Latest / Stuff Mom Never Told You / SMNTY: Past, Present, and Future

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SMNTY: Past, Present, and Future · Stuff Mom Never Told You

0:05
Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha.
0:06
Speaker 2: I ho frome stuff. I never told you're protected by
0:08
Speaker 2: her radio.
0:18
Speaker 1: And today's episode is brought to you by my allergies,
0:22
Speaker 1: which has contributed once again to my sounding like one
0:26
Speaker 1: hundred year old grandma with severe emphasima. Honestly, I described
0:30
Speaker 1: it as this way to Christina and Annie, which is
0:33
Speaker 1: like it's a dying toad, which is what I imagine
0:35
Speaker 1: is like a loud, low squeal an annoying pitch like
0:42
Speaker 1: because it just sounds like a deflating balloon. But if
0:47
Speaker 1: that balloon had been smoking all his life.
0:53
Speaker 2: You also said like a boy going through puberty. So
0:55
Speaker 2: there's been a lot of fun descriptions.
0:58
Speaker 1: It changes every day, because it's change every day. Sometimes
1:01
Speaker 1: I'm like, it sounds fine, and then I keep going
1:04
Speaker 1: and then I start getting the crunching yeah back noises
1:10
Speaker 1: with some extra squeaks, and then my tone just drops.
1:14
Speaker 1: But with that, yeah, unfortunately, this is this episode. I apologize.
1:19
Speaker 1: I am drinking lots of tea, lots of strone tea,
1:23
Speaker 1: lots of throat coat. Doesn't seem to be helping too much.
1:29
Speaker 1: But hey, it's okay, we're here, so I thought we
1:31
Speaker 1: would take time, and essentially I'm gonna interview you Annie.
1:36
Speaker 1: But before we start, do you realize we're coming upon
1:39
Speaker 1: my seven year anniversary of the very first episode we
1:44
Speaker 1: did together, we released together.
1:47
Speaker 2: I do know that, and you know why. It's because
1:52
Speaker 2: you kind of officially started right before the pandemic and
1:57
Speaker 2: it has been six years since the pandemic. And I
2:00
Speaker 2: just said I had my quarantin anniversary, So yes, I
2:04
Speaker 2: didn't know, and that I had a moment of like, wow,
2:09
Speaker 2: we've been doing this for a minute together.
2:13
Speaker 1: So I guess even though we were the originators, we
2:17
Speaker 1: are the longest running hosts pair.
2:21
Speaker 2: I think so. Yeah, I think so.
2:24
Speaker 1: Because I think Kristen and Caroline, who were like the
2:27
Speaker 1: show runners, it was not quite there because Bridget and
2:32
Speaker 1: Emily came after you and Bridget six and then me
2:35
Speaker 1: and you. We're getting there. We're getting there. So happy anniversary,
2:42
Speaker 1: my friend. Happy anniversary with that, you have been in
2:46
Speaker 1: this industry a lot longer you've been. Honestly, you are
2:51
Speaker 1: a pioneer of podcasting. Now, I hate to tell you
2:55
Speaker 1: that that makes me nervous. It doesn't make you nervous. Yes, technically,
3:00
Speaker 1: if anyone was an expert it would be you.
3:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, in some ways, No.
3:07
Speaker 1: What do you mean in some ways? In all of
3:09
Speaker 1: the ways.
3:11
Speaker 2: I'd me, I think some things have changed.
3:15
Speaker 1: Oh sure, but again it still makes you an expert
3:18
Speaker 1: because you've seen those changes. We've been a part of
3:21
Speaker 1: those changes.
3:22
Speaker 2: That's true. We have seen some changes, for sure.
3:28
Speaker 1: So with that, yes, you are an expert, not just
3:30
Speaker 1: in some things, in all things podcasting you out like
3:34
Speaker 1: iheartslash house stuff works outside of NPR. Really was at
3:38
Speaker 1: the beginning of the helm in this conversation stuff you
3:41
Speaker 1: should know. At the very beginning, they went like all
3:45
Speaker 1: of this went from writing to blogs, the videos to
3:47
Speaker 1: all right, we're gonna do this podcast thing, and that's
3:50
Speaker 1: where they dug their hills in and this is where
3:53
Speaker 1: we are. So I thought we would take this opportunity
3:56
Speaker 1: to talk to the OG and just talk about some
4:01
Speaker 1: of the changes you've seen, some of the things that
4:03
Speaker 1: we are doing as Minty as well in this conversation.
4:07
Speaker 1: So my gravelly graspy really grows voice. I apologize, but
4:13
Speaker 1: we wouldn't give any more time to speak, I hope.
4:16
Speaker 1: So with that, let's address a few things. Let's do
4:19
Speaker 1: some housekeeping things. I feel like we need to do
4:21
Speaker 1: this at least once a year, if not more, because again,
4:23
Speaker 1: things do change quite often, and this year we've hit
4:28
Speaker 1: it with a bang. I mean, I feel like we've
4:30
Speaker 1: been running NonStop.
4:32
Speaker 2: Yeah. No, I always say something always comes up, and
4:38
Speaker 2: I'm surprised at how often that is true, even though
4:42
Speaker 2: it's something I tell myself all the time. So I'm
4:45
Speaker 2: always like, maybe next week won't be so busy. Maybe
4:50
Speaker 2: in a month from now things will die down. And then,
4:55
Speaker 2: like you get a random email and you realize that
4:59
Speaker 2: you were con wrong once again.
5:02
Speaker 1: As many as we publish, as many times as we have,
5:05
Speaker 1: we were working with a corporation like it's constant for sure,
5:10
Speaker 1: and yeah, we are trying to give us much good
5:12
Speaker 1: content for you without overwhelming you our listeners. So we've
5:16
Speaker 1: changed the format a little bit this season. Well there's
5:22
Speaker 1: no seasons with us, we're constant, but this year from
5:25
Speaker 1: now on, which is March nineteen, twenty twenty six, I
5:29
Speaker 1: didn't say that at the beginning. This is coming up
5:31
Speaker 1: on our again seven year anniversary of just doing an episode,
5:34
Speaker 1: because I didn't actually get hired full time till I
5:36
Speaker 1: think a year later.
5:37
Speaker 2: But I've been around, yes, as you plan, do you succeed?
5:43
Speaker 1: I went back and listened to that first episode. Man anyway,
5:48
Speaker 1: so Anie, can you kind of give us an update
5:51
Speaker 1: of what we are doing at this point?
5:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, so you might have noticed, but we've started running
5:59
Speaker 2: classics for the Monday Mini. This is both for our
6:03
Speaker 2: workload but also because we were worried about listener fatigue.
6:09
Speaker 2: And you can write in and let us know if
6:11
Speaker 2: you have an opinion one way or the other, but
6:15
Speaker 2: we are trying to or the spirit of the Monday
6:21
Speaker 2: Mini isn't going away. But if we're all honest with ourselves,
6:25
Speaker 2: the Monday Mini hadn't been a Mini in a long time.
6:29
Speaker 2: It was a full episode, and we kept trying to
6:34
Speaker 2: because the original idea is ten minutes or less because
6:37
Speaker 2: peep behind the curtains. If you get over ten minutes,
6:39
Speaker 2: that's when you get the second ad break. So we
6:42
Speaker 2: were trying to not sugar that for such a short episode,
6:48
Speaker 2: and they kept getting longer and longer. So the spirit
6:52
Speaker 2: lives on. In terms of the Monday Mini was originally
6:55
Speaker 2: meant to be kind of a really news timely type
7:00
Speaker 2: of thing, but I think we do that in plenty
7:02
Speaker 2: of our plenty of our episodes, but we're also bringing
7:08
Speaker 2: back some classics and trying to give them more context.
7:14
Speaker 2: So the problem is a lot of the times we
7:16
Speaker 2: bring back a classic this from four years ago, things
7:20
Speaker 2: have changed so drastically that it's not the easy lift
7:25
Speaker 2: a classic is supposed to be anymore. Suddenly it's like, oh,
7:29
Speaker 2: now I need to learn more about what's going on
7:31
Speaker 2: in France right now, which is what I'm doing for
7:33
Speaker 2: all classic I'm planning on bringing back soon. So it's
7:37
Speaker 2: it becomes like more research heavy than what was the
7:41
Speaker 2: original intent of a classic. So that is a thing
7:47
Speaker 2: we yes, we have once again run into a roadblock
7:54
Speaker 2: and bringing back Sex and the City on our Happy Hour,
8:00
Speaker 2: though we're trying to bring it back. We'll see how
8:03
Speaker 2: Samantha's voice is doing because we're supposed to record that
8:05
Speaker 2: on Tuesday. But never fear, we will continue on our
8:11
Speaker 2: Sex and the City journey. It just might be delayed
8:15
Speaker 2: once again. We'll see fiction. So this has been giving
8:19
Speaker 2: me a quandary. Long time listeners know there's an ongoing
8:25
Speaker 2: fiction segment that I love where we add in Christina
8:29
Speaker 2: ads and these amazing sound effects, and we read fiction
8:33
Speaker 2: that I've written. Occasionally, we read fiction from the public domain,
8:37
Speaker 2: which is always fun. So if you have any suggestions
8:41
Speaker 2: for that, let us know. I do already have this
8:46
Speaker 2: thing that I've written. It's been written, I wrote that
8:49
Speaker 2: forever ago. The problem is, as I said, it's kind
8:53
Speaker 2: of a like lost footage podcast kind of thing. So
8:59
Speaker 2: I just need to it's going to be an undertaking.
9:03
Speaker 2: And the last when we were doing Terminus, that was
9:06
Speaker 2: pretty straightforward. It was just like a story, a narrative,
9:13
Speaker 2: a linear narrative pretty much. And this has got a
9:16
Speaker 2: lot more elements. It's got like a lot of oh,
9:20
Speaker 2: here's this recording that you find, and oh here's this,
9:23
Speaker 2: and like different quality of audio and stuff like that.
9:27
Speaker 2: The funny thing is I recorded the first chapter for
9:29
Speaker 2: it probably two three years ago. I'm ready, like it's there.
9:34
Speaker 2: I just need to really nail down how it's going
9:39
Speaker 2: to sound and if I want to move more of
9:41
Speaker 2: the pieces to make it less linear, because it's kind
9:47
Speaker 2: of a mystery. But that is, it's there, and maybe
9:53
Speaker 2: I'll write something short in the meantime just to get
9:55
Speaker 2: back into the habit of it. But not forgotten. I mean,
10:02
Speaker 2: I speak for myself, but I love doing those I
10:04
Speaker 2: think they're really fine. Well, here's a strange update. So
10:15
Speaker 2: some of you might have heard of this or seen
10:17
Speaker 2: this associated with our company. iHeart, but it's this whole
10:24
Speaker 2: guaranteed human conversation. I mean, I'm human, Samantha is human
10:36
Speaker 2: as far as I know. It's one of those company
10:43
Speaker 2: things that I actually found about found out about I
10:49
Speaker 2: think pretty late, considering I work for said company. But yeah,
10:55
Speaker 2: they're really touting that this guaranteed human thing. I mean,
10:59
Speaker 2: I just I would hope you knew that. But you know,
11:05
Speaker 2: in this day and age, it's true. Who's to say.
11:10
Speaker 2: Who's to say? We're also getting pushed to use a signature,
11:14
Speaker 2: like an official company signature, which I'm not like necessarily
11:19
Speaker 2: opposed to, but I just haven't done and I don't know.
11:22
Speaker 2: There's just been a lot of these things coming up
11:24
Speaker 2: of like the company asking us to do stuff which
11:29
Speaker 2: speaking of that might potentially involve a cruise yes, which
11:38
Speaker 2: I have to say is giving me a lot of
11:44
Speaker 2: consternation and trying to to to write about it. But
11:51
Speaker 2: you know, just keep that in the back of your
11:55
Speaker 2: mind that could that could maybe happen. If you want
11:59
Speaker 2: to come come with Sminty at sea. And then yeah.
12:09
Speaker 2: We mentioned in a previous update that we had been
12:16
Speaker 2: some some podcasts and our network had been asked to
12:20
Speaker 2: do TV appearances and specifically with Netflix. There was a
12:25
Speaker 2: deal with Netflix, but I have not been asked for this.
12:32
Speaker 2: You were you were potentially going to appear on a
12:34
Speaker 2: show that did have that element. Did you do it?
12:38
Speaker 1: No, that may be happening in May. But because that
12:41
Speaker 1: was happening and originally I was supposed to be the
12:45
Speaker 1: first to ever be on Netflix, I said no. I
12:49
Speaker 1: was like, look, we need to reschedule because I can't
12:52
Speaker 1: be the first one to do this.
12:54
Speaker 2: With yeall, I think that was very fair of view.
12:58
Speaker 1: That's not happening right now.
13:00
Speaker 2: That was very fair of you. Well you report back
13:05
Speaker 2: because I don't think I'm going to be asked anytime soon,
13:08
Speaker 2: and I'm happy with that. I'm right happy to be there.
13:13
Speaker 1: As far as we know, Sminty has not been asked
13:17
Speaker 1: to do so we're going to try to fight against
13:19
Speaker 1: it for a while. Oh yeah, if ever asked no, thanks. Yeah,
13:27
Speaker 1: So that's kind of where we are. I think that
13:30
Speaker 1: maybe new ish or different or just updating. We're trying
13:35
Speaker 1: to maintain as we've been going as you can hear,
13:40
Speaker 1: not everything is working our way, including my voice. I
13:53
Speaker 1: thought we would also take a moment because again as
13:55
Speaker 1: our anniversary, that we would look at the past, and
13:58
Speaker 1: especially with Annie again with her expertise, and just kind
14:02
Speaker 1: of go with what you might remember or what your
14:05
Speaker 1: thoughts are today versus then if you can't remember, you're
14:09
Speaker 1: pretty good remembering. So we'll start with this. Do you
14:12
Speaker 1: remember your first day working with Sminty.
14:18
Speaker 2: I do remember it, but it kind of happened in
14:22
Speaker 2: a strange way. So I I was an intern, and I,
14:31
Speaker 2: to be honest with you, didn't know what I was doing.
14:35
Speaker 2: And because I had applied for there were two internships
14:41
Speaker 2: at the company was then how stuff works right, and
14:44
Speaker 2: I had I had applied for the writing research one,
14:48
Speaker 2: and for some reason, our boss Jerry later told me
14:54
Speaker 2: it was enthusiasm. I got the like tech one like
15:00
Speaker 2: the video when podcast one and I didn't. There's a
15:07
Speaker 2: reason I didn't apply for that one. So I was
15:12
Speaker 2: getting to work really early, like seven am every day,
15:16
Speaker 2: which was a big deal because I was commuting from
15:18
Speaker 2: about two hours away. Two hours was because I took
15:21
Speaker 2: public transportation and I was getting there at seven and
15:25
Speaker 2: I was like learning, teaching myself every day, and I
15:31
Speaker 2: originally was getting kind of random assignments because podcasting was
15:38
Speaker 2: new at that point. When Steff Wunderer told you had started,
15:42
Speaker 2: they had gotten some success already with two other shows,
15:48
Speaker 2: so it wasn't like super new. But I had worked
15:51
Speaker 2: on like all of these different podcasts. They would be like,
15:53
Speaker 2: give it to the intern because they didn't really know
15:56
Speaker 2: what was going to happen with it, if it was
15:58
Speaker 2: going to be successful, all of that. So the first
16:01
Speaker 2: time I worked on Spinty, it was something like that
16:05
Speaker 2: where it wasn't like my show, but they were like,
16:09
Speaker 2: everyone's busy, make the intern do it. And I remember
16:12
Speaker 2: it very clearly because the first twelve minutes didn't record
16:19
Speaker 2: and I had to stop them and it was Kristen
16:22
Speaker 2: and Molly at the time, the first two hosts, and
16:25
Speaker 2: asked them to redo it, and I was so embarrassed,
16:29
Speaker 2: you know, like the intern doesn't know what she's doing.
16:32
Speaker 2: To this day, I'm not sure what happened, but they
16:37
Speaker 2: were very nice about it and they redid it and
16:41
Speaker 2: the whole the rest of it went off without a hitch.
16:45
Speaker 2: I don't remember the topic, but I remember those twelve minutes,
16:52
Speaker 2: because after the twelve minutes, I was like so scared.
16:55
Speaker 2: I wasn't listening to anything. I was just staring to
16:58
Speaker 2: make sure it's recording and everything is fine. So I
17:01
Speaker 2: couldn't tell you the topic. But that was the first
17:04
Speaker 2: time I did it, and then it happened a couple
17:07
Speaker 2: of times, like where they would just ask me to
17:10
Speaker 2: come in on random episodes. I know I did one
17:14
Speaker 2: about bunnies. I can't remember exactly the context, but I remember,
17:19
Speaker 2: and it was annoying because we were right next to
17:22
Speaker 2: Marta Station, our old office, and that's our public transportation
17:27
Speaker 2: in Atlanta, and so you would have to pause every
17:31
Speaker 2: time the train came in. So it was frustrating and
17:35
Speaker 2: that way. But I became more and more confident, and
17:40
Speaker 2: then I still wasn't there a regular editor. I kind
17:45
Speaker 2: of became sort of there more like I'd answer the
17:48
Speaker 2: listener mail and then the YouTube series happened and that
17:52
Speaker 2: became my whole thing. But I was kind of a
17:54
Speaker 2: regular editor for them, so it happened in sort of
17:58
Speaker 2: a bits, and he wasn't a straight line.
18:03
Speaker 1: But you got there, yes, you ended up there. Well,
18:06
Speaker 1: you obviously had gone through different roles, and your time
18:10
Speaker 1: was spenting going through different things, including video editing and
18:13
Speaker 1: all of that. What's something you would advise anyone who
18:16
Speaker 1: is also being thrown into the unknown as you talked about.
18:21
Speaker 2: I would say to take the steps to learn, but
18:26
Speaker 2: also don't be afraid to ask people for help. I
18:33
Speaker 2: thought i'd like my cover had been blown. One day
18:36
Speaker 2: when I was somebody also came in at seven and
18:39
Speaker 2: saw me like watching a YouTube video about how to
18:43
Speaker 2: edit something, and he was like, no, I don't worry
18:45
Speaker 2: about it. I can help you. Or I also have
18:49
Speaker 2: to YouTube, but I have to look things up to
18:53
Speaker 2: They put me on a show as a sub oh
18:58
Speaker 2: stuff of Genius, Stuff of Genius, and it was an
19:01
Speaker 2: animated show and now I had to learn and animate
19:04
Speaker 2: and I had to do it quickly. And the first
19:07
Speaker 2: one came back with a lot of notes, admittedly, but
19:10
Speaker 2: they were very kind notes, and the person in charge
19:14
Speaker 2: of it. Then I did the second one, who was like, yeah,
19:16
Speaker 2: that's you took all the notes. You've improved. So I
19:21
Speaker 2: think that willingness to learn and to be okay to
19:24
Speaker 2: ask for help and to take criticism as long as
19:29
Speaker 2: it's given from a nice place like to heart, like, Okay,
19:35
Speaker 2: thank you for taking the time to help me and
19:38
Speaker 2: then fix it because I remember being like, my life
19:41
Speaker 2: is ruined. He thinks I can't do this, which is,
19:45
Speaker 2: you know, I never animated anything before, would you know
19:49
Speaker 2: this exactly? So I think that I had to have
19:55
Speaker 2: that moment of complete panic and I'm the worst person ever.
19:58
Speaker 2: But then I took the notes to heart and then
20:00
Speaker 2: I did improve to the next one. It's never too
20:04
Speaker 2: late to learn a new skill, and especially now, I
20:08
Speaker 2: mean technicality changing all the time. Yeah, I mean, we
20:13
Speaker 2: used to use final cut to edit audio, and I
20:17
Speaker 2: think that's pretty much unheard of now. I would have
20:21
Speaker 2: to learn a whole If I had to go back
20:22
Speaker 2: and edit audio, I think it would be a mess.
20:26
Speaker 2: I think I could do it. It's just one of
20:27
Speaker 2: those things like where you go from a PC to
20:29
Speaker 2: a Mac and all the shortcuts are different.
20:31
Speaker 1: You know. Yeah.
20:33
Speaker 2: But yeah, being willing to learn new things and to
20:38
Speaker 2: lean on other people, that's what I would say.
20:43
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know anything about Max. That's what you
20:47
Speaker 1: took from my advice and the entire thing though, I'm like,
20:51
Speaker 1: I'm just thinking about the simplest thing and just being
20:53
Speaker 1: able to work a laptop. That would be a thing
20:59
Speaker 1: i'd had to learn. Okay, Well, then you went on
21:02
Speaker 1: because you did so many different roles. Well were all
21:04
Speaker 1: the roles that you played well? Well?
21:10
Speaker 2: When I was when I first started, it was anything.
21:13
Speaker 2: It was like a mish mash of oh, my goodness. Oh.
21:19
Speaker 1: And then.
21:21
Speaker 2: A friend of the show, fellow podcaster Ben Bolin, he
21:26
Speaker 2: told me when I first started, don't be too good
21:28
Speaker 2: at anything, because they'll make you do everything.
21:31
Speaker 1: And unfortunately, good advice everywhere.
21:34
Speaker 2: Unfortunately for me, I did not take this advice, so
21:38
Speaker 2: I got kind of lumped into I was very quick
21:41
Speaker 2: with data entry. I was very quick with I've talked
21:44
Speaker 2: about this before, but we h it's called writing meta
21:48
Speaker 2: and that's basically the title, the description, the keywords, all
21:53
Speaker 2: this stuff. So I was writing that for like all
21:56
Speaker 2: the shows, not all the shows, but at the time
22:01
Speaker 2: we were also owned by Discovery, and so I was
22:04
Speaker 2: writing it for a lot of their shows. I wasn't
22:06
Speaker 2: writing it for a lot of house stuff work shows.
22:09
Speaker 2: So that means I learned a lot about toddlers and
22:11
Speaker 2: tierras that I wish I didn't know. But epect it's true.
22:16
Speaker 2: It's very true. I'm not happy about it. But so
22:21
Speaker 2: I was doing a lot of stuff like that. And
22:23
Speaker 2: then my old boss, who I loved, would also have
22:26
Speaker 2: me prank my older like her walls, and that was fun.
22:31
Speaker 2: I did like that, but it made me nervous because
22:33
Speaker 2: he could fire me at you know, any point, catches
22:36
Speaker 2: me in his office with a walkie talkie. I just
22:38
Speaker 2: don't know. So I got put on a lot of stuff,
22:43
Speaker 2: and then it was audio. I would say. Audio became
22:49
Speaker 2: the next thing that they put me on, and uh
22:54
Speaker 2: kind of like promo stuff, emotional stuff, and then video
23:01
Speaker 2: became my whole life, I would say for a couple
23:04
Speaker 2: of years, and it mostly involved Kristen would record by
23:11
Speaker 2: herself and then send it to me and I would
23:13
Speaker 2: edit it and I would put in little effects and
23:16
Speaker 2: then I would she would she would write the meta,
23:19
Speaker 2: but I would make sure it got published and all
23:21
Speaker 2: of this. But that was that was probably my big
23:27
Speaker 2: role for a long time, and that that did require
23:29
Speaker 2: a lot of It required a lot of stuff beyond that,
23:35
Speaker 2: is what I'll say. Like I was still answering like
23:37
Speaker 2: the listener mail and you have to take the screenshot
23:40
Speaker 2: and you have to like get it on YouTube, and
23:42
Speaker 2: get it and all these different platforms have different specificities,
23:47
Speaker 2: and you know, to younger listeners, I just want you
23:50
Speaker 2: to know we had to run a code. We had
23:52
Speaker 2: to like run a code to get stuff up on
23:54
Speaker 2: certain platforms. This is how old some of this was.
24:00
Speaker 2: So that was it for until twenty sixteen. That's when
24:05
Speaker 2: Kristen and Caroline left the podcast, and that is when
24:11
Speaker 2: I got asked to host it. And at the time
24:15
Speaker 2: I had been on Savor. That was my first host
24:20
Speaker 2: gig for a year. I think like maybe a couple months.
24:25
Speaker 2: But it was within like I because we started on
24:27
Speaker 2: sav Our March and they left in November. So I
24:33
Speaker 2: was really nervous about it and I turned it down.
24:37
Speaker 2: I'm so nervous because it's like a it was the
24:42
Speaker 2: show I cared about and I thought was really really important,
24:46
Speaker 2: and I wasn't sure. And I think that that's one
24:50
Speaker 2: of the things we've talked about before on the show
24:52
Speaker 2: is sometimes when when you're afraid of not being the
24:57
Speaker 2: perfect feminist right, don't do it at all, which is
25:01
Speaker 2: not the good right thing. But I was like, oh,
25:05
Speaker 2: I was going to make all these mistakes and what
25:07
Speaker 2: do I have to say in all of this, But yeah,
25:10
Speaker 2: I did. I did all kinds of things, that's for sure.
25:16
Speaker 1: So you waited a bit before you started hosting.
25:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, I never. I never thought about hosting. I wanted to.
25:24
Speaker 2: I don't know, I wanted to. I wanted to make
25:26
Speaker 2: documentaries at the time, and I just never considered myself
25:30
Speaker 2: as a host. And if it wasn't for Lauren over
25:36
Speaker 2: on Savor, a friend of ours and coworker, she was
25:41
Speaker 2: the one who asked me, I never would have considered
25:44
Speaker 2: doing it, just because it It's so interesting to me
25:48
Speaker 2: how many people in podcasting will tell you they have
25:53
Speaker 2: performance anxiety or are nervous about people hearing them. Even
25:59
Speaker 2: though I do like things like acting, I still get
26:02
Speaker 2: really anxious, and there's kind of a self confidence issue
26:08
Speaker 2: as well. I was like, oh, no, I could never
26:10
Speaker 2: do that. No. Wait, But the timing worked because that
26:16
Speaker 2: was when we moved. We switched from Final Cut to Adobe,
26:21
Speaker 2: and so I was having to learn a whole new
26:22
Speaker 2: system and I really didn't like it. And I also
26:25
Speaker 2: was like coming to terms with the fact that I
26:29
Speaker 2: do have a hearing problem. And so I got called
26:35
Speaker 2: at the office once and they asked me like, did
26:39
Speaker 2: you hear this, and they were like playing back an
26:41
Speaker 2: example of something I edited and I didn't hear it,
26:44
Speaker 2: and it became much more of a visual thing because
26:46
Speaker 2: if you look at the waveforms, you can kind of
26:48
Speaker 2: see the audio, but if it's really quiet, sometimes you
26:51
Speaker 2: can't even see that. So it was an odd feeling
26:56
Speaker 2: of being the person who like trained new hires to
27:00
Speaker 2: edit to being the person who is like, someone's going
27:03
Speaker 2: to have to teach me this. And you know, I
27:06
Speaker 2: wasn't opposed to it, but when Lauren asked me, like, hey,
27:10
Speaker 2: do you want to try this? And I thought, you know,
27:13
Speaker 2: if it gets me out of learning this system, I know,
27:17
Speaker 2: I just made a whole deal about keep learning things.
27:21
Speaker 2: But it was mostly because I had so much anxiety
27:25
Speaker 2: about the hearing after that happened. I was, I was
27:29
Speaker 2: really anxious that, oh, I can't even do this job anymore.
27:36
Speaker 2: And I'm sure it would have been fine, but I
27:41
Speaker 2: was I was dealing with too which anxiety is the
27:44
Speaker 2: worst performing or not being able to hear and do
27:48
Speaker 2: your job. Yeah, And then you know, I've always I've
27:55
Speaker 2: said before the podcaster's prayer is don't judge me by
27:58
Speaker 2: by fifty. My first fifty episodes and I had to
28:02
Speaker 2: edit the first ones of Savor and I don't look
28:05
Speaker 2: back on that fondly, but it's just been it's been
28:12
Speaker 2: a lot of growth and now I now it doesn't
28:18
Speaker 2: seem so laughable as it did to me at the time, like,
28:22
Speaker 2: oh I would be a host, that's and you know
28:26
Speaker 2: what's funny is I can be really oblivious sometimes. But
28:33
Speaker 2: our like Top Boss, we were at a party and
28:37
Speaker 2: he asked me about what the future of Sminty should
28:40
Speaker 2: be right after Kristen Caroline left and after Emily left,
28:45
Speaker 2: and I just said, you know, well, I hope it
28:47
Speaker 2: keeps going because I think it's important. And I never
28:51
Speaker 2: realized that at the time he was thinking like could
28:53
Speaker 2: she be the next host? It never crossed my mind, thing, Yeah, yeah.
29:04
Speaker 1: So do you remember your first episode as a host?
29:07
Speaker 2: I do. It was called am I a bad Feminist?
29:12
Speaker 2: And it was you know, an o to ruck then
29:15
Speaker 2: Gay's work, obviously, but it was just me talking about
29:19
Speaker 2: some of my anxieties on becoming the host. And I
29:24
Speaker 2: remember very clearly, like talking about how I would go
29:28
Speaker 2: back and forth about things that I thought, like I
29:33
Speaker 2: used to bring in cookies all the time to the office,
29:35
Speaker 2: and then I got in my head about like, oh
29:38
Speaker 2: am I being like a stereotype and my plans? What
29:41
Speaker 2: am I doing? And what does that say that I
29:44
Speaker 2: was overthinking bringing in cookies to the office as a woman.
29:49
Speaker 2: It was just kind of a discussion about that and
29:53
Speaker 2: how those were some of the thoughts that were whole
30:00
Speaker 2: me back, but also some of the things that I
30:01
Speaker 2: wanted to to talk about. And Bridget was great. Bridget
30:05
Speaker 2: was a great person to do an episode like that with.
30:13
Speaker 2: We did do a practice episode before. Yes, it was
30:19
Speaker 2: on The Final Girl, Yes, and I think that was
30:23
Speaker 2: our second episode, but we did it twice. We did
30:26
Speaker 2: it once. It's a practice and we had like a
30:28
Speaker 2: vocal coach and everything.
30:29
Speaker 1: Oh yeah.
30:30
Speaker 2: Yeah. But you know, when you come on as a
30:35
Speaker 2: new host, as you know, Samantha, you kind of have
30:37
Speaker 2: to have an introductory like here's who I am and
30:41
Speaker 2: here's why I'm here.
30:43
Speaker 1: Episode yeah, and you kind of already had on it.
30:46
Speaker 1: But when you are you're obviously an overthinker, as you were.
30:50
Speaker 1: First episode was kind of you being an overthinker. What
30:56
Speaker 1: would you tell yourself from that episode to where we
31:00
Speaker 1: are today, What would you tell your your younger self
31:02
Speaker 1: in this hosting journey.
31:07
Speaker 2: I would tell her. I would tell her to read more.
31:12
Speaker 2: I would tell her to learn more. I feel like
31:15
Speaker 2: a lot of the mishaps I had in my early
31:18
Speaker 2: days was because I didn't know maybe some aspect of
31:24
Speaker 2: a conversation or how something I said might sound, which
31:28
Speaker 2: again shouldn't stop you from learning, like don't let that
31:33
Speaker 2: make you freeze up or clam up. But uh, it
31:37
Speaker 2: was over It was overwhelming in the beginning to think
31:40
Speaker 2: of all of the books I should have read already
31:43
Speaker 2: and hadn't. So I would say, don't let to young Annie,
31:51
Speaker 2: It's okay, you don't know something, go learn about it.
31:55
Speaker 2: And I also would say, and you know, I'm still
31:58
Speaker 2: working on this. You do have a voice, and you
32:02
Speaker 2: can't speak up, you can't interrupt, because I would get
32:09
Speaker 2: so concerned that everybody knew more than I did. So
32:13
Speaker 2: I'm like, whilst they're saying that, then oh that must
32:17
Speaker 2: be right. What do I know? And that's not good
32:20
Speaker 2: for the host of a show.
32:26
Speaker 1: The hard one to learn when you're not used to
32:28
Speaker 1: doing that.
32:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, and especially Bridget is so like I find her
32:36
Speaker 2: so like inspiring, and she's so smart, and she's older
32:41
Speaker 2: than me, and she's like been in the that world
32:46
Speaker 2: more than I had, Like I'd been in the podcasting
32:49
Speaker 2: part of it, but she'd been out like doing stuff,
32:52
Speaker 2: and so a lot of times I feel like she
32:56
Speaker 2: would kind of try to help me and I'd be like,
32:59
Speaker 2: uh no, you know what you're talking about. And last
33:04
Speaker 2: it was about Star Wars, and then she was like, go,
33:08
Speaker 2: you have this one. But we were also like a
33:12
Speaker 2: new podcasting duo, so that can take some time to
33:16
Speaker 2: learn the how you do the outlines and how you
33:20
Speaker 2: interact with each other. I don't know. There's a lot
33:23
Speaker 2: of things. I guess stop trying to please everybody and
33:26
Speaker 2: stop trying to be like the past host because you're
33:29
Speaker 2: not them, right, Yeah, because nobody's happy at that point.
33:34
Speaker 2: I think those are some of the big things that
33:37
Speaker 2: I would tell my younger self when she first started.
33:40
Speaker 1: It's a good one, some good things. I feel like
33:44
Speaker 1: you're still telling yourself these things though.
33:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a slow learning process, but it is a process.
34:00
Speaker 1: So what is something that you look back on and
34:02
Speaker 1: that has given you pride in this work?
34:05
Speaker 2: Hmm. I think it's it's a couple of things I do.
34:12
Speaker 2: I've learned a lot I personally have learned a lot,
34:18
Speaker 2: and I feel like I've grown a lot, and whether
34:21
Speaker 2: that is through my professional work and what I do,
34:26
Speaker 2: the confidence and what I do, just the books we
34:30
Speaker 2: read and the topics we cover and hearing from listeners,
34:34
Speaker 2: hearing from listeners and having listeners connect with what we
34:40
Speaker 2: have talked about. I am proud of the book. As
34:44
Speaker 2: stressful as the process was, and as much as I
34:47
Speaker 2: like knowing what I know now might do things differently,
34:51
Speaker 2: I was proud of that. And I'm proud of you, Samantha.
34:56
Speaker 2: I'm working with you and that we have that conversation
35:00
Speaker 2: so many years ago, and here we are. Here we are, Yeah.
35:06
Speaker 1: Me and my gravelly self. Here we are as a
35:09
Speaker 1: dynamic duo.
35:11
Speaker 2: Yes, we support each other. When your voice is gone,
35:16
Speaker 2: I'll just talk a lot.
35:18
Speaker 1: Please I need to do. And with that, how much
35:21
Speaker 1: have you seen change since you started Sminty to today's Well,
35:27
Speaker 1: good question.
35:28
Speaker 2: I know, yeah, it is technologically a lot. Uh. I mean,
35:37
Speaker 2: I wish I could show you this code. Maybe I'll
35:40
Speaker 2: send it to you, Samantha. It was wild what we
35:43
Speaker 2: had to do to get stuff published, and it had
35:46
Speaker 2: very like you're entering code. I'm not talking about like
35:50
Speaker 2: you press enter, you have to do the like specific
35:53
Speaker 2: parameters as the person trying to upload. It was a
35:57
Speaker 2: wild time. Uh. And then I think just the way
36:04
Speaker 2: we record now is very different. Obviously because the pandemic,
36:07
Speaker 2: we're doing it from home. But even so, I think
36:10
Speaker 2: that's changed quite a bit. Some of the rules that
36:13
Speaker 2: I'm used to that I still uphold no one else
36:16
Speaker 2: does anymore. In terms of the show itself, We've discussed
36:22
Speaker 2: this before, but it has changed from something that was
36:29
Speaker 2: what we call evergreen topics like why do women shay?
36:34
Speaker 2: Or whatever? It is too much more varied topics, but
36:41
Speaker 2: also news, a lot more news, a lot more politics,
36:45
Speaker 2: kind of a more viewpoint when it comes to that.
36:47
Speaker 2: And don't get me wrong, the past host same way,
36:51
Speaker 2: they felt the same way. It's just the topic has
36:54
Speaker 2: kind of the topics have kind of shifted more of
36:58
Speaker 2: that direction. I once a bunch of those evergreen topics
37:01
Speaker 2: get used up, and it makes sense, but it also
37:05
Speaker 2: makes it kind of harder to bring back classics actually,
37:10
Speaker 2: because the world has changed so much since a lot
37:14
Speaker 2: of these conversations have happened. And sometimes randomly a listener
37:18
Speaker 2: will write in about an episode that came out in
37:21
Speaker 2: twenty twelve or something, and they're like, this, the weird
37:25
Speaker 2: take is terrible, blah blah blah. I'm like, that came
37:27
Speaker 2: out in twenty twelve, my friends, right, and I'm not
37:31
Speaker 2: the host. I wasn't the host then, But also things
37:34
Speaker 2: have changed since that time.
37:39
Speaker 1: It's also weird when yeah, we get accusations about or
37:44
Speaker 1: like even like redos, like people will repost old posts,
37:48
Speaker 1: old episodes, and then people could try to confind it
37:50
Speaker 1: and they're like, maybe that was like thousands of episodes ago.
37:53
Speaker 1: Good luck.
37:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, And I also we used to do that.
38:05
Speaker 2: We would put all of our the links to our
38:07
Speaker 2: research and the episode descriptions, and then because of all
38:10
Speaker 2: of these moving pieces, basically the platforms we used to
38:15
Speaker 2: upload things, it became harder and harder. So we stopped
38:20
Speaker 2: doing that, and I wish we still did it, but
38:21
Speaker 2: we try to keep them in our outline so if
38:23
Speaker 2: you do want one, we can send it to you.
38:26
Speaker 2: Some of them are pages long, so some of our
38:29
Speaker 2: like just resources, pages and pages and pages. I don't
38:32
Speaker 2: even want to think about my Princess Leiah outline. But
38:38
Speaker 2: sometimes we'll get a listener and they'll ask for a
38:41
Speaker 2: source on an episode from like Bridget's time, and I
38:45
Speaker 2: don't know. I don't have access to that because we've
38:48
Speaker 2: gone through many hosts and the way that we have
38:52
Speaker 2: our outlines and the like permissions and things that it works,
38:56
Speaker 2: how it works. I can't get you that information. I
39:01
Speaker 2: would love to, but I can't.
39:04
Speaker 1: Right the way everybody did it was different too.
39:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, we really didn't have a standard system.
39:12
Speaker 1: Still don't panically.
39:15
Speaker 2: Not really, but you and I know what you and
39:17
Speaker 2: I and we specifically are doing.
39:19
Speaker 1: But outside of that, Yeah, So do you remember our
39:24
Speaker 1: first episode we kind of already talked about this, yes,
39:27
Speaker 1: the title are We Failures? How did you feel about
39:31
Speaker 1: that episode?
39:32
Speaker 2: I remember, I remember enjoying it, like I thought it
39:35
Speaker 2: was a good conversation. It was the start of our
39:37
Speaker 2: like Trauma mini series and we were starting with again
39:40
Speaker 2: kind of your intro of even though we didn't know
39:43
Speaker 2: you were going to be full time at the time
39:45
Speaker 2: of You know, we haven't met these goalpost yet. We
39:49
Speaker 2: haven't met these things that people told us we should
39:52
Speaker 2: have done already. And it is fascinating to look back
39:57
Speaker 2: on now because I think like our perspectives have changed
40:02
Speaker 2: since then, and you know, especially like speaking for myself,
40:05
Speaker 2: I'm like, nah, forget those Goldfos girls.
40:08
Speaker 3: Right right.
40:12
Speaker 1: Part of that was we couldn't get to those points,
40:15
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like yeah, whether it was financially,
40:18
Speaker 1: whether it was like emotionally, whether any of those things. Yeah,
40:22
Speaker 1: we couldn't get to there. So it felt like we
40:24
Speaker 1: were failing. Now we could possibly get to there, like
40:27
Speaker 1: it's possible, we just don't want.
40:29
Speaker 2: To, yeah, And I think that makes all the difference.
40:32
Speaker 2: Like yeah, but because at the time I did think
40:38
Speaker 2: I was a failure because I hadn't done those things,
40:40
Speaker 2: or at least a part of me did, because you
40:43
Speaker 2: kind of reminded of it pretty consistently in society as
40:49
Speaker 2: a woman, as a single woman especially, and so even
40:52
Speaker 2: though I might not agree with it, might not actually
40:55
Speaker 2: want it, I did feel it, whereas now I'm much
40:59
Speaker 2: more actually I am good. And you know, at the time,
41:06
Speaker 2: I hadn't come out as ACE yet, so I didn't
41:10
Speaker 2: know so I those episodes, Yeah, I hadn't worked through
41:16
Speaker 2: that yet. So it's it's a time capsule for sure.
41:20
Speaker 2: But I think that the conversation is still relevant. I
41:23
Speaker 2: think people feel that way, and there are certainly some
41:26
Speaker 2: times where I still struggle with that feeling, but nowhere
41:30
Speaker 2: near it as much as I did back then.
41:33
Speaker 1: I feel like everything changed with the pandemic too. Yeah
41:36
Speaker 1: it I'll go up without the window times to still
41:38
Speaker 1: like it doesn't matter anymore. Yeah, yeah, pretty much, and
41:43
Speaker 1: probably with like the state of the world honestly in general.
41:46
Speaker 1: I mean, I think we've already answered the question, but
41:48
Speaker 1: looking back, like we realized, I mean, we knew it
41:50
Speaker 1: then it just felt like the pressures, but we knew
41:54
Speaker 1: we weren't failures then. But it feels like more honest now.
41:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, it does. And I do agree with you. The
42:05
Speaker 2: pandemic and the world's events really changed a lot of things.
42:11
Speaker 1: I think that was a shift too when we started
42:14
Speaker 1: getting TikTok, because it was during that point in time
42:17
Speaker 1: two that was coming about, and it shifted from the
42:21
Speaker 1: Instagram world where everything was perfect and you were competing
42:25
Speaker 1: with everybody's like, oh, just look at what I'm doing,
42:27
Speaker 1: how cool I am? And then TikTok all of a
42:29
Speaker 1: sudden shifted that and be like, no, that's not real,
42:31
Speaker 1: that's not honest. This is a real life, and we
42:34
Speaker 1: all started realizing, oh, we're kind of in the same place,
42:38
Speaker 1: whether it's we're all struggling because of this or we're
42:41
Speaker 1: all changing because of this. But in like the Instagram days,
42:45
Speaker 1: it was the perfect food picture, it was a perfect
42:47
Speaker 1: travel picture, it was a perfect family pictures and somehow,
42:51
Speaker 1: and not to say that TikTok is great, but that's
42:53
Speaker 1: kind of shifted that narrative. And so millennials were real
42:56
Speaker 1: honest about like, no, parenting is not great. If you
42:58
Speaker 1: don't want it, don't do it. Like it was that
43:00
Speaker 1: level that it started shifting away, and I feel like
43:04
Speaker 1: we all came to be very again. And I think
43:06
Speaker 1: something I had to do with the COVID because people
43:07
Speaker 1: were showing more real life stuff of them struggling because
43:10
Speaker 1: of COVID, more real life as struggling because of the administration,
43:14
Speaker 1: Like that became more nuanced in that like, oh, we
43:20
Speaker 1: these are catered to a specific idea, and because of
43:24
Speaker 1: everything breaking loose and how the format was changing, we understood, oh,
43:30
Speaker 1: there is no standard anymore, it doesn't exist.
43:33
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, I mean I went to the grocery store
43:37
Speaker 2: yesterday without alebrawn. I never would have done that before, never,
43:42
Speaker 2: But not like what who cares? Who cares?
43:48
Speaker 1: Well? With that how do you think we've grown since
43:51
Speaker 1: then or have we have we just become more comfortable.
43:55
Speaker 2: I think we have grown. I mean, as I said,
43:58
Speaker 2: when you get a new host and just a new dynamic,
44:03
Speaker 2: there's a learning curve right there. And you know, we
44:07
Speaker 2: had had meetings before then, and I think we had
44:12
Speaker 2: a good rapport, so it wasn't like a shock or
44:14
Speaker 2: anything like that. But it's just kind of learning the
44:17
Speaker 2: new process, especially for you because you had never podcasted before.
44:22
Speaker 2: So in the early days we recorded, we would research together,
44:26
Speaker 2: and I think that helped. I think it also helped
44:30
Speaker 2: that we we had kind of a it was a
44:34
Speaker 2: mini series at that point, so we had structured like
44:37
Speaker 2: where it was going to go. And then I think
44:41
Speaker 2: when you came on full time, that's when I feel
44:45
Speaker 2: like there was a more bigger learning curve actually, just
44:49
Speaker 2: because we didn't have like a we didn't have a
44:52
Speaker 2: structure anymore. The Trauma mini series was over, and so
44:56
Speaker 2: we had to figure out what our dynamic it's going
45:00
Speaker 2: to be without that, and and just how the research
45:06
Speaker 2: process would work if we weren't researching together, like physically together.
45:12
Speaker 2: I feel like we've worked. We still we do kind
45:15
Speaker 2: of a hybrid. We do some episodes you research completely,
45:19
Speaker 2: some my research completely, and some we like double tag team. Yeah,
45:24
Speaker 2: but I feel like we've gotten to a better place
45:25
Speaker 2: and especially like knowing who like who can tackle which topic.
45:33
Speaker 2: Sometimes we mix that up, but you know, we've got
45:37
Speaker 2: all We've got a variety of stuff we talk about here.
45:41
Speaker 2: We do.
45:42
Speaker 1: I think one of the ways that we were able
45:44
Speaker 1: to acclimate better, honestly is when everything changed for everyone.
45:50
Speaker 1: So it almost was like scrapping everything.
45:53
Speaker 2: Then.
45:54
Speaker 1: It wasn't just because a new host came on. It
45:57
Speaker 1: was because we were working from home. We were doing
46:01
Speaker 1: from two episodes to five, Like it went from like
46:04
Speaker 1: jump Jump ju Jump, and we were like, okay, literally,
46:06
Speaker 1: it's like almost planning a brand new show with the
46:12
Speaker 1: same things. Yeah, And it was interesting to like look
46:16
Speaker 1: at it and then like we were trying to bring
46:18
Speaker 1: hope and what seems like, I mean, we've talked about
46:22
Speaker 1: this before with the listeners and the audience, like before,
46:25
Speaker 1: like because our topic, and we even talked about it
46:28
Speaker 1: as we are planning to do future episodes with sponsors
46:32
Speaker 1: that want uplifting I would assume uplifting happy topics and
46:37
Speaker 1: we're like with the world as it is, and the
46:40
Speaker 1: attacks that we see is hard to be constantly. It's
46:43
Speaker 1: hard to find the bright light sometimes the good good
46:47
Speaker 1: points because it feels like it's a constant attack that
46:50
Speaker 1: we need to be aware of. But like I feel like,
46:53
Speaker 1: especially again with the pandemic and with how COVID went
46:57
Speaker 1: and with how the administration was going at the time, time,
47:00
Speaker 1: we were like, Okay, we have to bring hope in
47:03
Speaker 1: this very bleak theme that we have, because not because
47:06
Speaker 1: we're making it bleak, but because the way it is
47:09
Speaker 1: being treated. Intersexual feminism, feminism in general, any kind of
47:13
Speaker 1: equity and equality when it comes to diversity, marginalized communities,
47:17
Speaker 1: it's hard to make it hopeful because the rest of
47:22
Speaker 1: the world has kind of shifted in seeing that as
47:27
Speaker 1: not you know what I mean.
47:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Being on a show like this one is
47:39
Speaker 2: it does involve a lot of change because the news
47:43
Speaker 2: is changing and because intersectional feminism touches everything, and so
47:52
Speaker 2: it's difficult to balance. We don't want to ignore a topic,
48:01
Speaker 2: but also we do want to bring that hope, and
48:05
Speaker 2: even even in the dark episodes, we try to bring that.
48:08
Speaker 2: But it can feel like a concern of people are said, well,
48:15
Speaker 2: you're not talking about this where you're not doing this
48:19
Speaker 2: or any kind of thing like that. And I can
48:23
Speaker 2: feel it like personally myself, but it's it is something
48:28
Speaker 2: we consider and it's it's something that does change with
48:37
Speaker 2: the times.
48:38
Speaker 1: We really had to try to figure out how to
48:40
Speaker 1: balance all of that. It was really interesting because past
48:43
Speaker 1: his host Caroline, we've talked about She and I have
48:47
Speaker 1: talked about her past work and you know how it
48:50
Speaker 1: affected her, and she talked about how one of the
48:52
Speaker 1: things that she was so excited about when she left,
48:55
Speaker 1: specifically this type of topic, is that she didn't have
48:58
Speaker 1: to be as plugged in, Like not that she didn't,
49:01
Speaker 1: not that she's just not aware, and not that she's
49:02
Speaker 1: not like understanding the depth of it, but being constantly
49:06
Speaker 1: aware of all of the like being on top of
49:10
Speaker 1: all of the news, and most of the news is
49:12
Speaker 1: not good and most of the news feels like it's
49:14
Speaker 1: just fighting constantly and bad news. Like being able to
49:17
Speaker 1: unplug from that for a minute, she was like, Oh
49:19
Speaker 1: my god, I'm a whole different person, and like knowing
49:23
Speaker 1: what we do, we're constantly like I'm constantly being fed
49:27
Speaker 1: information about all the dark stuff and all the gross stuff,
49:30
Speaker 1: and we're talking there just like deaths and like you know,
49:33
Speaker 1: sexual harassment, like right now, that's all of our media
49:37
Speaker 1: and we're like realizing having to try to balance that
49:42
Speaker 1: with good mental health so we can keep going. That's
49:47
Speaker 1: been a learning curve in itself.
49:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, and once again one that we've been attempting since
49:54
Speaker 2: the beginning, because when we did our Trauma mini series
49:59
Speaker 2: when you first started, at the end of every episode,
50:02
Speaker 2: we had kind of a what are you doing to
50:05
Speaker 2: take care of yourself? What are you doing? And every
50:09
Speaker 2: guest we have that's like involved in activism, we ask
50:13
Speaker 2: them and almost every one of them doesn't have a
50:15
Speaker 2: great answer. Sometimes people come in with a great answer,
50:19
Speaker 2: usually though they're like, I'm not good at it.
50:23
Speaker 1: That's the hardest question for them.
50:24
Speaker 2: Typically Yes, So I think it's fair. We're all we're
50:30
Speaker 2: all still earning that. And in some days, what I'm
50:33
Speaker 2: trying to tell myself is some days I have a
50:35
Speaker 2: really good day. Yesterday it was a really good day
50:37
Speaker 2: for me. Some days I have a really bad day
50:40
Speaker 2: and I'm not good at the self care part. But
50:42
Speaker 2: some days I have a really good day, And so
50:45
Speaker 2: I'm gonna I'm trying to make those days more often
50:49
Speaker 2: beside but celebrating when it's there. I was so happy,
50:53
Speaker 2: I can't even tell you how happy.
50:56
Speaker 3: Was amazing and maybe a cat come in your way.
51:11
Speaker 1: What some advice you'd give to upcoming podcasters? As podcasting
51:14
Speaker 1: kind of already changed, but some advice you would give
51:17
Speaker 1: to them those who are still seeking to do this.
51:22
Speaker 2: I would love to hear from new podcasters who have
51:27
Speaker 2: found success. My big advice has always been, don't find
51:34
Speaker 2: your idea, be clear on your voice, think about your audience,
51:40
Speaker 2: who you want your audience to be. Don't try to
51:43
Speaker 2: make something everyone will like. I think that there's a
51:51
Speaker 2: chance everyone will like it, but don't keep Don't have
51:55
Speaker 2: that be the thing like I said when I first
51:58
Speaker 2: started and I was just completely flat because I wanted
52:01
Speaker 2: everyone to like me. I would put a lot of
52:05
Speaker 2: thought into that. And that's not to say it won't
52:09
Speaker 2: change or can't change, but having that is sort of
52:13
Speaker 2: your compass of this is how we're going to do
52:16
Speaker 2: the episodes. I do think it's useful too do a
52:24
Speaker 2: practice like bridget nine did or something like that. If
52:27
Speaker 2: you're going with the co host from the last statistics
52:31
Speaker 2: I read, Traditionally, co hosted shows are more successful, but
52:34
Speaker 2: double check on that. But if you are going with
52:36
Speaker 2: co host doing those tests and having those conversations and
52:42
Speaker 2: planning it out, and then you know, if you don't know,
52:46
Speaker 2: kind of learning the ins and outs of publishing, podcasting,
52:54
Speaker 2: of editing, like who's going to do who's going to edit?
52:58
Speaker 2: Is that? Are you going to get to the moment
53:00
Speaker 2: where you and your friend want to publish it and
53:02
Speaker 2: then you don't know who's going to edit it? Uh,
53:05
Speaker 2: maybe you have a bigger team than that. I don't know.
53:07
Speaker 2: But just knowing those roles who's going to do what,
53:12
Speaker 2: and preparing yourself for criticism and let it unless it's constructive,
53:23
Speaker 2: let it slide off your back. Do not let that
53:27
Speaker 2: get to you. So I promise you it will breaking down.
53:33
Speaker 2: It is a real, real learning curve. I mean, the
53:37
Speaker 2: things I have heard about myself unnecessarily do unnecessary I
53:45
Speaker 2: don't need. I don't need that, So preparing for that
53:49
Speaker 2: and it's that's okay. Unfortunately that's well, it's not okay.
53:54
Speaker 2: But unfortunately that's the internet like landscape we live in.
54:00
Speaker 2: So it's gonna happen, especially depending on the topic.
54:07
Speaker 1: True, it's true, Oh, gosh, well, I was gonna say,
54:11
Speaker 1: let's let's talk about the future. You love a good prediction.
54:16
Speaker 1: I loved what do you think is the future of
54:19
Speaker 1: podcasting and specifically our show.
54:22
Speaker 2: Oh No, once again the pandemic burned me on this,
54:27
Speaker 2: so we did our prediction episode in twenty twenty never again.
54:32
Speaker 2: That will never be a classic. I will never listen
54:35
Speaker 2: to it. It's horrible.
54:39
Speaker 1: Now they're gonna be people going to try to go
54:40
Speaker 1: find it.
54:41
Speaker 2: Don't do it, listeners, It's gonna make you sad. We
54:44
Speaker 2: were very because you were so whole. Don't do it. Well,
54:52
Speaker 2: I kind of I'm not sure about the future of
54:56
Speaker 2: podcasting because just today I had a thought. But where
55:02
Speaker 2: I was watching, I still get ads somehow. I'm like
55:06
Speaker 2: one of the few people I know that I as
55:08
Speaker 2: an AD came up and it was a video podcast
55:14
Speaker 2: ad and I was like, wow, now this has gotten
55:17
Speaker 2: so far. It's a commercial, It's made it all the
55:23
Speaker 2: way here. So there's a part of me which we've
55:29
Speaker 2: discussed before. And I actually have a really funny memory
55:32
Speaker 2: of being in New Orleans and we were at a
55:36
Speaker 2: bar and me and Lauren and Dylan who was Dylan
55:40
Speaker 2: used to produce Spinty and they had an SNL on
55:45
Speaker 2: in the back and it was a sketch about the potties,
55:51
Speaker 2: which was like the Podcasting Awards, and they were making
55:54
Speaker 2: fun of how many podcasts there are. And that was
55:58
Speaker 2: years ago, twenty eighteen, and just this explosive growth of podcasts.
56:04
Speaker 2: I don't know if that's like, I don't think it's sustainable.
56:08
Speaker 2: I don't know if it's going to burst. I'm not
56:10
Speaker 2: sure they're very popular. I don't think they're going to
56:12
Speaker 2: go away, but I'm not sure if there's going to
56:20
Speaker 2: be kind of a diminishing or if you'll just keep
56:24
Speaker 2: going and going, and who knows, who knows. For our
56:30
Speaker 2: podcast specifically, I think that we're going to keep doing
56:39
Speaker 2: what we're doing. I think we've been doing a really
56:42
Speaker 2: good job on interviews and just the wide range of
56:50
Speaker 2: topics we cover, and potentially there will be some travel involved.
57:01
Speaker 2: The world feels very uncertain right now, so I don't
57:04
Speaker 2: think seems to be.
57:04
Speaker 1: Able to stand still. But yeah, yeah, we'd like to
57:08
Speaker 1: get to that point. And with that, I was thinking,
57:13
Speaker 1: because I know we have some of the best listeners
57:15
Speaker 1: and supporters, one we would love to hear from y'all
57:18
Speaker 1: about what you would like to see a little more of,
57:21
Speaker 1: a little less of all those things, because we love
57:23
Speaker 1: good suggestions. But maybe Annie, do you think can you
57:27
Speaker 1: think of things that the listener, how the listener could
57:29
Speaker 1: support us as well? Maybe?
57:31
Speaker 2: Well, listeners, we love you. We would not be here
57:35
Speaker 2: without you. And I just want to say I want
57:41
Speaker 2: to apologize first, because if you've been listening to this show,
57:47
Speaker 2: you know I kind of went into a deep depression
57:52
Speaker 2: in November. I went into a deep depression in November,
57:59
Speaker 2: and then in January I became hyper fixated. And I
58:06
Speaker 2: am coming out of it. But the listener mail, I
58:10
Speaker 2: have been not answering as well as I normally do,
58:15
Speaker 2: but I have plans to start doing it again. This
58:20
Speaker 2: is why yesterday it was so exciting when I was
58:23
Speaker 2: like doing a very basic thing, like you can care
58:26
Speaker 2: of myself. I feel like I'm coming out. I like
58:29
Speaker 2: what was seeing the light for the first time. Yeah,
58:32
Speaker 2: But anyway, please keep writing in. Don't stop just because
58:36
Speaker 2: I haven't, or none neither of us have responded. Don't
58:39
Speaker 2: stop doing that. We love hearing from you. We love
58:41
Speaker 2: hearing your thoughts and what you want to hear. Even
58:47
Speaker 2: if it's just like, hey, I feel the same way,
58:49
Speaker 2: because it's sometimes this does feel like you're screening in
58:52
Speaker 2: to avoid and no once hearing it. So we love
58:57
Speaker 2: hearing from you. We are so we would not be
59:02
Speaker 2: here if you were not listening to this, So thank
59:03
Speaker 2: you for keeping up listening and downloading all of that stuff.
59:09
Speaker 2: If you would like. We do have a book you
59:14
Speaker 2: could support us that way, And we do have some
59:16
Speaker 2: merchandise at Cotton Bureau and it's it looks pretty good,
59:20
Speaker 2: so you can check that out.
59:21
Speaker 1: I ordered a few things. I got a cute, very
59:23
Speaker 1: soft T shirt.
59:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I really like it. They're not technically a sponsor,
59:29
Speaker 2: I guess, but no, our merchandise is there, so yeah.
59:32
Speaker 1: You know, getting to know our name, yeah, and anything
59:35
Speaker 1: with like future events also one of the things that
59:38
Speaker 1: I'm thinking, like, we have so many, so many amazing guests.
59:42
Speaker 1: So if y'all can help spread the word, especially when
59:46
Speaker 1: we're doing some of these amazing interviews and they take
59:48
Speaker 1: the time to come and talk to us, we love
59:50
Speaker 1: when you do that because I know I definitely get
59:53
Speaker 1: a lot of notices on social media showing that y'all
59:56
Speaker 1: are reposting or liking and we did not respond because
59:59
Speaker 1: I have become real bad about social media. I hate
1:00:01
Speaker 1: it with a passion so much, especially because I feel
1:00:05
Speaker 1: like I'm going to say the wrong things, do the
1:00:06
Speaker 1: wrong things, or you know, all the maybe not enough things.
1:00:12
Speaker 1: So I definitely just avoid it altogether. But I see
1:00:15
Speaker 1: y'all have tagged us when we're on your Spotify top
1:00:19
Speaker 1: podcast listeners. All of that that warms our heart. We
1:00:22
Speaker 1: do see it. Keep letting us know, even though we
1:00:25
Speaker 1: sell like the bad friend who is stucking depress us
1:00:30
Speaker 1: where we just look at the message and move on,
1:00:32
Speaker 1: we do read them. It just might take us a
1:00:34
Speaker 1: minute to get back to you, but it is so
1:00:36
Speaker 1: encouraging to see. And also letting us know what you
1:00:40
Speaker 1: do and don't like that really does help, especially like
1:00:42
Speaker 1: I said, like Ay said, constructive criticism really helps us
1:00:46
Speaker 1: and helps shape these episodes help shape what we do
1:00:50
Speaker 1: and we're trying. I can't say the like used to
1:00:53
Speaker 1: throw the word around of relevant, trying to make relevant
1:00:57
Speaker 1: content and relevant things we still want to know because
1:01:01
Speaker 1: it's just the two of us sometimes so we get
1:01:03
Speaker 1: into our own little holes. So having more perspective is
1:01:07
Speaker 1: so helpful.
1:01:09
Speaker 2: Yes, it absolutely is so thank you. I really wouldn't
1:01:14
Speaker 2: be here without you, and we do love hearing from you.
1:01:18
Speaker 2: I love a lot of game recommendations we've gotten. Yes,
1:01:22
Speaker 2: that was very much appreciated, topic suggestions, and just some
1:01:26
Speaker 2: people write in like I connect to this and here's
1:01:29
Speaker 2: my experience, and thank you for taking that time and
1:01:34
Speaker 2: for being here. Well, I hope you enjoyed that walkdown
1:01:38
Speaker 2: memory lane. And I feel like I was just reliving.
1:01:42
Speaker 1: My past so much.
1:01:44
Speaker 2: Man, many twenty ten, that's when I.
1:01:47
Speaker 1: Start talking about all the snacks.
1:01:49
Speaker 2: Oh, I don't think you actually did that.
1:01:52
Speaker 1: No, in my the past episodes. I mean like I
1:01:56
Speaker 1: was listening to the past episodes because I was like
1:01:58
Speaker 1: going back, and I was like, I really was obsessed
1:02:01
Speaker 1: with our.
1:02:01
Speaker 2: Snacks they had. We had good snacks.
1:02:04
Speaker 1: It was good snacks, and they had our lunches and
1:02:06
Speaker 1: breakfast once a week and I would go in just
1:02:08
Speaker 1: for that.
1:02:09
Speaker 2: Yes, man, our new office does not have good snacks.
1:02:13
Speaker 2: There's many reasons we don't go into the new office, and.
1:02:17
Speaker 1: That is one.
1:02:18
Speaker 2: That is one didn't have enough water either. Anyway, I
1:02:23
Speaker 2: hope B isn't listening to this one. Yeah, that's that's
1:02:29
Speaker 2: the message. That's the message. Tell us what your office
1:02:32
Speaker 2: situation is. Listeners if you have one, you can email
1:02:36
Speaker 2: us at Hello, at stuff Whenever Told You dot Com.
1:02:38
Speaker 2: You can find us on Blue Sky at mom Stuff podcast,
1:02:40
Speaker 2: or on Instagram and TikTok at stuff one Never Told You.
1:02:42
Speaker 2: We might not answer, but the message will be read
1:02:45
Speaker 2: it maybe one day answered. Yes, very much appreciated. You
1:02:49
Speaker 2: can also find us on YouTube. And yes we do
1:02:52
Speaker 2: have some merchandise at Cotton Bureau. And yes we do
1:02:54
Speaker 2: have a book you can get where you get your books.
1:02:56
Speaker 2: Thanks as always too, our super Christine, our executor priser
1:02:59
Speaker 2: My and our contributor Joey.
1:03:01
Speaker 1: Thank you, We love you, Yes, we.
1:03:03
Speaker 2: Love all of them, and thanks to you for listening.
1:03:06
Speaker 2: Steffan Never Told You is production by Heart Radio. For
1:03:08
Speaker 2: more podcasts from my heart Radio, you can check out
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1:03:11
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