Podcasts De Mayo 🎉
The Supremes...Court, Rocketman, Sobering Powers, +Just Added
Hey Poddy People,
Thank you to those that filled out the survey. Those emails that were dropped will get a small token of appreciation. There were some thoughtful responses for me to ponder. Additionally, I updated the survey and cut it in half for those who haven’t filled it out. Now it should take less than a minute. Please please please - I’m already making small changes with this current newsletter!
Updates:
For future new subscribers, I updated the automated “Welcome” Email to explain what we provide in the newsletter. This includes critic reviews, but also the wins, losses, and progress of building this podcast discovery startup. Welcome to the journey!
Initial Survey Findings: It’s interesting that 52% of you said you like the recommendations and 17% said you like the Just Added podcasts. But I see more click through’s via the Just Added podcasts vs. the recommendations. This is confusing to me at the moment. I may need clarification in a future survey. 70-80% are generally positive towards Swag/Swag points. I am going through a bunch of referral programs to get this going.
To the blog: 40% said that this update section is the least appealing, while 50% found it appealing. I can compromise now that I have the blog at my disposal. I will be able self-edit larger updates there and be more concise here.
Thank you for the feedback, especially that one person who sent this:
Analytics: Thanks to the Reddit post, we officially hit 123% Month over Month growth. This will most likely plateau or decrease slightly this month unless we have another viral moment. We just have to be ready for the next one.
Reviews: Are you a podcaster? Want your podcast reviewed? I made a blog post about it here. (See! The survey is already working!)
Website: We just added a Coming Soon section to the homepage! Clickable with the trailer as the audio sample! Thank you Chris for implementing. 🎥
Live Podcast: I went to see Therapy Gecko Live in LA last night. There is one thing I mentioned to Lyle (host), which is that I appreciated the way he “embraced the chaos [mess] because that’s where the good stuff lives.” Ya, I lifted the quote from Only Murders In The Building because I love it and believe it to be true…
Happy Mother’s Day!
On to my picks this week…
Podcast: The Experiment
Genre: Society
Publisher: The Atlantic | WNYC
Episode: In Between Pro-life and Pro-choice (Released 12/21/21)
The leak from the Supreme Court. The hearing of Roe v. Wade is in June. I don’t need to give you a refresher on the current abortion news, however, these three following episodes are great from a historical, societal, and personal experience point of view.
In December, The Experiment released an episode from the perspective of a pro-life worker that went through not one, but two stillbirths even though Doctors said the babies would have almost 0% of survival. The end is not entirely pro-choice, but a change of attitude did occur.
Episode: The Resurgence of the Abortion Underground (Released 4/22/22)
The second episode was just released before the Supreme Court leak. Talk about timing. This is more about the history of abortions with some old interviews. What surprised me off the top was in the 1800s they had something called “The Quickening". This is where the movement of the fetus was considered life (4-5 months in) vs. before that was considered potential life.
Thomas Adam Curry • Another Mag
“insightfully original storytelling.”
Podcast: Things Fell Apart
Genre: Society
Publisher: BBC
Episode: 1. 1000 Dolls
Lastly, Jon Ronson’s popular, Things Fell Apart.
About: A series of strange, unexpected human stories from the history of the culture wars. If you've ever yelled at someone on social media about, say, cancel culture or mask-wearing, then you are a soldier in the culture wars - those everyday battles for dominance between conflicting values.
The very first episode is about the origins of the Evangelical Pro-Life movement that started in the 70s/80s. Who started it and why they started it with the subsequent violence it produced. I remember listening to this a month ago thinking, oh great, a rich kid who just wanted to be a filmmaker gets daddy to fund an extreme movie and thus, starting a cultural war.
About Episode: “The ripples of Frank's creative ambitions will help trigger one of America's most violent culture wars around the legalization of abortion and Roe vs Wade.”
Mara Davis • Paste Magazine
“Jon Ronson does a brilliant job of rewinding topics…It’s a beautiful learning experience.”
Podcast: Elon Musk: The Evening Rocket
Genre: Society
Publisher: BBC | Pushkin
This is not an Elon Musk fanboy podcast. When Elon entered into the agreement to buy Twitter last week, this 2021 podcast hosted by Jill Lepore was trending up on our search. Naturally, I listened to and finished the podcast this past week. Some of the critic reviews summarized my thoughts nicely. It’s an easy listen.
Erik Jones • Hurt Your Brain
“This series continues to be an excellent inspection of Musk style capitalism, and this specifically details his dramatic public facing persona shift over the past 15 years.”
Chris Taylor • Mashable
"Personally, like Lepore's, my opinion of Musk has been on a downward trajectory for years...the podcast left me more sympathetic towards Musk when I finished it, which is quite an impressive feat. The scapegoating is strong with this one."
Ultimately, I am still in the gray area with Musk.
💡 PodLight Spotlight Recommendation:
Podcast: Sober Powered
Genre: Self-Improvement, Health & Wellness
Publisher: Gillian Tietz, MS
We met Gillian at Podcast Movement Evolutions conference in LA. I got the chance to listen to her podcast this week since I’ll be chatting with her on my next Twitter Spaces live on Monday. The podcast is super straightforward. If you’ve been struggling to stay sober from alcohol, Gillian will back it up with published studies with her own experience.
I'll be talking with Gillian about her podcast, personal connections to the subject matter, and her Instagram community growth.
Sarah Kate • Some Good Clean Fun
“great episodes that you can digest in 15 minutes, breaking down the chemical, psychological and emotional impacts of alcohol on your body and brain.”
Tangentially on social media, I’m picking up some steam with Instagram, so I encourage you to follow Great Pods there!
Just Added (shortened and moved up from feedback survey):
Marvel’s Squirrel Girl: The Unbeatable Radio Show! - Marvel, SiriusXM
The Hello Mr Burns Podcast - Perrie Kap
Crackdown - Cited Media
Lady Killers with Lucy Worsley - BBC
The Backstory with Andrew Neil - Tortoise Media
Dead End: A New Jersey Political Murder Mystery - WNYC
Coming Soon: GO TO THE HOMEPAGE AND CHECK IT OUT!
Stay safe, be empathetic, get vaxxed, and be kind!
Listening with you,
Captain Ron
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