PodMov Daily: Monday, December 30

Episode 112: PM Daily's Half-iversary Playlist

Guest Feature: Elsie Escobar on Meaningful Audio Legacy

Adapted from Episode 25: Monday, August 19

This essay by the talented Elsie Escobar was posted immediately after Podcast Movement 2019. The producer and co-host of The Feed: The Official Libsyn Podcast has been in the professional podcasting and development space for over a decade.

Specializing in indie podcasters’ “impact, influence, and power,” Escobar acts as a consultant to guide creation and strategy. Her reflective personal essay explores the value of voice recordings over time and what podcasting has meant to her life.

Since 2014, Escobar and Jessica Kupferman have led She Podcasts, an community built to “support and nurture as many female-lead podcasts as possible.” Their first event was October’s sold-out She Podcasts LIVE conference in Atlanta.

The POC in Audio Directory: A Growing Representation Resource

Adapted from Episode 60: Tuesday, October 8

In August we first reported on the POC in Audio directory, which serves as a hub for employers to find candidates of color while demanding respect and thoughtful practices.

The project stemmed from Phoebe Wang’s acceptance speech for Best New Artist at the 2018 Third Coast Awards. A full transcript and audio are available on Medium.

At the time, the curated database had approximately 500 individual profiles of “engineers, editors, hosts, producers and content strategists of color.”

Over the next two months the directory grew by 60%. An October article in Current reported that the directory had “over 800” profiles and that it “allows users to define searches with criteria such as city and job type.”

Thanks to Phoebe Wang and co-founding colleagues Adizah Eghan, Zakiya Gibbons, Aliya Pabani, and Afi Yellow-Duke for creating this important resource, and congratulations on its success.

Keynote Speaker Tom Webster on Rookies, Veterans, and Peak Effort

Adapted from Episode 23: Thursday, August 15

Tom Webster, Senior Vice President of Edison Research, delivered a fascinating keynote at Podcast Movement about projected listening behavior. “Rookies,” who have been into podcasts for 6 months or fewer, have markedly different habits than “veterans,” listeners of 3 years or more.

These groups often define the scope of “podcast” using different boundaries. They search for (or encounter) content in different ways, and to Webster the distinctions are essential. Qualitative research in the form of individual video testimonials complemented an all-new cut of Edison and Triton Digital’s Infinite Dial data.

Among the findings: The “Share of Ear,” or percentage of consumed spoken word content, had increased to 17% as of summer 2019 from just 8% in 2014. The question of ‘peak podcast’ put Webster in a “slough of despond,” a state with which we identify. He wisely stated, “We are only at peak podcast if we are at peak effort.”

Guest Interview: Lory Martinez on “Mija” and Studio Ochenta

Adapted from Episode 68: Friday, October 18

This fall, Studio Ochenta founder Lory Martinez launched Mija podcast, a fictionalized narrative of her Colombian family’s history. It’s a remarkable story on its own, but its translation style sets it apart: Martinez records each episode in English, Spanish, and French.

The Paris-based Ochenta is all about empowering podcast creators around the world. By design, its shows reflect “diversity of languages, voices and opinions.” We spoke to Martinez about the development of Mija, the challenges of cross-cultural translation, and the state of podcasting in France.

To accompany the interview, we suggest listening to an episode in a language you understand and one you may not. Martinez’s vision and passion come through each moment of the story. Mija since reached No. 1 on the Apple Podcast fiction charts in both Spain and France.

Guest Feature: Jenna Spinelle Speaks with Dirty John Creator Christopher Goffard

Adapted from Episode 91: Wednesday, November 20.

For this special guest feature, Penn State journalism professor Jenna Spinelle interviewed a podcasting heavy hitter. Spinelle, the host and producer of the Democracy Works podcast, had the opportunity to chat with Christopher Goffard, the creator of Wondery megahit Dirty John. Their conversation digs into his just-released show, Detective Trapp.

Goffard visited the Penn State campus to deliver a lecture,“10 Things I Learned From My First Podcast,” on November 13. “Making Dirty John pushed Goffard, a longtime print reporter, outside his comfort zone in the same way that writing his first book did,” Spinelle reports. “He embraced the challenge of doing something new and encouraged the students in the audience to do the same thing.”