PodMov Daily: Tuesday, December 15

Episode 337: Testing, One Two-sday

Building POC Mentorship Programs in Public Radio

With support from a Nieman Foundation fellowship, NPR’s Anjuli Sastry will develop a new audio project and create a guide to building mentorship programs for people of color within public radio. The It’s Been a Minute producer spoke with Current about her upcoming podcast, tentatively titled Where We Come From.

Sastry is focusing on immigrant communities of color “telling their personal stories in conversation with relatives, but also connected to a particular moment in history.” In August, a pilot segment aired about Mexican-American protests against the Vietnam War. Listeners responded, “Finally, this story is being told.”

Mentorship programs specifically for marginalized groups are much-needed, Sastry says. Her upcoming guide will help make them happen: “Given all of the stories this summer, given everything that’s going on in terms of the outcry for diversity and the need for […] things to be better for people of color across public radio.”

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A Misleading Mix of Paid Audio and RSS Feeds

Can audio apps simply help themselves to free podcasts? According to Podnews editor James Cridland, “A new audio app for children has removed podcasts from its paid service, after podcast creators complained they’d been added there without consent.” Cridland looks into the incident, which is far from isolated.

Storier FM, a paid audio app for children, launched last month. A podcaster who “had never allowed, agreed, signed any agreement with them” was surprised to find their show behind the app’s paywall. The same issue popped up last year with partially-paid apps Luminary and Majelan, which populated their libraries with open RSS feeds.

“The unwritten rule […] is that only if you’re an ordinary podcast app you should be fine using open, free RSS podcast feeds without asking,” Cridland explains. If you’re Castro or Pocket Casts, feeds are fair game. But for apps selling their own content on the same platform, creator permission needs to come first.

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Here's what else is going on:

• Good timing: Tomorrow at 4:00 pm ET, award-winning audio producer Andrew Parsons will host “Dates & Deadlines: Calendarizing Large Audio Projects.” The free webinar for narrative podcasters will focus on organizing your calendar and planning realistic deadlines. Registration required.

• Promo code: How should podcasters be using the Facebook pixel? In a new video, Mark Asquith (The Podcast Accelerator, Rebel Base Media) demystifies the analytics tool. Using clear, simple terms, Asquith explains “exactly about that little mite and what it can do for your marketing efforts.”

• Full color: All you need is a pair of headphones to visit The Metropolitan Museum of Art. In specially commissioned episodes of The Memory Palace, Nate DiMeo (2016–17 Artist in Residence/your editor’s absolute favorite podcaster) reveals exciting and moving stories of The American Wing.

• House rules: This Thursday at 6:30 pm CT, the advice podcast Don’t Ask Tig will hold its first virtual live show. Host and standup comedian Tig Notaro will join Judd Apatow in giving “questionable yet heartfelt” answers to attendee-submitted questions. Tickets are on a sliding scale from $12.