As I’ve mentioned in previous newsletters, I am not a woman. However, I know a lot of them, live with three of them and work with plenty more so I know which side my bread’s buttered. In fact, two thirds of Fresh Air’s staff are of the female variety so we’d literally be stuck without them.
The only challenge that comes with working with superb women is finding anything to say about IWD that doesn’t come across as supremely patronising. So I’m going to leave it here and say thank you to Michaela, Izzie, Annie, Clara, Beckie, Eva, Anouszka, Harriet, Sandra, Rachel, Jayne, Meera, Hannah, Sarah, Julie-Anna, Raj, Helen, Lynnike and Katharine. All Fresh Air women. All ace.
And if you’d like to listen to other brilliant women, take a listen to ‘What Makes Us Stronger‘
Netflix, Podcasts & Brand Content
There’s been a lot of talk about Netflix in the podcast world recently. According to ‘insiders’, they have been experimenting with creating their own podcasts with comedians in talk show style content. In this context, by podcasts we increasingly mean relatively cheap TV shows with people talking into over-sized microphones, but let’s go with it.
At its most basic, Netflix could open up the platform to existing video shows, becoming another platform where the big podcasts like Joe Rogan and Diary of a CEO can be found, pulling reliable audiences over from YouTube. They could create spin-offs with existing podcast stars who have loyal followings, or they could do limited early release deals in the same style as Wondery or Apple subscriptions. Or maybe they’ll create something entirely new that shakes the whole industry up once again. Honestly, podcasting never stands still.
For fans of branded content in its broader form, Netflix were also cited in this great piece by Bryan Elliott, explaining why brands need to take a leaf out of their book and ‘create YouTube channels and podcasts with series-style content that audiences look forward to’.
It’s everything we preach at Fresh Air every day – ‘YouTube and audio podcast series, produced for brands or media buys, are changing the game by offering IP that brands will own or act as an in-between option for media with huge upsides for seamless brand integration. The possibilities are endless and include ad spots, as well as cross-promotional opportunities with the show’s branded or private label merch being sold at retail, marketing assets that appear in-store at POS, talent engagement, testimonials, UGC, and much more.
For brands that are fearful about jumping in or don’t think they have the budget or bandwidth to invest in producing their own original series, I would suggest thinking again. There is a very real cost of not doing this. If you don’t have an organic content series strategy, you are most likely shackled to doing paid media to sell products in perpetuity.’
I could go on just copying and pasting this article all day long but you can read it yourself or listen to the podcast interview with Ryan Hashemi of Snowball.
Good News for Podcasts. Bad News for Humanity
Last Friday proved one thing: Inviting the heroic president of a country that’s been fighting invaders for three years to your house, and then humiliating him in front of the TV cameras to please the evil dictator who’s got kompromat on you is good for podcast ratings.
Trump and Vance’s twisted pincer-movement on Zelenskyy last week prompted both ‘The Rest is Politics’ and ‘The Rest is Politics US’ to run live reaction shows on YouTube, which were then reposted in audio onto the podcast apps. Owner Goalhanger consequently clocked up over 2 million listens and views over just four days.
The line between live radio and podcasting is becoming increasingly blurred. The traditional strength of radio is, of course, its ability to react instantly to breaking news, and stations like 5Live have whole infrastructures built for those moments. I remember giving a presentation a week after the death of The Queen and saying that, of course, nobody heard about that and instinctively turned on a podcast. However, last Saturday morning, despite not listening to TRIP for quite a while, I definitely wondered what Rory and Alistair would make of the scenes in the White House, and had I known about the live stream I’d have been on it. These shows are increasingly reactive, and increasingly parking themselves on radio’s lawn. Warning: Listeners who want to stay optimistic about the future of the world may want to avoid this content.
While I’m on the subject, Linkedin can sometimes serve you up with harsh lessons. Two weeks ago, I posted a heartfelt message about the creeping legitimisation of Vladimir Putin by the Trump administration and pointed my followers to ‘The Big Steal’ – a podcast series that took 18 months to make, with forensic analysis of the Russian leader’s corrupt kleptocracy. I felt that my network may be keen to hear our work on this topic of global importance. The post got one like.
Two days later, I posted a photo of Richard – Director of Pressing Send on the Email – with the KitKat Chunky bouquet we bought for his birthday. The post has so far had 35 likes.
The Power of Branded Podcasts Webinar
Our friends at Sounds Profitable are holding a webinar next week to release the findings of their latest ‘The Power of Branded Podcasts’ survey. This is always brilliant research – looking at the podcast consumer and how they react to brand content and messages in audio. The main guest will be Andrea Marquez, Senior Producer and Host, Podcast Programming at Amazon exploring how strategy, audience engagement, storytelling contribute to brand success.
We’ll go the webinar and I’ll report back here, but if you fancy attending yourself (and why wouldn’t you?) you can sign up now.
Meghan is Back!
Hold the Front Page, and Shut the Front Door. Great news for all podcast fans! Meghan Sussex (for that is her name now) is coming back to podcasting. Only four years since she and Harry broke the existing podcasting model by accepting a reported $18 million from Spotify only to make one episode and then accidentally forget about it, and only three years since the release of her follow-up series ‘Archetypes’, in which Meghan almost definitely recorded some of the interviews herself, only 18 months after then leaving Spotify, and only one year since teaming up with a new production company, Meghan has sensationally announced that there might be a new series quite soon.
As People magazine says, Meghan signed with Lemonada Productions last February and started by giving her existing shows a radical new look – “the Archetypes artwork featured the same photo of Meghan but with pink lettering replacing the previous green and the addition of the Lemonada logo”. I’m sorry to say that there is currently no scheduled release date for the ‘thought-provoking and highly entertaining podcasts’ but when there is, this newsletter will be the first place you find out about it. Or maybe the second place.
Eva Higginbotham finds connection…
The New Yorker is a 100-year-old magazine that regularly publishes, amongst many other things, short stories. These days instead of sitting down to read them, I instead love to listen to the stories read aloud by the authors themselves. There’s something special about hearing the words read by the people who wrote them, imbued with the original meaning and flow of the writers’ intent. It’s not something I listen to religiously; perhaps once a fortnight I’ll scroll through the extensive back catalogue and choose a story with a title that speaks to me. I love that I’m transported to little pockets of imaginary time and place, and I’ve rarely not come away with a sense of connection and thoughtfulness that well-written fiction evokes so well. A lovely podcast to lose yourself in, when you feel the need to get lost.
Elementary, my dear Izzie Clarke…
Okay, so these stories aren’t new. But they are great.
Narrated by Hugh Bonneville, these quick episodes are brilliant escapism for those that don’t have time to sit and read Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s epic archive of Sherlock stories. Every Thursday, there’s a new episode that throws you into the weird and wonderful world of 221B Baker Street. For me, Bonneville is a brilliant narrator. His timing and characterisation transports listeners to the smoky streets of London but it’s the subtle sound design that really brings this to life. The faint rustle of a horse drawn carriage. The patter of footsteps in pursuit of a suspect. It’s all very well placed, doesn’t drown out the narrator, and made me binge the entire series over a few days.
My only annoyance is that Noiser (the publisher) release the episodes in parts, so non-subscribers have to wait a full week for the next installment. But kudos to them. It’s clearly a model that works because I’ve never been so close to subscribing to a podcast before.
What we’ve been listening to this week
The Bends.
It’s not often you properly listen to anything these days, especially music. We put our favourite songs on in the car and sing along, or talk to someone else while it’s on. The artistry that goes into a producing a published music track is so complex, and an mp3 so compressed, that we hardly ever fully appreciate it the original work. So how about listening to music in high fidelity in the dark, in silence. No talking, no singing, just listening. How about a full album? On amazing speakers?
How about one of the greatest albums in music history by one of the greatest bands in music history?
What I’m getting at is that for the next two Wednesdays you can go to The Pheonix Arts Club in Soho and listen to Radiohead’s The Bends, uncompressed through a 14 speaker system. Pitchback Playback is apparently a thing all over the world, and I think this is a terrific idea.
What we’ve been doing this week
Discussing the Waffcano
The Fresh Air team all love food. Of this, I am certain. We can fill whole zoom calls with discussions about favourite snacks, crisp sandwiches, whether rocket is nice or not, and a lot more because we’re proper classy. Even better, we’ve recently been developing an exciting food-related project so we’re technically working while discussing food.
During one of these conversations yesterday, we discovered that Clara – Head of Gossip – has created her own recipe. More of a culinary masterpiece really, and perhaps even a new foodstuff altogether. It sounds extraordinary and I am delighted to share it with you. It’s called The Waffcano, and you’ll see why.
Once we’d discussed it on the Teams call for about 15 minutes, I begged Clara to share the recipe with me so that I could make our newsletter readers’ mouths water. She was initially reluctant because it’s her own creation which she was hoping would stay a lovingly-held secret in her family for generations, but then she sent it to me on Whatsapp:
First you’re gonna wanna start with a big, ol dirty hangover and then you’re going to persuade or maybe beg your housemate or partner to go to the shops to buy a ten pack of Birdseye potato waffles, couple cans Heinz beans, a big block of extra mature chedd’s and a sliced meat of your choosing depending on how fancy you’re feeling
Get 3/4 waffles per person in the toaster for two rounds on defrost
While they’re toasting, heat your beans and grate your cheese and prep your meat (you could be frying rashers or just peeling some Denny ham out the packet)
When your waffles have popped, carefully place one down on your plate, then add your meat and sprinkle a layer of cheese
Repeat waffle, meat, cheese layering steps until it meets your hunger levels, 4 waffs should do it.
Now for the fun part, starting atop the waffles, pour your beans all over so it looks like the waffs have erupted with beans. Don’t be shy! The beans heat the cheese so the entire dish melts together perfectly.
Someone get Clara her own cookery show, and make it quick.
