelings in his excellent script. It’s his lyricism and understanding that makes this series more than just chin-scratching aggro porn. Rather than dismissing it as something to be stamped out and legislated against. "
Here’s this week’s 'Top of the Pods' on greatpods.co
The Coming Storm - BBC
Talk Tuah w/ Haliey Welch - betr
Sidebar: A Suits Watch Podcast - Stitcher Studios
Call Her Daddy - Unwell Prod. / SiriusXM
Who Shat on the Floor at My Wedding? - Indie
Talking to the Who Shat team, they saw a spike in pod listens too, but don’t know where. A friend sent an IMGUR post with 10k views. That is most likely the culprit.
Stay safe, be kind, and do something nice to your neighbor…if you have one.
Listening with you,
Captain Ron
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