Summer is coming to a rapid end — even though it’s still blazing outside here in the Valley. And that means a lot of us will be heading out on that last summer road trip to escape the heat. Whether you’re escaping town or just getting back to your regular daily commute, we here at The Show thought it was time for some podcast recommendations.
But, you open that podcast app and where do you begin? Well, that conundrum is Arielle Nissenblatt’s specialty. Nissenblatt is the founder of the EarBuds Podcast Collective and host of the weekly podcast recommendation audio newsletter Feedback with EarBuds.
Full conversation
ARIELLE NISSENBLATT: Yeah, it can be extremely overwhelming to find podcasts to listen to. And that is actually the reason I got into the podcast space. I didn't have any experience on the microphone or as a producer or as a reporter or anything. So I was like, how can I insert myself into this industry? Ah, I can help people find their next favorite podcast to listen to.
So my whole thing is discovery, helping people find their next favorite listen. I started a podcast recommendation newsletter and then I discovered a wide world of other podcast recommendation newsletters. So it's a combination of reading those every time they come out and then noticing what's also trending on the podcast apps and also what's being cross promoted on other podcasts that I love. Those tend to be really great ways for me to discover podcasts.
LAUREN GILGER: OK. I like that. That's a, that's a solid start. So, thinking of what's popular in the podcasting industry right now, like I know it kind of goes through waves. But what are we looking at in summer in terms of genres? Like, are we still looking at a ton of true crime and people really being into that?
NISSENBLATT: Yes, that will never end. There is something about true crime that really gets people. But here's the, the hope that I feel is that I think while true crime is big, what really has been big the last two years and it continues to be a trend is true crime focused on scams and fraud so that there's no blood and death and gore, it's really just somebody got duped and that sucks.
GILGER: A slightly less doom and gloom. OK. Exactly. What about the conversational podcasts? Like, is that still king? Like, I mean, there's the Joe Rogan show and Call Her Daddy, like some of the really big ones, but that was like kind of the, the mode, right, like the format for a long time. Is that still true?
NISSENBLATT: It is definitely still true and it is what a lot of both listeners look for and advertisers look for because it's easy to keep those shows always on and always to be selling ads against them. They're the easiest to produce, they're the easiest to constantly have content for. Whereas if you have a six episode limited series, it's probably a really great story, but it will end after six episodes. And then what do you do with that whole new podcast on your podcast feed? You can drop other episodes into that feed, but you can't really do much with that original intellectual property.
GILGER: Yeah. And so anything you love along this line, like these often bleed into pop culture, kind of gossipy podcast. What do you, what are you listening to?
NISSENBLATT: So right now there's a podcast that is still dropping new episodes as we're recording this, it's called Tested. It's from NPR's Embedded and CBC and it's hosted by Rose Eveleth who used to host a podcast that was really amazing called Flash Forward Tested is about being tested for whether or not an athlete is female enough to compete in the Olympics under the female category. It is, the story is pretty nuts and I highly recommend it.
They focus on some specific people that have competed in the past and are no longer able to compete or who have decided to take drugs to lower their natural testosterone level.
GILGER: So that kind of bleeds into news too, right? Like there's some real reporting and journalism behind that. What about news podcasts? Like, how do they stack up to the more fun ones that we all love to listen to?
NISSENBLATT: News podcasts are huge right now. I actually, when it was announced that Biden was dropping out of the race and immediately I tweeted something like Happy Emergency Podcast, recording to anybody who participates because you just know that all the news podcasts had to jump on and record an update to their latest politically minded rant that they went on.
And yeah, they're huge. There are always a lot of podcasts that pop up during the election season that maybe just run for a few months and then stop. The New York Times has a podcast called the Run-Up with Astead Herndon, which is really great and is ramping up content as we get closer to November. I am somebody who listens to like six to seven news pods every day. Sometimes they're long, sometimes they're short.
So I wake up every day and I listen to the Daily Zeitgeist. It's actually twice a day. It's morning and afternoon, about an hour each. I listen to Up First from NPR, I listen to NYC Now because I'm based in New York City. It's three times a day, five minutes each. Just what's going on in New York and the implications for the broader world. I always listen to Today Explained from Vox and I'll leave it at that. There's more, but that's enough. That's enough. That's enough.
GILGER: Many, I recognize there are some, we air on our station. I have to ask you about family friendly podcasts. Like even podcasts hosted by kids. I have little kids and I've been looking for these and they're harder to find, I think than they should be. But tell me where to go.
NISSENBLATT: The Ten News is great. It's a podcast that is co-hosted by kids and adults and it is quick and it is a few times a week and they focus on tough topics, but they explain it for kids and it's just a really great way for kids to hear themselves represented in the news.
GILGER: Yeah, I love that. OK. So new shows that you're into different topics, different genres. Is there something that we might not be expecting or looking for that we should go and look for.
NISSENBLATT: Yes, a podcast that I resisted for a long time and then listened to in probably a weekend is called Inconceivable Truth. It's eight episodes. It's hosted by Matt Katz who is a reporter at WNYC. It is the story of how Matt Katz found out that he thought for his whole life that he was 100% Ashkenazi Jewish. And then he found out that he was only 50%. So it's a, it's a whole look into who his father actually is and he goes on this, this quest and then it turns out to be about the fertility industry and it is riveting.
GILGER: I love that. I wanna, I wanna listen right now. OK, let me ask you a broad question before we let you go like about the industry itself because you're clearly so plugged in. Like a lot of the headlines for a long time now have been that the podcasting industry is like imploding. Like there aren't jobs left that shows are being canceled, networks are falling. Like, what does that look like? Are we past that?
NISSENBLATT: There was an article that came out about two weeks ago from Ashley Carman, who is a writer at Bloomberg who covers the podcast and music industries talking about how we are finally on the upswing. I have been lucky to be employed for this downturn. I'm very grateful for that because I work on the tech side of the podcast industry and it is true that the media side of things has definitely taken a loss. So has the advertising art of things. But there are independent podcasters who will continue to independently podcast and that fire cannot be stamped out.
GILGER: OK. OK. And then my final question is more fun, right? I want to ask you about the summer road trip. It's kind of winding down summer. Everybody's going to go on their last road trip here. What is the kind of podcast you like to listen to if you're driving for a long time? And what would you recommend?
NISSENBLATT: I love this question. I recommend game shows. So I have two, one is called PodQuiz. There are over 1,000 episodes. They just celebrated their, I think 1007th episode. It’s hosted by this guy James Carter in the UK. It's 20 questions and it is family friendly and you answer out loud and then if you want to submit, you can submit and it's kind of on the honor system, but it's such a great listen. And I'm constantly speaking out loud to myself while I listen to it.
GILGER: That sounds like a, it's like a road trip game as well at the same time.
NISSENBLATT: Exactly. And the second game podcast is called The Puzzler from AJ Jacobs, who is the writer of My Year of Living Biblically and recently The Year of Living Constitutionally. And this is a daily podcast also very quick. It's usually five to seven minutes, AJ will have on a different person and he creates games specifically for that person that are still also exciting to the listener. And again, you can answer out loud and learn a few new things, mostly word games, but sometimes history and other things are weaved in there as well.
GILGER: That sounds great.
Our staff here at The Show loves podcasts, so we also put together a playlist for you of our favorite podcasts right now. From “History is Sexy” to “If Books Could Kill,” it’s a pretty great list. You can check it out on Spotify. Happy listening!
