Behind the Scenes

Lessons Learned Producing ‘Missing Richard Simmons’

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“In twenty years of experience (in journalism), I had never been involved with anything that had popped like that.” “That,” is “Missing Richard Simmons,” the genre-defying podcast that became a popular culture phenomenon this past spring. The show chronicled host and creator Dan Taberski’s efforts to find the fitness star, who disappeared September 14, 2014. That’s when Simmons stopped teaching at his fitness studio Slimmons, cut himself off from his closest friends, and removed himself…

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Why we survey the field

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My friend and fellow podcaster Marco Arment published a blog post about the press’s recent fascination with the resurgence of podcasting. As Marco writes, while podcast’s growth as a business is phenomenal, the so-called resurgence isn’t quite that dramatic: Podcasts have been doing great business for a while now; the recent change is largely the mainstream media taking notice. But there’s a footnote in Marco’s piece that I thought worth discussing a bit. Marco writes:…

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Don’t Miss Jeff Ullrich’s Last 2 Episodes of The Wolf Den

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Over the course of 61 episodes Earwolf and Midroll Media founder Jeff Ullrich has charted the maturation of the podcasting business on The Wolf Den podcast like no one else. At the beginning of the show’s run three years ago Jeff talked with many of the medium’s rising stars, like Marc Maron, The Sklar Brothers, and Doug Benson. He also interviewed other entrepreneurs at the vanguard of this new media movement, like Jesse Thorn from…

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Meet the Midrollers: Earwolf Lead Engineer Brett Morris

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Sometimes known as “Engineer Brett,” ”Engineer Cody-Brett," or “Engineer ‘Stard,” Brett Morris is Earwolf’s lead engineer. He is responsible for developing the audio signature of Earwolf’s shows, and also personally engineers the recording of many of them, along with his two colleagues, Cody Skully and Sam Kieffer. This is the first interview in a series that will introduce the people behind the scenes at Midroll Media, giving you a peek behind the scenes at the…

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Something I love about podcast ads: LIFX and Marc Maron

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An advertiser reached out to me on Twitter recently, looking to advertise on WTF with Marc Maron. The advertiser is a fan of the show — which always helps! — and he also really appreciated Marc’s large audience size. The product itself was LIFX, a Wi-Fi-enabled light bulb with crazy features like lasting 27 years, support for shining in millions of colors, and ability to be controlled from your smartphone. All that’s great: A buyer finding…

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