PodMov Daily: Thursday, August 8

Episode 18: Thursday in Podworld

iHeart: Stuff You Should Know (in 5 Languages)

Stuff You Should Know, one of the most popular podcasts in the world, will soon reach a much larger, more diverse audience. Last year, iHeartMedia bought SYSK‘s production studio, Stuff Media, for $55 million. iHeart has just announced that the hit show and five other podcasts “will be made available early next year in Spanish, Hindi, Portuguese, French and German.”

The courting of international audiences is hardly surprising given podcast business trends. With over a billion downloads in its 11-year run, SYSK covers a massive variety of universally fascinating subjects. According to hosts Josh Clark and Chuck Bryant, fan favorites include “episodes about Spam (the canned meat, not the internet variety), hangovers, tipping in restaurants, cheese, Barbie, and pinball.” What a wonderful world.

Earios: Podcasts By Women, For Everyone

Earios, the first all-female podcast network, has come a long way. In 2018, comedians Maria Blasucci and Amanda Lund set out to launch their own show. “When we pitched with TV, they’d say ‘Oh, two female leads? That’s not gonna happen,’” said Lund in an interview with Know Your Value (NBC). “There’s this feeling that they may not fully understand why this is funny and that you’re not being trusted.”

Rather than settle, the two decided to create Earios, an all-female podcast media network. Following a successful Kickstarter campaign and the participation of Margaret Cho, the network secured its own LA studio. Most of the podcasts are comedy-based, described by their creators as “funny, smart, inclusive shows for everyone.”

The name Earios “is meant to evoke ‘curio’ — because we like to imagine our slate of shows as a cabinet of curiosities,” the creators explain. Shows can be found on Apple, Stitcher, and Spotify.

Fable and Folly Productions: Independent Audio Fiction

Independent podcast groups and audio fiction often go hand in hand. Eli McIlveen and Sean Howard of Fable and Folly Productions started making podcasts in 2011. They went on to create Alba Salix, an award-winning “fairy-tale comedy for the ear,” among others. The two decided to make the network official to launch their first science fiction show, Civilized, earlier this year.

In an interview with Discover the Best Podcasts, Howard explained that they wanted to create “an entity that people can begin to associate with the quality we work so hard to achieve.” The most important question: “Can we leverage this entity to create more opportunities for ourselves and others within our industry?” Affirmative, Sean.

Fable and Folly Productions, home to the improvised, dark-comedy Civilized, represents a solidified vision of 8 creative years. McIlveen and Howard sum up the journey on their site: “[Alba Salix] was first recorded in a blanket stuffed dining room. Today, we are as likely to be found in our at-home third floor studio as we are in a high-end audio production facility.” An audio fiction victory well-deserved.

Happy Thursday, readers! Today’s pre-event Tweet is from Josh Miely, who’s pumped to meet other podcasters. He also posted a sweet #lunarfact from Neil Degrasse Tyson which clearly factored in to our decision.

Put yourselves out there, intrepid creators. We’re publishing a piece tomorrow all about preparing for — and getting the most out of — conferences, personally and professionally. We hope you’ll give it a read and be inspired to share what you care about.

Love,

Team PM

Here’s what else is going on:

• UK Politics Pod Event: October will be a “crunch month” for the UK. Taking on a potential Brexit exit date and more, Podcast Live: Politics will take place in London on 10/8. “Reconvening the cream of political podcasts” after a successful April event, PL will cover the political spectrum.

• Banish background noise: Audacity, the free, open-source audio recording and editing program, is used by many to polish files. This Podcast Host guide (with video!) shows how to quickly and easily use the Noise Reduction feature. Production power isn’t just for big-budget shows.

• Morning in Mongolia: A three-part audio series for NPR’s Morning Edition sends climate change reporter Emily Kwong to Mongolia. From the steppe to the Gobi Desert, Kwong, a photographer, and local fixers studied the land and people to create rich dispatches available in sound.

• Secure news tips: News organizations and journalists have had to adapt the ways they accept tips from “would-be whistleblowers.” Learn how media outlets use standalone tip pages to protect vulnerable sources. According to Poynter, “It’s not just a good thing to do, it’s the ethical thing to do.”