Casting Pods Vs. Podcasting 🎧

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                            April 22, 2024

                Casting Pods Vs. Podcasting 🎧

                        It’s been two weeks since the first installment of this newsletter, which technically means I’ve already failed in my mission because I said it would come out every Monday. However, I’ve decided to switch to every other week as I build up a store of content to post. Switching from “producing content as rapidly as possible for as many outlets as possible whenever I am well” to “producing content at a sustainable pace for both my own blog and newsletter in addition to other outlets” is a challenge I’m happy to meet, but one that also requires significant shifts from me. If you’ve ever worked as a freelancer, I’m sure you can relate.
This week, we’re talking about podcasts. I’ve tried and failed to get a few podcasts off the ground in the last 8-ish years, each time stopped by lack of time, lack of money, lack of resources, or some combination thereof. And although there are step-by-step guides available for how to produce a podcast (including one by the McElroys), very few people talk about how truly expensive and time-consuming podcasting is as a hobby. It’s seriously labor-intensive to the point of essentially being a part-time job and it’s a very saturated medium, so if you don’t love it? It’s unlikely you’ll stick to it.
I think I truly could love podcasting because I love appearing on other people’s podcasts (speaking of which, if you’d like me to be on your podcast, send me a message!). However, I also recognize that at this juncture, only a few ideas could get me to go all-in on a podcast, and there are only a few people with whom I’d be willing to take the plunge. For now, I’m happy to keep listening to and discovering new podcasts… and writing about them when the chance presents itself.
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The Secret Histories of Nerd Mysteries Co-Hosts Have Revitalized the Show with MaxFun
The first time Austin Taylor and Brenda Snell met, the latter was working at a comic book shop and Taylor, who uses he/they/she pronouns, was a regular customer “but not a weird, honorary employee yet.” Their friendship didn’t officially begin until Taylor won Snell’s handpicked box of comics for the store’s Christmas giveaway/raffle, which included every then-released issue in writer Tom King’s run on Marvel’s Vision, Jenn Woodall’s Magical Beatdown Vol. 1, and Jane Mai’s Sunday in the Park with Boys. Impressed with the picks, Taylor returned to the store, told Snell she’d gotten her box, and asked for more recommendations. He even opened a monthly pull list to keep up with Vision.
Now, Snell admits to befriending very few of the customers she interacted with at the comic book store, and Taylor still seems shocked that they’re friends.
“I cannot state enough that Brenda is a local celebrity here,” Taylor insists. “To this day, Brenda is famous around here, so [at the time] that was why I was like, I can’t befriend this person. I’m just a customer. I don’t want to make them feel weird.”
But after Taylor volunteered for Free Comic Book Day and the pair collectively went through the trauma of the beloved but stressful annual event, Snell invited Taylor to hang out with her friend group until they were seamlessly integrated. Fast forward a few years and Taylor and Snell are now what the latter calls “podcast married,” co-hosting a weekly deep-dive series entitled Secret Histories of Nerd Mysteries. Their camaraderie comes through in every episode of the show, and their easy banter makes our interview feel as if I’m listening an installment of the podcast that’s diving into their relationship and history as creators, instead of a niche nerd mystery.
the history of Chuck E. Cheese (“both of our activation Winter Soldier word, accidentally,” per Taylor), followed immediately by an excavation of the eternally loved Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise.
In addition to bringing their stores of knowledge to the show, Taylor and Snell have learned certain facts that continue to haunt them months or years later.
“A fact that sticks with me to this day is that the original cast of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was not paid,” Taylor says. “It was bizarre to learn. It makes sense with everything else I know about labor laws, unions young actors… Everything I read, I was like, ‘Of course.’”
Snell’s most-recalled fact is that prior to creating Goosebumps, R.L. Stine co-created the Nickelodeon show Eureeka’s Castle: “It’s like an educational puppet show for preschoolers,” she explains. “I think it was post-Fear Street, so he was already writing horror and it’s just funny that someone was like, ‘Please write this for us.’ I don’t think he’s credited as R.L. Stine either. I think he’s under a different name.”
Minus a year-long break between December 2022 and November of last year, when Secret Histories joined the worker-owned “pioneering podcast network,” Maximum Fun, Taylor and Snell have delivered more than 100 entertaining episodes about a truly wild variety of topics, from the reasoning behind Saturday morning cartoon lineups to what happened to the puppets from Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.
In that time, Snell has streamlined the editing process for faster, less stressful episode production and the pair have eliminated the news portion of the show, which Taylor used to run: “Maybe one day I’ll do some sort of pop culture news in a YouTube stream or something,” they say. “It doesn’t make sense as a podcast; it’s too slow in that format.”
The Secret Histories hosts cut news entirely during their first MaxFunDrive, the network’s yearly fundraiser, which offers unique perks for new memberships and donations. Every creator and show on the network advertises the Drive while the fundraiser is happening, and for Taylor and Snell, packing in MaxFunDrive content on top of the week’s nerdy mystery on top of news didn’t make sense mainly for episode length. Moving forward, news likely won’t return to the podcast, which all in all seems like an acceptable loss for them.

Is Happy Wife Happy Life the Queer Relationship Advice Podcast We Need?
Your next best dining experience might be a comedy podcast.
“I think Happy Wife Happy Life as a meal is like a kooky sushi dinner,” Jordan Myrick tells me over Zoom, wearing a black baseball cap with white text that reads HOLLANDAISE. "It’s not traditional,” they say, nor is it like—they clarify when I ask—the vibe of the Harry Styles song.
“No, it’s like a sushi place with a conveyor belt [per their co-host and fiancé, Kendahl Landreth, seated next to Myrick on our Zoom call] and the rolls have deep-fried green beans and cream cheese in them, and there’s every type of fish you could think of because our podcast is not about traditional relationships,” Myrick continues. “We welcome anything different, interesting, or fun while still having great respect and appreciation for what matters most.
“So this meal would have incredible fish quality because we care so much about love and connection and kindness and people finding whatever makes them happy and feel good regardless of what that is,. It might be omakase [“I leave it up to you,” or a chef-curated dinner] because Kendahl and I are picking all the stuff for you. It’s fun. It’s a little zany. It’s not traditional, but it still has a strong respect for the classics,” Myrick concludes.
Vegans and vegetarians need not worry: In addition to offering impeccable fish, Myrick assures me the hypothetical Happy Wife Happy Life dining experience would also offer “deep fried hearts of palm” and “faux shrimp rolls with a mango salsa on top. We’re really doing a lot.”
Oh, and it would all be served by unionized robots overseen by unionized human staff, all of whom can take breaks at any point, sit down, and eat for free, according to Landreth. She answers the other half of my icebreaker question: If Happy Wife Happy Life were a travel itinerary, it would be “a really nice hotel, but in Las Vegas where there’s no judgment. We’re open to anything, but I think the quality of what we’re saying is good. I would hope.” There is no dress code: “We’ll match whatever. We’ll be greeting at the restaurant and I would like to think we would put on whatever you’re wearing. It’s a small dining experience.”
If robots are serving at the Happy Wife Happy Life restaurant, then surely Myrick and Landreth can don holographic clothes that change to suit each guest’s preferred ensemble, I offer, and they happily take the suggestion.
As wild as this conversation sounds, it’s on par with the curiosity-forward, informative, funny, and vulnerable conversations the pair have on each episode of their weekly podcast. Launched in January as a pseudo-extension of their in-person live show, Dating Gayme, Happy Wife Happy Life is a relationship advice podcast that’s inherently queer because of its hosts—”two very unqualified but deeply in love comedians”—and also open to talking about any and every kind of relationship, as well as adjacent topics like addiction, celebrity, social media, and even Dungeons & Dragons with a variety of guests.
However, making the jump from doing an in-person show to a podcast gave Landreth some pause: “[Our relationship] is the most precious thing in my life, and I was nervous to put that on the Internet for everyone to comment on and have opinions on. And also just in general, I've been pretty private [online], so there's not a lot of sharing of me or who I am. I think I had a little bit of anxiety around it, but it has been nice to navigate and feel appreciated for who we are. I've only ever done comedy, so it's nice to have people show up every week for something that is just us and authentic to us,” they say.
“Kendahl does character comedy more, so she’s always playing a character,” Myrick adds. “I have been doing standup for a long time, so I think I am more accustomed to sharing private things about myself, making fun of myself, and having people know things about me. For years, I did standup, taught improv, whatever. That was my whole career. And now I'm a personality for many different things with very large fan bases, so I do have to be more careful. I do have to try to protect myself more.”
Creating a podcast is also a much bigger financial investment than either Myrick or Landreth realized. When fans comment on their videos asking why they don’t have a larger, more elaborate set, the answer is simple: they can’t afford one (yet). It is by far the least of their worries in the early stages of establishing Happy Wife Happy Life as a brand.

Until I decided to start producing more reported work on my blog, I primarily used it to write about books and games, with a heavier emphasis on the former. I still want to review things as I read, play, watch, and listen to them (the latter two I haven’t done in a while, and I want to start again), and I’ve decided to reserve Sundays for weekly media reviews in addition to larger round-ups every few months.
Here’s what you may have missed:
Book Thoughts: Loving, Ohio: In a word, haunting.
Game Thoughts: Escape Academy: This speedy puzzle game has challenges for every kind of player and its DLCs add intriguing lore to the main story.
Game Thoughts: Princess Peach: Showtime! Is Breezy & Delightful: Princess Peach: Showtime! is a delightful ride from start to finish and I had a total blast.
Books I Read (and Loved) in Winter 2024: Nine books I enjoyed in January, February, and March 2024.
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On audiobook, I just finished The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo and it was excellent. Huge props to narrator Lauren Fortgang. Next on my list from Libro.fm is A Magical Girl Retires by Park Seolyeon (out April 30).
In physical form, I'm reading The Age of Magical Overthinking by Amanda Montell.
As for ebooks (don't look at me), I'm reading We Will Not Cancel Us: And Other Dreams of Transformative Justice by adrienne maree brown.

Shalene Gupta has launched her newsletter, The Monthlies, and the first installment examines SSRIs and their relationship to PMDD, including an interview with Johns Hopkins professor Liisa Hantsoo: “Unraveling the mysteries of SSRIs”
Eryn Sunnolia gets vulnerable in this layered exploration of astrology, anger, family, queerness, and kink for Electric Lit: “I Wanted To Be Kinky But I Didn’t Know How”
We all know librarians are at the front of the fight against book bans, and Hannah Natanson and Anumita Kaur break down what that truly means for The Washington Post: “Red states threaten librarians with prison — as blue states work to protect them”
The Whitney Museum of American Art is honoring the world’s oldest picture book and it’s writer/artist, Wanda Gág, as reported by Angela Barbuti for The New York Post. (This is just a nice piece of feel-good news): “‘Millions of Cats,’ oldest American picture book still in print, and its famous NYC author being honored at the Whitney”
Evil Hat Productions is producing an officially licensed Tomb Raider TTRPG that tackles the franchise’s problematic handling of Indigenous cultures and the Internet is, as always, responding in poor faith. Chase Carter’s reporting for Rascal News, on the other hand, is on point: “Lara Croft Finds A Horde Of Trolls In Twitter’s Tomb”
For The Cut, Choire Sicha profiled the Laverys shortly before the birth of their baby: “Keeping Up With the Laverys: The Brooklyn literary power throuple all working and baby-raising from home”
This piece from Andrea Grimes for Home with the Armadillo draws fascinating and distressing parallels between Twitter and Substack, once again reinforcing the unsteady waters ahead: “Substack Is Setting Writers Up For A Twitter-Style Implosion”

Tommen has never met a book she didn’t immediately transform into a bed.

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