Ethics In Podcasting

Thanking A Few Of The Women Who Make Podcasting Better

Podcasting’s reputation as being a bro’s club has been sadly well-earned. But we can change that. Here’s a look at just some of the women in podcasting who are making podcasting better every day.

March 8, 2021

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Happy International Women's Day! Just because I’m a cis-gendered white Gen Xer dude, it doesn’t mean I don’t recognize the key role women play in podcasting. More to the point, I very likely would not be in the business of podcasting were it not for the support of some amazing women in my life.

So in this article, I’ve selected a few to thank and draw your attention to their fine work. I’m resisting my predilection for getting all cutesy with the section headings if only to keep the power where it should be: on them and their works.

Mur Lafferty - Mur was one of the first—if not the first—people I collaborated with in the podcasting space who I only knew from listening to her podcast. I reached out and asked if she’d be interested in collaborating with me and my partner at the time, and she immediately said yes. Her acceptance led to more collaborations, which in turn made me think that maybe this podcasting thing had some legs.

Mur is the editor of Escape Pod, the long-running science fiction podcast magazine, and the also long-running podcast, I Should Be Writing.

Susan Schwartz - My podcast consultancy, Simpler Media, may not have become a thing without Susan. She wasn’t my first client, but she was my 2nd. More importantly, she was the first client I didn’t personally know. She had an idea but needed some help making it happen, and my agency was forged right then and there. Now, some five years later, we’re still working together.

Susan is the host of the drinks-industry podcast, Lush Life, which my firm helps produce.

Allie Press - Once a 14-year-old kid reading not-age-appropriate materials I met at a sci-fi convention, Allie makes sure things run smoothly at Simpler Media and Podcast Pontifications. She’s responsible for publishing all of Simpler Media’s clients’ episodes and ensuring they’re distributed to all the platforms. She also produces and distributes all the video-aspects of Podcast Pontifications, including the subtitles and corrected transcripts.

Allie is an actor on screen and stage, and you should buy her a coffee today instead of me because she’s amazing and a big reason why this podcast exists.

Sam Walker - What started as a friendship has transformed into a working relationship that is—and I’m not exaggerating in the slightest—evolving Simpler Media into a world-class production company. It’s been fantastic working with someone at that skill level, and the business will be forever changed.

Sam produces a slate of award-winning podcasts, including her own Desert Diaries.

Steph Colbourn - Steph and I have been in what I call a bi-directional mentorship relationship (no, it’s not a very catchy term) for several months now. In theory, I’m supposed to be mentoring her. But honestly, I learn a ton from her when we meet for an hour every other week. She’s doing some truly inspiring work and providing loads of opportunities to the queer women and non-binary people in her organization.

Steph owns Edit Audio, a global, full-service podcast production company.

Mai Ling Chan - In the pre-pandemic world, the PHX Podcast Club used to meet on the third Thursday of every month to share a few drinks, stories, tips, and ideas. But mostly just to connect. Mai Ling was an early attendee and quickly threw in her hat to help make the event better. Because COVID, we’ve been on hiatus. But we’re coming back, and I’m looking forward to re-connecting with Mai Ling and the energy she brings to the event.

Mai Ling is a Speech-Language Pathologist and the host of the podcast, Xceptional Leaders.

Leslie D Joyce - Coming back full circle to what got me into podcasting—talking about fiction—is my newest collaboration, this time with Leslie. She’s passionate about the fiction podcast space, with some great ideas I really want to see come to fruition. As a start, she’s publishing Fiction Podcast Share, a weekly newsletter currently comprised of a list of fiction podcasts and audio dramas shared in a weekly drop-in, social audio gathering.

Leslie is the brains behind FictionCasters, an in-progress effort to make listening to fiction podcasts better.

Finally, I need to thank Suzy Buttress and Betty Dannewitz. Both are regular watchers of the live taping of Podcast Pontifications on LinkedIn Live. Seeing them chime in each morning I do the show keeps me motivated to… well, keep doing the show. Thank you both!

Suzy is the host of The Casual Birder, which is rather self-explanatory. Betty is the host of If You Ask Betty, which covers development topics aimed at learning professionals.

And that’s just scratching the surface. There are many, many more amazing women in podcasting I’m truly grateful to have met over the years. Thank you all for your friendship, here’s to the next chapter in podcasting, and happy International Women’s Day!

I shall be back tomorrow with yet another Podcast Pontifications.

Cheers!

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Podcast Pontifications is written and narrated by Evo Terra. He’s on a mission to make podcasting better. Allie Press proofed the copy, corrected the transcript, and edited the video. Podcast Pontifications is a production of Simpler Media.

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Podcasting's reputation as a bros club has been sadly well-earned, but we can change that. Here's a look at just some of the women in podcasting who are making podcasting better every single day.

Hello and welcome to another Podcast Pontifications with me, Evo Terra.

Happy International Women's Day! Woohoo! I markedly, as you can probably tell, am not a woman. However, I have to acknowledge the fact that I would quite literally not be here if it weren't for women. And no, I'm not just talking about obvious things like my lovely mother and my lovely wife who you know are big factors in my life.

No, I'm talking about podcasting overall. Women that I have encountered with, women that I had help me along the way, who I've collaborated with, who have really made everything that you see today work. So I'm just going to roll through a few of those names, people that you may know, but you may not know. So let me clue you in to the women that have made everything that you're listening to and watching today really happen.

So early on in the podcasting space, I have to thank a woman by the name of Mur Lafferty. Hi Mur! Mur was one of the first, if not the first, person who I collaborated with that I didn't know. I was listening to Mur's podcast and reached out and said, hey, do you want to collaborate and put a segment on the podcast that me and my partner we're making? And she said, yes, fantastic. Fantastic. She didn't hesitate whatsoever.

And Mur is still podcasting today, you know, sixteen, seventeen years later. She is the editor for Escape Pod, the scifi anthology magazine/podcast, and also hosts I Should Be Writing because she is a novelist by trade, a writer by trade, and probably lots of other things that I'm not even sure of. So thank you, Mur, for that.

Also, speaking of early-ons, Simpler Media wouldn't be Simpler Media without Susan Schwartz, who is sitting in the, I believe watching this as we're recording it live on LinkedIn right now. Susan was the first client I had at my company, Simpler Media, that I didn't know. And she's still with me today, which is pretty amazing. So check out Lush Life Podcast and thank you, Susan, for your years of friendship, as well as being a client and really getting the business off the ground.

Simpler Media wouldn't exist were it not for one Allie Press. Now, when my business became real, after I got back to America and more clients started coming out of the woodwork, I got really busy, needed some help. And I reached out to Allie. I've known Allie since she was like teenager and said, do you want to help out? And she does. And she does an amazing job - transcripts, subtitles, audiograms. And she posts literally every single episode, not of Podcast Pontifications because of timing, but every episode that Simpler Media produced Allie has the last touch of that. She is integral to the future of Simpler Media and the way we do things around here.

And of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't say a big, huge, thank you to Sam Walker from the award-winning Sam Walker's Desert Diaries. She's also producer of a myriad of different shows, but Sam, she's from the BBC. What became a friendship over here is now going to become the next evolution of this company of Simpler Media. Just being attached to and working with Sam has taught me so much about how podcasts are made and is going to completely change the way Simpler Media operates in the coming year. It's really fantastic working with someone of her caliber.

Now, of course, I've met and worked with some really amazing women podcasters over the years. Far too many to list and probably just for fear of leaving someone out. So I do not want to do that, which is why I'm being very specific at these. But I do have to put a special thanks out and a mention to Steph Colburn. Steph runs Edit Audio up in Canada and Steph and I have what I call a bi-directional mentorship program. I'm not sure who's the mentor and who's the mentee, but I really look forward to every other week when Steph and I jump on the video for an hour or so, I learn a lot. I guess I'm teaching a lot, but it's been a really fantastic experience. So thank you, Steph, for the ongoing professional relationship.

I have to say thanks to the many attendees of the PHX Podcast Club, which has been on hiatus, like a lot of things from the lockdown. Although, we are now transitioning to a distanced style event. So we'll be doing that once again. Most of the people who used to attend PHX Podcast Club were women. It was predominantly women who were there, but I need to shout out, particularly to Mai Ling Chan. Mai, thank you very much. Her podcast, Xceptional Leaders, is great and was really instrumental in making sure that PHX Podcast Club became something more than just sat inside of my head, became a real thing. So thank you to Mai Ling.

And coming back full circle to the way I started podcasting way back in 2004, was centered around fiction. I was interviewing people, interviewing authors, and that's how I got to meet Mur, by the way. But now fiction podcasting is still a big part of my life as a listener, not a producer, but as a listener.

So I need to say thank you to Leslie D Joyce for a collaboration that we're just getting started right now to help spread the word of more podcast fiction. And I will put a link to the newsletter that Leslie is curating. It's called Fic Pod Share, and the ficpodshare.substack.com. But I'll have a link to that in the episode details. Thank you very much, Leslie, for wrangling that and making it real so more people can experience great podcast fiction.

And of course, I have to thank my regular live watchers, Ms. Suzy Buttress of Casual Birder, as well as Betty Dannewitz from If You Ask Betty. So Betty, Suzy, thank you very much. You're almost always here four days a week as I record this live on LinkedIn, and it's great to see your faces and also get your feedback and hear your questions and all those things. It's really been wonderful.

But so many more people, so many more women need to be thanked in podcasting. So I will just simply end on this one with Happy International Women's Day to everyone. Women really, truly do make podcasting better. Let's support them in all of their efforts.

And with that, I shall be back tomorrow with yet another Podcast Pontifications.

Cheers!

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