Is Today's Controversy Tomorrow's Podcast Episode?

When a controversy is brewing, should you take a stand on your podcast? If the topic is important enough, you may feel compelled. But how deep should you go, and how will that change your show?

January 26, 2021

Article

Last night, I got into a fight on a podcast. OK, that’s not entirely true. But during the recording of the podcast, we waded into a heavy topic that’s burning through the podcasting community right now. All of us in the recording were of a similar mindset, so there wasn’t much fighting. But when the episode is published, it’s going to be controversial. So yes, of course I’ll let you know when it’s out!

The topic we engaged in was about podcasting, and one I’ve considered bringing up on Podcast Pontifications. And that got me thinking about the decision process of podcasters like yourself considering throwing their proverbial hat into the ring.

Should You Bring Your Podcast To The Fight?

Shows that cover current events or have established their entire format around shock value naturally cover controversial topics. It’s built into their very DNA. But for the rest of us, especially those of us who have niched-down our focus, the decision to wade into controversy should be a considered one.

That consideration requires, I believe, a strong answer of “yes” to the following three questions:

1. Is the topic worth it?

If you’re going to interrupt your normally not-controversial production efforts to present your opinions of an argument, the controversy at hand probably needs to be a pretty big one. Minor annoyances and trivial matters (recognizing you have to define those terms for yourself) likely aren’t worth the risks, as you’re about to see.

Of course, you’re entitled to your own opinion. But do you feel the need to express your opinion on your show? That leads me to the 2nd question...

2. Is your podcast the right platform?

You don’t have to jump into the fight. You control the contents of your show. Even if you have strong opinions on a worthy topic, your show may not be the right venue to express that opinion. You may decide a more prudent course of action is to use other platforms to express your opinion and keep your podcast out of the fight, even if the controversy is in your domain.

But then again, you absolutely can use your podcast as that vehicle as well. So long as you’ve considered the ramifications of taking such action.

If your podcast is all about brass polishing, but you’re really passionate about the plight of bald eagles, is your podcast the right venue to raise the issue?

If your opinion runs counter to conventional wisdom—and I’m all about opinions that run counter to conventional wisdom—are you the right messenger?

Are you ready for the blowback which may naturally come from those who take issue with your decision to use your show as a platform for the controversy? Are you prepared for the email or social media complaints? Can you stomach the bad reviews? The lost subscribers or supporters? What about the negative press? Those are all natural and likely consequences you must prepare for.

3. Does your audience want you to be controversial?

Because your show isn’t one done for shock value or one that covers current events, some of your listeners appreciate the safe harbor your show offers them. Some of them are going to be taken aback by the shift in your tone as you veer out of your lane to cover a controversial topic.

But on the other side of that are those listeners who appreciate your engagement in an important topic who will appreciate knowing you’re an ally. Assuming you’re offering the opinion they want to hear, that is.

Wading vs Swimming In Controversy With Your Podcast

If you answered all three of those questions in the affirmative, you next need to decide how deeply to dive into the topic.

You may choose to go all in, dedicating an entire series of episodes to give maximum exposure to the controversy at hand, bringing in experts and flexing your latent journalistic skill set. If the topic is important enough to you, you may be willing to invest dozens—if not hundreds—of hours creating episodes that accurately reflect that importance.

More likely, you may decide to devote an entire episode to the topic. If it’s in your podcast’s domain of expertise, this is likely a more straightforward option that only warrants a brief “I’m doing something a little different today” mention at the start of the episode to brace your audience for the impact.

You could opt for a simpler solution and dedicate a portion or segment of an episode to the controversy. Assuming your show has distinct segments. And assuming you’re not concerned that the entire episode won’t be tainted by the inclusion of your opinion. Because it will be.

Your best move may be to make your opinion a bonus episode. One that lives outside the flow of your normal episodes and is properly titled and tagged so that listeners can choose to listen or not. That puts some choice in their hands while letting you stay true to yourself on a topic that’s important to you.

Whichever option you choose, you need to check back in. Because publishing a podcast has consequences. You decided to raise your voice, so you need to monitor the reaction. Else you’re just shouting to the void.

Set up a monitoring program for your name and the name of your podcast. Don’t assume that detractors or supporters will properly tag you. You have to seek it out. There are plenty of social monitoring tools you can use to achieve that goal. Also, keep a close eye on your comments, your reviews, and your social properties so you can keep the conversation going.

Personally, I'm not afraid of controversy, and I rarely shy away from it. But I’m well aware of the consequences of making my opinions known. I’m happy to take all of the blow back and I’ll suffer through whatever happens.

But only you can decide whether or not to make today's controversy your next episode.

I think we all know podcasters who struggle with this question, especially when the controversy is in the domain of their podcast. If you know someone struggling with the question, send them a link to this article. Perhaps it will give them perspective. And I appreciate one more person reading or listening to Podcast Pontifications.

Finally, if you want to support me and the thoughts I bring to you four days a week, please go to BuyMeACoffee.com/evoterra and sign up for a membership.

I shall be back tomorrow with yet another Podcast Pontifications.

Cheers!

Transcript

When a controversy is brewing, should your podcast take a stand? If the topic is important enough, you may feel compelled, but how deep should you go? And how will that change your show?
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Hello, and welcome to another Podcast Pontifications with me, Evo Terra.
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So I was interviewed last night on a podcast. Hasn't come out yet. I'll let you know when it comes out. And that conversation we had got pretty heated. Now, fortunately or not so fortunately, however you wanna look at it, we were all of a similar mindset on this particular topic, which is very divisive and of import to the podcast community. But again, I'm not covering it here. That's another episode. I will link to that episode when it's actually live.
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But honestly, even though it was about podcasting, I'm not sure I would have brought it up as an episode of Podcast Pontifications. And that got me to thinking about when to dive into a controversial topic. When podcasters like yourself should throw their proverbial hat into the ring?
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Now a lot of shows, a lot of podcasts out there, are built around controversy, are there basically to do, if you want to call it, shock value. And so of course they weigh in all the time. There are lots of news and current events that take one side or three different sides and argue a topic.
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But for most of us, we're not doing that. We're not here to cover those current events. For those shows it's built into the DNA of their shows, but for the rest of us out here, when should we, how do you, we think through the process of weighing into controversy?
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So that's why I'm going to give you today. Here's some thoughts around that. I think there's really three things to think of first. Before you say yes, you need to say yes to these three questions.
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Question number one: is the topic worth it? If you're going to change up your show to present your side of an argument, it probably needs to be a pretty big deal at least as far as your show goes. It probably shouldn't be something trivial. This needs to be something that is worthy of you doing something drastically different than what you normally do.
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And also, is it something that is big enough that you should have an opinion on this? I'll talk about that a little bit more, but you know, there are some things where, look, it's just, that's not right. I mean, well , you're entitled to your opinion. Everyone should - everyone is entitled to their opinions. Make sure that's very clear.
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But is this something your opinion needs to be expressed on? And let me get more into that in the second part of that question. So question number one is the topic worth it?
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Question number two: do you want to be controversial? It might be worth it. It might be a big topic that is worthy of a conversation, but maybe that's not what you want to do with your show. You don't have to.
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You do not have to wade into any controversy, even if the controversy is in your domain. You do not have to do that. But if you say, you know what, I think I want to do that, ask yourself a couple of questions inside of that. Make sure that your show is the right venue for it.
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You may want to do that, but you know, you do a podcast about brass polishing. Is that the right venue to have a conversation about the plight of bald Eagles? Maybe. You decide if your show is the right venue and you also decide if you're the right messenger. Especially if your opinion runs counter to the prevailing wisdom that is out there.
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And I'm a big fan of having an opinion that runs counter to the prevailing wisdom, don't get me wrong, but make sure you're the right messenger. Make sure that everything works that way.
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Other questions inside of the, do you really want to be controversial is, are you ready for the blowback? Because there will be blowback. Especially if your opinion runs counter.
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You're going to have some people who don't like your opinion. Are you prepared for the email or the social media complaints that you are going to get? Are you prepared to handle the bad reviews that might come in, the lost subscribers, the lost advertisers, maybe lost supporters, if you use listener support?
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And if your show is big enough, or even in your own niche, you might get negative press. Are you ready for that? That's part of the questions of do you want to be controversial?
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And the third thing is: does your audience want you to be controversial? Or are they just looking for a regular safe harbor from your show for that? Because some of them are going to be taken aback by the shift either in your tone or the topic. But of course, on the other side of that, some of them also want to know that you are engaged and you are an ally. So maybe your audience does want you to be controversial.
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So, if you can answer all three of those questions - yes the topic's worth it, yes you want to be controversial, and yes your audience, or at least a big enough portion of your audience, wants you to be controversial, then you've got to decide how deep will you go?
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Cause now you're going to do it. But how much do you do? I mean, do you, is this such an important thing that you want to make an entire series of episodes, a three or a six series where episodes, where you just dig into it deeply and really cover it? Maybe.
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But more likely it's going to be maybe a full episode, whatever you normally do. You're going to take a break and say no, this full episode now is going to be dedicated to this topic because I want my opinion out there.
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Maybe the easier thing to do is just do a segment of your show. This one segment for the first five minutes or the last five minutes, I'm going to cover this particular topic. You can do that, but keep in mind that shift in tone and that change where your opinion comes forth is going to taint, if you will, the entire episode.
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Maybe it's best as a bonus content, you know. Maybe you skip a week and you say, this is just a bonus. It's not part of the normal flow, but it's important to me. If you want to hear what I have to say, listen, if not skip it. That's one way to do it. It's a little bit safer.
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But again, once you've decided what you're going to do, and now that you've decided how deep you're going to go into it, I want you to think about this. You need to check in. Because publishing episodes has consequences. And you want to know what happened.
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You decided to raise your voice for a reason, if you decided to raise your voice, you need to monitor your name. You need to monitor it, your show's name cause there are people mentioning you that won't tag you. They won't use your social handles, but they'll just mention your name or your show's name.
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Are you monitoring for that? There are tools out there which will let you monitor any mentions of your brand. Pay very close attention to social media replies that you might get or wherever else your show has been published. Check your comments, keep an eye on your reviews, ratings, because you did something different. You want to know that it actually worked.
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See, for me, I'm a fan of controversy. I don't shy away from it. And I'm happy to take all of the problems that were mentioned up there. I'm happy to take the blowback. I'm happy to suffer through whatever happens if I feel the topic is worthy enough and it's something I want to have an opinion about, but not everybody has to do that.
You have to decide whether or not you want to make today's controversy, your episode going out tomorrow or next week or whatever it happens to do.
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You know, we probably all know podcasters who struggle with this question, should I enter into the fray or not? You could actually send them this episode, a link to the article or the audio itself, that's fine. And say, here's some thoughts. Here's one guy thinking about this. Here's how he thinks you should approach this controversial topic. Go ahead. Send that to him. And plus it helps spread Podcast Pontifications. I always like that.
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And if you want to support me and the thoughts I bring to you four days a week here for free on Podcast Pontifications, please go to buymeacoffee.com/evoterra and sign up for a membership. That would be awesome.
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That's it. Have a great rest of your day. I shall be back tomorrow with yet another Podcast Pontifications.

Cheers!

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