Servant of Pod is coming to an end, and since this is the final episode, we figured we’d close out the show the same way we began: in a pandemic. (Kidding, but not really.) To send off the podcast, Nick is joined by The Verge’s Ashley Carman to build a (very) brief picture of where the podcast world is at the outset of 2021. This program is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people....
Mar 24, 2021•31 min•Season 1Ep. 42
Writer , podcaster , and cultural critic Sarah Marshall has a distinct expertise: diving deep into the messy backstories of widely known subjects that are often overlooked in their elemental details. This week, Nick speaks with Marshall about the way she approaches her topics, her various projects, and the larger enterprise of sitting, listening, and forging an emotional connection with larger than life figures. This program is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasti...
Mar 17, 2021•29 min•Season 1Ep. 42
Some call it “guilty pleasure,” some call it trash, but whatever description you use, you can’t deny that reality television is now firmly baked into the firmament of American reality. The relationship between the genre and podcasting is also increasingly felt, as more reality stars are starting their own shows — and more podcasts are affecting what’s happening on the screen. This week, Nick speaks with Mariah Smith, a reality TV expert and the host of Spectacle , a...
Mar 10, 2021•24 min•Season 1Ep. 41
True crime podcasts are some of the most popular and profitable shows being made, despite (or perhaps because of) its occasional ethical queasiness. This week: a roundtable discussion with Crime Writers On …’s Rebecca Lavoie and WAMU’s Jonquilyn Hill about the appeal, pitfalls, and opportunities of the genre. They also talk about Hill’s new project, Through the Cracks , which both draws from — and challenges — the fundamental true crime mechanics. This progra...
Mar 03, 2021•31 min•Season 1Ep. 40
The Podcast Producer: by and large, it is the atomic unit of labor in the podcast business, and it’s a role that means and involves many, many things depending on the specific situation. This week: a roundtable discussion with Chiquita Channel Paschal and Emmanuel Dzotsi about what it means to be a producer, the path to becoming a full-time producer these days, and the changes they’d make if they ruled the industry. This program is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public ...
Feb 24, 2021•29 min•Season 1Ep. 39
The Brothers McElroy — Travis, Justin, Griffin — are among the most prolific creators you’ll find in this community. Since launching the wildly popular My Brother, My Brother, and Me in 2010, the brothers have gone on to create an entire universe of McElroy-affiliated podcasts: The Adventure Zone , Schmanners , ‘Til Death Do Us Blart , and Sawbones , among them. This week, Nick talks to just one of them, Travis, about the nature of their popularity, what it’s like t...
Feb 17, 2021•27 min•Season 1Ep. 38
It’s Been a Minute with Sam Sanders always feels as much of a surprise as it does a gift. Originally developed as a replacement for the time slot previously occupied by Car Talk , the podcast has emerged to become an endlessly interesting take on the generalist news magazine show, seamlessly tying together a blend of news, interviews, and cultural analysis that are routed through Sanders’ own universe of interests. This week, Nick talks to Sanders about his path to the mic, how he th...
Feb 10, 2021•25 min•Season 1Ep. 37
It’s been a little more than six years since Serial made its debut and became one of the most successful and influential podcasts in the history of the medium. Since then, so much has been said and written about that first season, which continues to carry a deep legacy not just for the nature of its phenomenon, but for how many people in podcasting feel about that phenomenon. This week, Nick is joined by the New Yorker’s Sarah Larson to unpack the long tail of Serial , and how it con...
Feb 03, 2021•27 min•Season 1Ep. 36
Selena Quintanilla is a cultural icon for many, but for Maria Garcia, she's much more than that. For Maria, who was raised in El Paso, Texas, and lived and worked on the border for years, Selena was a figure that helped her — and many other young girls and women like her — find a place in a world where they didn't feel like they belonged. This week, Nick speaks with Maria about Anything for Selena , her new series from WBUR and Futuro Studios, which revisits the legacy of Selena, wit...
Jan 27, 2021•28 min•Season 1Ep. 35
Why did the mullet become a thing? Why did everybody go crazy over Cabbage Patch dolls? And why would anybody ever go on a reality TV show? These are the typical questions you'd find asked in Slate's Decoder Ring , one for the smartest podcasts out there and one that more people should be checking out. In each episode, host Willa Paskin , usually the TV critic for Slate, picks up a different cultural object — a word, a phenomenon, a moment, a device — and subjects it to a simple ques...
Jan 20, 2021•25 min•Season 1Ep. 34
Crooked Media was founded by a group of former Obama staffers in the wake of Trump’s surprise win in the 2016 presidential election. Over the next four years, the media company built a strong listenership by essentially serving as a focal point for a certain kind of progressive voter that stands in opposition to the Trump presidency. Now that the United States is due to be led by Democrats, the obvious question abounds: what does this mean for Crooked Media? Nick talks to Tanya Somana...
Jan 13, 2021•26 min•Season 1Ep. 33
As they say: new year, new you... Or is it? In time for the expected flood of New Year's resolutions, Nick talks to Jolenta Greenberg and Kristen Meinzer of By The Book , a fun reality-ish podcast that features the two hosts documenting their attempts to live by a different self-help book, down to the letter, every episode. Just how valuable are these books, anyway? And who are the people that write them? Have any of these books actually been life-changing? This program is made possible in part ...
Jan 06, 2021•23 min•Season 1Ep. 32
Forget doomsday prepping – are there podcasts that could help us through the end of the world? In this episode, Nick speaks with two women grappling with this topic in very different ways. First, Amy Westervelt , creator of Drilled and the Critical Frequency podcast network, tells Nick about her work as a climate crisis reporter and how she battles rampant misinformation campaigns in order to inform her audience in a direct and entertaining way. Then Nick chats with Sophie Townsend , whose...
Dec 30, 2020•28 min•Season 1Ep. 31
We’re taking Christmas week off, but we didn’t want to leave you out in the cold. Caroline Crampton joins Nick to talk about one-off podcasts that they wish would consider second seasons. This program is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.
Dec 23, 2020•14 min•Season 1Ep. 30
The worlds of business, entrepreneurship, and startups can be wicked in what they don’t say about how their culture can negatively impact the mental health of their participants. In The Anxious Achiever , a podcast with Harvard Business Review , Morra Aarons-Mele takes that gap to task, using each episode to deliver a different conversation that seeks to bring realities about mental health in the business world to light. In this week’s episode, Nick talks to Morra about why she start...
Dec 16, 2020•28 min•Season 1Ep. 29
It’s that time of year when the world is flooded with “best of” lists...so how about one more? Nick welcomes Sarah Larson , a staff writer at The New Yorker who writes about podcasts in her column Podcast Dept . and New Hampshire Public Radio’s Rebecca Lavoie , co-host of Crime Writers On to share their favorites – and not-so-favorites – of 2020. Floodlines Wind Of Change Lost Notes:1980 Unfinished: Short Creek Nice White Parents My Year In Mensa American Reha...
Dec 09, 2020•36 min•Season 1Ep. 28
It's been a year of protest, not just in America but around the world. In Chile, citizens have spent well over the past twelve months — before the pandemic, and through it — demonstrating to demand change to their national constitution, originally established by the dictator Augusto Pinochet thirty years ago. It’s in this environment that Las Raras , a Spanish-language narrative podcast telling stories of freedom and liberation, launched its latest season, which in part focuses...
Dec 02, 2020•25 min•Season 1Ep. 27
At the start of the pandemic lockdown, Samin Nosrat and Hrishikesh Hirway decided to collaborate on a four-episode podcast project to help people figure what to do with all the beans (among other foodstuffs) they bought in bulk to prepare for the unpredictabilities ahead. Almost a year later, they're still making new episodes, and thank goodness for Home Cooking : fun, joyful, and genuinely informative, the podcast turned out to be the best pop-up creation to come out of this moment. In this wee...
Nov 25, 2020•27 min•Season 1Ep. 26
In 2014, Lauren Shippen was an aspiring actor in Los Angeles: taking classes, booking intermittent gigs, waiting tables, the like. Four years later, she ended up becoming one of the busiest people in podcasting, all on the strength of an independent fiction podcast she had made on her own time: The Bright Sessions . In this week’s episode, Nick talks to Lauren about her steadily rising career in entertainment, which spans multiple podcasts, a multi-project book deal, and maybe more. Servan...
Nov 18, 2020•27 min•Season 1Ep. 25
If you’ve spent any time thinking about the sprawling history of crime and politics in Providence, Rhode Island in recent years, it’s probably because you’re familiar with Crimetown ...or you’re from there. In this week’s episode, Nick speaks with Marc Smerling, the pioneer true crime documentarian who co-created Crimetown with Zac Stuart-Pontier, and whose wildly accomplished resume includes Capturing The Friedmans, Catfish, and The Jinx . Smerling’s latest p...
Nov 11, 2020•25 min•Season 1Ep. 24
What is Hurricane Katrina's long, complicated legacy? Nick speaks with Vann Newkirk II , the host and one of the creators of The Atlantic's Floodlines , which reflects on the Katrina crisis 15 years later. What do the federal responses to Katrina and Covid-19 have in common? Can the people of New Orleans ever really "recover" from the tragedy of Katrina? And how did the team make one of the best-sounding podcasts of the year? Servant of Pod sponsors include: Get a ONE HUNDRED DOLLAR advertising ...
Nov 04, 2020•29 min•Season 1Ep. 23
What makes a story…scary? You can cut this question a few different ways: through story structure, through sound design, through narrative mechanisms. In this week’s episode, Nick talks to Jeffrey Cranor , the co-creator of Welcome to Night Vale and co-writer of Within the Wires , about the ins and outs of building a scary, spooky, or creepy podcast experience. The episode also features notes from some great spooky pod creators — Unwell , Mabel , Here Be Monsters , Archive 81 ...
Oct 28, 2020•30 min•Season 1Ep. 22
The latest season of Lost Notes , KCRW’s anthology podcast unearthing great stories from the music world that are generally lost to time, is distinct in two ways: first, all of its narratives are pulled from the relatively unlikely year of 1980, and second, it’s curated and hosted by the poet, essayist, and critic Hanif Abdurraqib . The end result is utterly gorgeous. In this week’s episode, Nick talks to Abdurraqib about focusing on 1980, the nature of legacy and fandom, and h...
Oct 21, 2020•26 min•Season 1Ep. 21
Kara Swisher is a journalism powerhouse known for cutting through the nonsense talking points and asking the tough questions to some of the most powerful people on the planet. She’s been doing this for nearly 30 years, and after launching two successful podcasts – Recode Decode and Pivot with Scott Galloway – she’s taking on her third: Sway with New York Times Opinion. In this week’s episode, Nick talks to Swisher about her new show’s focus &...
Oct 14, 2020•25 min•Season 1Ep. 20
Last month marked ten whole years of 99% Invisible , Roman Mars’ podcast about design, architecture, and things that quietly shape our world. That’s a long time to be making the same show, even if it’s one that’s recognized and beloved by millions. On this episode, Nick talks to Mars about the origins of 99% Invisible, the grind of making a weekly show for a decade, and how he thinks about the legacy of the podcast, and himself. They also talk about the 99% Invisible book...
Oct 07, 2020•28 min•Season 1Ep. 19
Nick offers a pair of podcast picks this week. You’re Wrong About and The Ringer’s The Cam Chronicles . Servant of Pod sponsors include: Learn more about podcast attribution at podsights.com UCLA Extension Fall Quarter starts September 28. Enroll now a t https://www.uclaextension.ed u/...
Sep 30, 2020•5 min•Season 1Ep. 18
In these really rough times — and things sure do seem to get rougher by the day — it’s important to take care of yourself. However, the concept of “self-care” has become an increasingly complicated one in recent years, as it’s drifted further into the territory of rampant consumerism and corporate branding. Sometimes, what's needed is a really good guide that helps you find the right balance with retail therapy; to engage with it in a way that actually feels g...
Sep 23, 2020•28 min•Season 1Ep. 17
Gretchen Rubin’s been keeping it positive, despite the circumstances. Then again, that’s probably what you’d expect from one of the most prominent voices on the subject of happiness. Rubin is the best-selling author behind books like “The Happiness Project” and “The Four Tendencies,” and she has the distinction of being one of the earliest author-to-podcaster crossovers in the business with her podcast, Happier with Gretchen Rubin , launching back in 201...
Sep 16, 2020•23 min•Season 1Ep. 16
Chenjerai Kumanyika is a man of many roles: academic, artist, organizer, journalist. He’s also a maker of podcasts, most notable for his work as the co-host of the Peabody award-winning Uncivil along with two acclaimed seasons of Scene on Radio , “Seeing White” and “The Land That Has Never Been Yet.” All three projects are united by a radical sensibility: to fundamentally rethink a core aspect of American society. This week, Nick talks to Chenjerai about how —...
Sep 09, 2020•22 min•Season 1Ep. 15
Paul Bae is one of the more prominent creators of fiction podcasts. Since 2015, he co-created The Black Tapes (with Terry Miles), created the anthology series The Big Loop , directed a podcast project from Marvel , and has two shows in development for Spotify. Paul is also part of a growing cadre of podcast creators that’s finding work in Hollywood, with a few television opportunities bubbling up on the horizon. A lot is happening for him, and he’s come a long way to get to this poin...
Sep 02, 2020•24 min•Season 1Ep. 14
