Servant of Pod with Nick Quah

Latest Episodes:

Richard’s Famous Food Podcast Aug 26, 2020

Show notes

Richard’s Famous Food Podcast is pretty hard to describe. It’s technically a podcast that deals in food documentaries, but it’s also a cartoonish acid trip that rarely follows a straight line. Genuinely one of the most bizarre things you’ll ever hear, the show is also distinct for the fact that it’s all the creation of one person: Richard Parks III, a food writer, documentarian, filmmaker, and audio producer. This week, Nick asks Parks to walk through a single episode of the show – “Cornichon’s Quest” – as a way to figure out how the podcast works.

A Woman’s Smile

Have You Heard George’s Podcast?

Servant of Pod sponsors include:

Raycon - get 15-percent off your order at buyraycon.com/servant

Visit my exclusive link ExpressVPN.com/SERVANT and you can get an extra 3 months FREE on a one-year package.

UCLA Extension Fall Quarter starts September 28. Enroll now at https://www.uclaextension.edu/

ESPN Daily: Sports Coverage Without the Sports Aug 19, 2020

Show notes

College football and Major League Baseball are hanging by a thread. A Floridian bubble is home to multiple sports leagues, all playing out experimental seasons. Stadiums and arenas are largely empty, filled in with artificial crowd noises and, in some cases, papered over with digital fans. Persisting within a pandemic, the sports world has never been stranger. So what is it like to make a daily sports podcast? This week, Nick spoke with Pablo Torre and Eve Troeh, the host and senior editorial producer of ESPN Daily, about the delicate balance involved in sports coverage during a most irregular time.

Servant of Pod sponsors include:

Raycon - get 15-percent off your order at buyraycon.com/servant

Visit my exclusive link ExpressVPN.com/SERVANT and you can get an extra 3 months FREE on a one-year package.

UCLA Extension Fall Quarter starts September 28. Enroll now at https://www.uclaextension.edu/

A Brief Peek at Audio Erotica Aug 12, 2020

Show notes

Here’s something a little different. There’s this somewhat parodic but also very real assertion that pornography tends to be at the forefront of new technologies: high-speed internet video, virtual reality, that kind of thing. Podcasting isn’t a new technology at all, of course, but we were interested in the question: how does pornography — and erotica, which is different but related — intersect with the current boom in on-demand audio? This week, Nick spoke with three guests who come at this question from different angles: Caroline Spiegel, the CEO of Quinn, an audio erotica startup; Alex Klein, a representative from Pornhub, and Girl on the Net, an independent creator.

Raycon - get 15-percent off your order at buyraycon.com/servant
Learn more about podcast attribution at podsights.com
Visit my exclusive link ExpressVPN.com/SERVANT and you can get an extra 3 months FREE on a one-year
package.

UCLA Extension Fall Quarter starts September 28. Enroll now at https://www.uclaextension.edu/

What Does a Podcast Editor Do? Aug 05, 2020

Show notes

The job of a podcast editor can be hard to efficiently explain, because they do many little things in the service of one big thing: to make the show better for more people. They think about structure, emphasize tension, tighten language, and consider how the presentation of the story comes across to different types of people. Podcast editors — particularly for narrative nonfiction shows — used to be really hard to find, but this has changed a little bit over the past few years as the podcast industry grew in complexity. Nick talks with Catherine Saint Louis, who works at Neon Hum Media, about the role of the podcast editor, how she became one, and its increasing importance to the business.

This Land

Murder on the Towpath

Bear Brook

Servant of Pod sponsors include:

Raycon - get 15-percent off your order at buyraycon.com/servant

Learn more about podcast attribution at podsights.com

Visit my exclusive link ExpressVPN.com/SERVANT and you can get an extra 3 months FREE on a one-year package.

Jody Avirgan: The Ghosts of the 2016 Elections Jul 29, 2020

Show notes

The 2016 presidential election cycle left a deep mark on the podcast world. Few know this better than Jody Avirgan, who produced the popular FiveThirtyEight podcast through that cycle. Though he’s sitting the 2020 cycle out, opting instead to make This Day In Esoteric Political History with the Radiotopia network, Avirgan still has a lot to say about the way podcasts cover the elections. In this episode, Nick and Jody look back on the 2016 politics podcast explosion.

Chapo Trap House

Keepin’ it 1600

Pod Save America

Slate Political Gabfest

Another Round

On The Media

California Love

Josh Levin: Slow Burn Jul 22, 2020

Show notes

Slate's Slow Burn is one of the best podcast documentary series around, with each season driven forward by a simple framework: what was it like to live through a prominent historical event? For its fourth season, the team examines the rise of David Duke in the late '80s and early '90s, centering its attention on a major recent effort by a white supremacist to gain formal political power. Nick talks with Josh Levin, who hosts the season, and for whom the story of David Duke is a personal one.

Floodlines

Kid’s Podcasts: A True Alternative to Screen Time? Jul 15, 2020

Show notes

The numbers for kid’s podcasts have risen noticeably during lockdown. Nick talks to Molly Bloom, of American Public Media’s Brains On and its spin-off Smash Boom Best, and Lindsay Patterson, co-creator of Tumble Media and co-chair of Kids Listen, about the genre’s appeal, history, and power. Plus, Kameel Stanley joins Nick to dive deeper into the recent industry conversations involving creators of color and intellectual property.

Podcasting can realize its promise — if it meets the challenge for creators of color

By the Book

This Land

Ten Percent Happier Podcast with Dan Harris

Audm

Hank Green on Big Money in Podcasting Jul 08, 2020

Show notes

As a veteran YouTuber, Hank Green is familiar with what happens when a quirky community starts seeing serious money, and grows up to become something else. This week, Nick talks to Green, who also makes podcasts, about whether he sees the same thing happening to podcasting.

Hank’s opinion piece for The Washington Post

Podcasts from Hank and John Green

Stitcher Sold Jul 07, 2020

Show notes

Last night, we learned that Stitcher is being sold to SiriusXM in what is now the largest podcast deal to date. Hot Pod’s UK writer Caroline Crampton joins Nick to talk through the ramifications of that news, plus what’s been going on at WNYC.

The New York Times: “WNYC Employees Demanded Diversity. They Got Another White Boss.”

Making Music for Podcasts Jul 01, 2020

Show notes

Composers Ramtin Arablouei of NPR and Gimlet’s Haley Shaw join Nick to talk about scoring podcasts, their favorite podcast music, and how they got where they are in this relatively new field. And to go over the week’s big news stories, Nick calls up Caroline Crampton, Hot Pod’s UK writer.

Anthems / Stitcher for sale? / Serial / The Daily / Run To Your Mama / Snap Judgement / S-Town / Drop Electric / Ted Radio Hour / Throughline / Mogul / The Ballad of Billy Balls / The Habitat / 10 Things That Scare Me / Moonface