Hey, don't monetize your apology - MARCH 2022 - PODKATT REVIEW
A personal blog post about podcast discovery and my podcast world.
** This is your sign that if your audience is screaming for an apology, don't monetize it. **
I’m not going to lie, March has been a non-stop month for me and my free-listening time seriously dwindled.
On the freelancing front, I’ve been focused on getting a ton of episodes wrapped up for clients before I head on vacation for two weeks to Madeira Island, Portugal in April (!!!!). At the same time, one of my amazing clients is about to have a baby (!!!!) so together we’ve been cranking out episodes that will go out while she’s on mat leave. In other exciting news, I’ve wrapped another season of Building Good with Vocal Fry Studios. Another season in the books working under Jay Cockburn and Katie Jensen (aka KJ), two of my absolute favourite humans to work with and learn from. This season, Zero by Fifty, was all about what a sustainable building and construction sector looks like and how we get there by 2050. It features a lot of important conversations that deserve some advocacy so please pop this one on your queue this month! KJ also created some super cool Instagram reels to help promote the show that feature the voice of yours truly, check it out and follow Vocal Fry on Instagram here…
Oh, and guess what? My pod partner in crime, Erin Hynes, was recently featured in the Toronto Star representing our podcast, Alpaca My Bags, sharing some hot tips for responsible travel in Ontario this summer. Don’t miss it!
HERE’S WHAT MY EARS LOVED THIS MONTH:
Wait to the bottom of this post for a full list of what was on my podcast roster!
By The Book
One of my ultimate comfort podcasts is back!
Actually, they’ve been back for a while now but I only just got a chance to start listening to their new season, where KRISTEN MEINZER and JOLENTA GREENBERG are living by self-help books recommended by their listeners. I love this podcast specifically for the hosts because Kristen and Jolenta tackle self-help books through an inherent intersectional feminist perspective, and they’re both cute and hilarious. Kristen experiences the world as an Asian-American woman, and Jolenta is facing a physical and emotional relationship with lupus. It means that self-help books aren’t always as helpful as they’re cracked up to be, can actually be detrimental to people’s wellbeing, and minimize very real systemic issues. Plus, I’m obsessed with their opening theme song.
Game of Roses
“In-depth coverage of the fastest growing professional sport in the world - The Bachelor.”
Okay, my guilty pleasure is reality TV and the Bachelor finale this March was the most ridiculous thing I've seen on reality TV in a long time. And the thing about this recent finale is that it had a lot of real life consequences for our Bachelor, Clayton, because he made some truly silly decisions [putting it lightly]. Clayton effectively took screwing over women on national TV to a whole new level. Bachelor nation was in an uproar. ANYWAY, the reason I lay all of this groundwork is because Game of Roses gives the stats around Bach contestants and breaks the fourth wall in a wonderful and hilarious way. They follow Instagram follower counts, sponsorship deals, production contracts and more, because The Bachelor is effectively pumping out hoards of wannabe influencers these days.
THE CUT - In Her Shoes with Hilary Duff:
The Cut has been a comfort pod of mine for years, but this episode recently stuck with me. As a kid, I could only watch Lizzie McGuire at my Gramma’s house because my parents didn’t have Family Channel. Usually I watched it with a homemade banana muffin in-hand and a 7-Up fizzing nearby. Hilary Duff gives me a special kind of nostalgia in that way, and so it was nice to hear her interview on The Cut talking about her life through the aughts and get real about her relationship with the Lizzie McGuire character.
PODKATT PAIN POINTS: A spot for things that hurt my feelings this month because frankly, it isn’t very hard to do that anyway…
This is your sign that if your audience is screaming for an apology, don't monetize it. Cause that was the breaking point for me.
This month I decided to break up with a podcast I’ve been a long time fan of because it was obvious that the hosts have lost touch with their audience. After releasing some “hot” takes on the show that offended a lot of their listeners, it all came to a head after they did some pretty shadey things surrounding a “live” show. I won’t get into it here, but if you live for the drama you can find everything on Reddit. Point being, a huge portion of their audience has been begging for some accountability for months across the internet. And finally we got an apology - and it wasn’t good. They decided to release it as a regular episode, over a hour long, with over 6 ad-reads, and it was filled with excuses. In fact, I was feeling so petty about it that I transcribed the episode to count the number of actual apologies they made and it was embarrassing. This podcast has exploded in popularity since about 2019, and it’s clear they can no longer commit to the level of care their audience deserves and it’s a real shame. So a quick note for podcasters: you’ll never be big enough to abandon your audience, because eventually you won’t have one.
WHAT WAS ON MY PODCAST QUEUE IN MARCH:
NEW TO MY EARS:
- Feedback with EarBuds
- The Red Nation Podcast
- The Anti-Girlboss Socialist Club
- Let’s Talk About Myths, Baby!
COMFORT PODS:
- The Cut
- By The Book
- Darts and Letters
- 99% Invisible
- Game of Roses
- Dear Shandy
FINALLY, SOME THINGS THAT KEPT A SMILE ON MY FACE IN MARCH:
- Dr. Pepper (as usual)
- I started practicing yoga again (mostly aimed at getting some movement back in my body)
- My partner started playing music again
- Starting to pack for our upcoming trip (I’m a lay-out-clothes-on-the-bed kinda gal)
- Skiing // Snowboarding with Pals we haven’t seen in two years
- This giant slushy I drank on the way to see them…
MORE TO COME AND HAPPY APRIL!
Kattie (@PodKatt)