🎉 A Special Announcement from the Editor

Presented by Cozy Critters

 🎉 An Announcement from Your Editor

Dear readers,

I don’t delve too much into my work outside of the newsletter. But today, I want to make an exception.

I’m excited to announce my new kids’ sleep podcast, Cozy Critters, just launched in collaboration with PRX. And parents, it’s completely ad-free!

This all started during the pandemic, after I fell asleep to the dulcet tones of Sir David Attenborough narrating Blue Planet…when an idea struck. What if a nature show was intended not only to teach kids about animals but also to help them fall asleep?

And so, Cozy Critters was born.

With a touch of whimsy and humor, the show’s goal was to create Blue Planet meets The Magic School Bus, helping ease parents’ stress during two daily hurdles: nap time and bedtime.

The gist of the show:

Make bedtime a favorite part of your child’s day with Cozy Critters. Join Dougie Pickles (played by yours truly) and his kitten co-host, Miss Meow Meow, on a calming bedtime adventure as they visit the world’s coziest critters. From yawning yaks to comfy frog families, kiddos can wind down with sleepy critters from around the world (and learn while they’re doing it). Experience relaxing soundscapes, stories, and animal insights that help kids and parents unwind for bedtime.

Early listeners have called the show “literal gold for parents.”

If this sounds like a show your kiddos would enjoy, you can listen and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. The first five episodes are available now, with a new episode available every Monday.

And now back to your regularly scheduled newsletter.

🎙️ Signal Flow: Lindsay Graham

Industry game changers and valiant minds from creative professions share their wisdom, adversities, and paths to innovation.

Lindsay Graham is the acclaimed host of the chart-topping American History Tellers podcast (not in any way the Senator from South Carolina!). Graham has made a name for himself as a leading voice in history content, with a hit series covering pivotal moments in American history, from the Revolutionary War to the Civil Rights Movement. His dynamic narration and fresh perspectives appeal to both history enthusiasts and casual listeners – even George Clooney has shouted the pod out as one of his favorites.

I've always said composing is the best/worst part. Because it's the last thing that comes together on a deadline, you can't guarantee inspiration. It's altogether a different exercise. It's so stressful, I don’t mind not doing it anymore. But you know, it's also the most rewarding part.

The reason I can host so many podcasts is that I'm making the time to do it. Also, I enjoy the strategic level of running the business of thinking up new shows, like our most recent American Criminal (which I’m not hosting) and running this business so it can grow and support additional resources we need.

In the beginning, Airship was just a place to house my production efforts. When American Scandal came around, about six or nine months later, I was able to make podcasting my full-time endeavor and hire my first employee. 

Hiring my first employee was absolutely frightening. Because I knew after having been an employee my entire life, the trust that this person was putting in me. We’re a small company, so I feel immense responsibility for the well-being and security of my employees.

One thing I’ve discovered with having nine employees is the efficiency curve is not linear. Back when we were just two or three employees, it was a pirate ship. We were sailing and we got stuff done. But every additional employee hour is not necessarily an equal amount of output. There are inefficiencies in running a business, any business you run into the things you didn't expect, like more people sometimes doesn't equal more output, although it's more comfortable. And so you have to say, “Okay, well, I just paid for comfort or paid for redundancy or paid for other advantages in the business.” As the complexity grows and grows, you have to manage it.

Some of the best listener feedback from American History Tellers we’ve gotten is from school-aged children or families or teachers, who express how they've learned or accessed history in a way that they hadn't before. Some of the most sweet and endearing comments come from parents who have found a way to bond with their children over the stories, questions, and conversations that arise from these shows.

American History Tellers is renowned as safe content for advertisers. We try very hard to remain there. It’s history, though, so it throws us some very difficult topics with unspeakable violence and gruesome detail. We don't revel in it, but we don't shy away from it either. We're just careful with our audience's sensibilities.

I never expected to be on this side of the microphone. I was always on the other side of the glass. When Hernan Lopez, Wondery’s founder, heard me read ads for a small podcast, he liked how I wrote ads and how I read ads. My voiceover career was born right there. I had no training, just raw instincts. I think perhaps being a musician is helpful, in that I am listening to the notes that I play as they come out of my mouth. It's a similar experience to improvising on an instrument. There are plenty of mistakes made, I do retakes all the time. But I listen very carefully and modulate to make sure the meaning is there. And I'll rewrite and edit scripts to make sure they fit my voice.

I look back on earlier episodes with fondness because they were the hardest. We’ve found our groove by now, but in the very beginning, no one knew what we were doing. We were just making it up. This ties into some of the business things, as I've grown in hosting more shows and producing more shows. I necessarily cannot be involved in the details of every single show. Back when I was, it was quite a different experience.

In the beginning, I was terrified of voicing different historical figures on the show. I don't have a theater background, I have an MBA in marketing. I’m not prepared for or educated to be a voice actor. But this was the request. I knew I couldn't convincingly put on character voices or accents. And so I had to develop very quickly a philosophy for these because it would be atrocious if I did this wrong. So I figured that everyone is aware of bedtime stories and campfire stories, in which there is a single narrator who gives you dialogue from other characters. So I had to drill down and think about what differentiates one character from another and kind of lean into the things I know I can do.

And so I developed the 3 P's: pace, pitch, and power. Pace and pitch are pretty easy. But power was very interesting. Because regardless of pitch or pace, someone will have power in the scene over the other person. It might be prestige, it might be position, but it's still power. And if you identify that, that drives the differentiation between the characters that will inform all of your choices.

I listen to host-read ads because I get the same copy as everyone else gets, and I'm critically interested in their approach to different ads.

I don’t listen to podcasts much, except for surveillance. As you can imagine, I am sitting in the studio working on a podcast eight to nine hours a day, five days a week, I drive home with my radio turned off.

But every once in a while, if I get a break from work, or I've got to travel, I fall in love with other podcasts again.

🎧 Podcast of the Week: Triple Click

Gamers, this one’s for you: Each week on Triple Click, video game experts Kirk Hamilton, Maddy Myers, and Jason Schreier journey into the fascinating world of games. They explore hot topics in video game news and culture, answer burning listener questions, debate the pros and cons of the biggest new games, and replay old classics together.

🥾 Further Exploration

Are you at Podcast Movement in DC this week? Want a chance to get your podcast, network, or groundbreaking service into The Noise Gate? Tap me on the shoulder at the conference or hit me up in the PM24 app.

ICYMI:

🏈 From TikTok Fame to NFL Podcast Host

😵‍💫 The Paradox of Perfection + Arielle Nissenblatt

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