How did you get started in podcasting?
I worked for Npr at the time, and I put my hand up and said, “I'd like to do a podcast”. The way I see podcasting working well is take a a niche subject. You know what I mean by that. Yeah, and really go deep on that. A regular radio show, at least at the time had to kind of appeal to everyone. Maybe not everyone, but a sports show it to be for everyone who listens to sports in the Fredericton area and entertainment show it to be entertaining to all, but I could just do a podcast based at a very niche or niche interest, and so I chose gambling, and the very first NPR Podcast ever was called on gambling with Mike Pesca. It still exists somewhere.
Can you give a summary of the first episode of The Gist?
And I remember that David Letterman used to always talk about his band and say that even if the comedy isn't good. And even if my interviews aren't good. And let me interrupt and say those were always good, David letterman is famously self-deprecating.
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But he would say, you know we always have the band. The band is the go-to, and you'll always love what the band is putting out. So I thought the interviews would be that they'd be a go-to. They wouldn't rely on me having a good day or a bad day necessarily we'd always have the interview as the middle of the show.
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And then, very, very early in the beginning, I said, the end of the show should be like an OP. LED, or what we in public radio called a host piece, so it should go on for like 7 min. It should maybe have some tape. It could maybe have an argument. It could be anything I want it to be.
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I think I called it the Spiel from the very first episode, and then the top of the show should be that's gotten longer over time. But it should be a little bit of a introduction and something shorter in the news. So i'm going to look up who my first guest was. The first show was Jad Abumrad of radio lab interviewing me. I'm pretty sure that was the first show ever. Yeah.
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And the format's been the same ever since, except I interview people instead of they interview me.
Who is the best guest you've had on the show?
When I restarted the show I had Jordan Klepper and John Kasich on. He's a former governor of Ohio. Jordan Klepper is a former daily show correspondent, and they weren't the best guests I ever had. They were really good guests, but I do remember writing a note to my wife because she really helped me get the show back up and running. And I said, Thank you, honey. This is exactly why I do the show. It's just a typically wonderful conversation with those 2 guys. So I definitely loved talking to them.
You know, some of the guests surprised me. I loved talking to Ralph Nader. That was really good.
Did you start the podcast alone, or did you already have a couple of people helping you start it?
I had. I had one producer, and her name was Andrea, and that was it. It was the 2 of us, and then a couple of years into it we realized it was way too hard to do it to one producer. So then, since then we've been doing it with 2 producers.
How many people would you say are ideal for a podcast team, and what roles?
Well, if it's a one host show and it's weekly, you could definitely do it with one producer. I think most podcasts are one conversation. It goes for about an hour, and the producer sets it up, and maybe does some editing that could be done in that way. If it’s a daily show, I wouldn't suggest doing it with as few as 2 people.
Do you have any advice for someone who wants to start a podcast?
Do it, I would say, do it because you like it.
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Don't expect anyone to listen. Don't get dismayed if you get few listeners. If you get a couple listeners, even ones you don't know, Revel in that. And when you start to do it, think of it as an exercise that you're doing for the reps. Listen back, make sure you get better self critique. Ask people who are your biggest for their critiques, and then, either grow the podcast that you started, or just use it as a good learning opportunity, like the first band that you start.
You shouldn't think that they're going to have a hit record. I'm sure everyone hopes for that, but you know you'll just know you'll cycle through a couple of bands and learn how to be in a band, or how to play music along the way. And that's like being that's like podcasting.
What were your listener numbers before and after leaving Slate? Have you recovered most of your listeners?
I would say, I've recovered about 75 to 80%. I actually probably am not allowed to talk in overall specifics, but because we're a daily show a lot of times. You'll hear people say we get, You know, a 1 million listeners a week, or well, I don't know if they'll say that we get a 1 million listeners a month. I mean, we do that.
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We do that easily, but we don't brag because it's every day. So we get tens of thousands a day.
In your opinion, what is the best episode of The Gist?
​Don't know what the best episode was, I could think of that. It would be one, I mean ideally, it would be one with a really good interview and a spiel that says something new and funny, and the part at the top of the show that's efficient, and also gives a listener a decent little morsel of information. Sometimes when I do when I do a good show, I say, well, the best thing that I say to myself is, you know, I said exactly what I wanted to say.
How does a podcast earn income?
Advertising is the main way, so depending on how many listeners you have advertisers will pay you $25, $20, $10 some amount of money per 1,000 listeners. So we got to have at least 1,000, and you run ads just like a TV show, just like any advertising supported medium.
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Other ways that podcasts make money are through subscriptions. People who want extra content, or some of the content isn't given away to everyone, so you can charge for a subscription to the show a premium service.
What, in your opinion, is the best podcasting platform to work with?
I listen to Pocket Casts. They're really good. I like to listen to when you listen. What speed do you listen to? I usually set it to 2.3, which is fast. In fact, the reason I like Pocket Casts is the fastest you could listen in apple Podcast is double speed, so I listen to it in more than double speed, and then I set it to. There's a setting where you could take away silences.