Chapter 12: Voices From The Field

Georgia Kral

1 Chapter 12: Voices From The Field

Interviews with top podcasters

Georgia Kral

Chapter 12: Voices From The Field

In this chapter you will hear directly from experienced hosts and producers in the podcast industry.

Sean Rameswaram

Sean Rameswaram is the host of the Vox Media daily news podcast “Today, Explained.”

On “Today, Explained”

On the challenges of podcasting in a saturated environment:

On the day-to-day challenges:

On art and the power of podcasting:

On the competition for audience:

On podcast names:

On love for audio:

On audio history:

On “watching” podcasts:

Sachar Mathias

Sachar Mathias is a multimedia storyteller, editor, producer and sound designer.

Podcasting is firmly established as a popular way to tell stories. How do you keep it fresh?

Podcasting is a delivery system – i.e., it’s established as a popular way to deliver digital content to audiences – but as far as the contents of that file or the format of that content, there aren’t really any firm rules. You keep it fresh by leaning into that fact and experimenting with show formats, length, voicing, perspective, sound, sourcing, storytelling, engagement and all of the fun, creative things the inherent freedom of podcasting provides. I think there’s even a ton of opportunity to experiment with the delivery system itself to keep the idea of podcasting fresh, and have seen and heard a lot of innovative work in this direction, both from independent producers and from publishers who are constantly redefining what a podcast even “is.”

Many podcasts today are also streamed on video, how do you think that changes the experience—for both the creators and the audience?

There are very strong feelings about this throughout the industry. Audio is my first and truest love, but I have a background in film and tv too, so I think the introduction of video in podcasting is great. For audiences, it creates more opportunities for entry – some people would’ve never heard a podcast in their lives if they hadn’t watched one on YouTube – which I think is a good thing for the industry. For creators it raises the cost of production and can complicate production workflows, depending on the kind of show you make. For narrative shows, it’s almost impossible, but I’ve seen outrageously creative solutions and loved them. But I think the most interesting part of all of this is that the introduction of video foundationally interrogates what a podcast even is. I often joke that the difference between a video podcast and a tv talk show is that the mics are on stands and visible to the audience if it’s a podcast. Ultimately, the way people consume media these days, I think these delineations are increasingly unimportant. It’s all just content in need of an audience. I think podcasts, and especially audio-first podcasts, have a different relationship with their audiences than video and that audiences form different habits around audio-first content, and that that makes it really special.

What is the hardest part of podcasting, as either a host or a producer?

I think this depends a lot on the individual. For me, the hardest part of hosting a podcast is having to listen to your own voice, which is a thing I am loath to do. Outside of that, I’d say that all of the work a host has to do outside of hosting the show might be the hardest part. A host has to market the show, has to appear on other programs to extend its reach, has to perform at live shows, has to support marketing efforts on and offline, and in most cases has to voice ads to make the show financially sustainable. Also, while there are obviously podcast hosts whose only job is hosting a podcast, I’d say most hosts also have other jobs – whether it’s a totally separate source of income with its own set of responsibilities, or a separate set of hats they wear on the show they host, which can include producing, booking, editing, etc. depending on the production and is also hard to do if you have to jump in the host chair on top of that.

As a producer, there is no hardest part. It is specialized work and can be utterly grueling – finding a story that no one’s ever heard, finding a new way to tell a story that many people have, booking compelling interviews, doing a month’s worth of research and prep for that magical four seconds of tape, working with reticent interview subjects, having to manage the technical aspects of a production while you’re editorially producing it at the same time, editing hours of waveforms stacked on top of each other without getting lost in them… it’s all the hardest part but every single podcast producer I’ve ever met loves doing every part of it, which is how they ended up producing podcasts.

How important is the name?
Very! There are millions of podcasts so finding a name that hasn’t already been used, sets your show apart, fits within the character limits of most podcasting apps, conveys what the show is about and also piques the would-be listeners interest is super important.

When you’re working on a project, what are some tips for keeping it on track and focused?
Be outrageously organized. Develop a production workflow that’s consistent, efficient and repeatable, communicate constantly and transparently, establish file-naming conventions and file-management systems and stick to them. You want to be spending the bulk of your time coming up with ideas and working through edits and being creative and having fun – not reconnecting files, or wracking your brain trying to remember an email address you think you wrote down somewhere but has disappeared forever. And because podcast production is collaborative, having everyone understand the workflow and how the production is managed makes it a trillion times easier, and frees up more time and space for creative collaboration and boundary pushing.

What do you love about podcasting?
Everything. It’s weird and messy and broken and brilliant and terrible and great and exciting and boring and gross and gorgeous and is the best and the worst of times. I love it, all of it, and it constantly breaks my heart. That’s love though, yeah?

Podcasting has been heralded as a medium for and by the people- anyone can do it. Do you think of it as a democratizing, or even revolutionary, force in media?

Podcasting is still a relatively young field and an even younger industry, so time will tell how revolutionary it is. I think any media platform with self-publishing capability is definitively democratizing, but the podcast industry is like any media industry and subject to larger forces. It’s true that anyone can make a podcast and publish it, but it is unlikely that anyone can make a podcast, publish it and have it truly compete with a production built by a team of professionals and especially one that’s got marketing support, sales support, operational support, or is supported by a network or publisher. All of that support requires resources, and resources require capital, and capitalism is inherently undemocratic and averse to revolution.

So anyone can make a podcast, sure, but not everyone can make a podcast business. It’s hard to ignore the larger revolutions happening across media and entertainment right now, fueled by streaming models, AI, shifting audience habits, inflation and other factors, and I think podcasting is both part of them and particularly susceptible to them due to it’s relative age to say, the film and tv industries. That said, it’s a delivery system in which a product with low production value can appear in front of an audience directly next to a top-tier industry product that costs a ton of money to make, which is cool and unique. You can’t walk into a movie theater and choose between watching a Marvel movie and a YouTube video, for example, but you can open up your podcast app and listen to a Wondery show or an episode of Serial or two random people talking on one of their couches. I think that’s cool.

Sachar Mathias most recently served as the inaugural Executive Producer of Audio at TIME, building and overseeing the audio division on the TIME Studios team. Prior to TIME, Sachar was the Director of Content at Pushkin Industries and head of its Society & Culture department, and was the NY Emmy-winning Content Director of BRIC TV and founding Executive Producer of BRIC Radio, before that. Her work developing and producing media spans podcasting, film and tv, and has been highlighted by the DOC NYC, Santa Barbara, Sundance, Tribeca, and Big Sky International film festivals as well as the Signal Awards and HearSay Int’l Audio Festival. She served as an adjunct professor at the Barry R. Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema and holds a B.A. from Hampshire College in Amherst, MA.

Akilah Hughes

Akilah Hughes is a writer, comedian and podcast host based in Los Angeles. A Sundance Labs and USC MacArthur Foundation civics media fellow, she was the founding host of “What a Day,” the hit daily news podcast from Crooked Media. Her latest podcast, “Rebel Spirit” debuts from iHeart Radio September 2024.

On naming your podcast: