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Michal here! How I’ve loved reading Vocal Fridays as written by other Vocal Fries; how I’ve missed writing it myself. Turns out, gallivanting around Europe doesn’t leave much room for thoughtful consideration of what’s going on with the world of podcasts… especially when you’re trying to produce a few of them while on the move.
When I last wrote this newsletter, I was on the train from Sweden to Denmark. Since then, I settled down in Lisbon, where I’ve been based since the beginning of the month, took off to Ireland for my friend’s wedding, and then crashed their honeymoon in Mallorca, where I befriended this sheep:
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And that brings us back to today, where I’m in rainy Lisbon and finally listening to new (to me) podcasts again.
This last leg of my travels has gotten me back into a way of listening that so intrigued me in the first place: starting off with a topic I know nothing about and learning as much as I possibly can. Podcasts are so, so good for that. Obviously, I am not the only one who thinks so. Hence: the podcast industry. Hence: the reason we are all here.
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This week in Culture Study, Anne Helen Petersen wrote about how an idea becomes a podcast, and it really is the transparent development saga you would hope for. She just launched her new podcast, Work Appropriate, and talks about how it came to be.
My personal favourite part of the newsletter is the interview with her own producer, Melody Rowell. Fellow producers: next time you are at a family gathering, and someone asks you, “what does a producer do… really?” just send them this interview. Here’s one part I think is particularly valuable:
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“But mainly, editing audio is just really slow. I’ve been doing this for 6 years and have my process down, but it still takes me 3-4x the length of the audio to edit. (So if someone gave me an hour of an interview, that’d take 3-4 hours to edit. And that’s if nothing has gone wrong.)”
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Might need to get this printed on a bumper sticker.
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To read: How Defector Media Turned Its Hit Podcast Into a 7% Bump in Subscribers
We love Normal Gossip here at Vocal Fridays, and I would encourage all of you to read Kelsey McKinney’s thread. There’s something… positive? Hopeful? About seeing a podcast become a revenue driver for a new media company (a cooperative owned by the workers, no less) and it’s exciting to see this kind of work grow sustainably.
Here are two incredible BBC clips that illustrate the power of using the right music
Bidding farewell to Liz Truss with Rihanna (who is releasing new music… today????) and with Taylor Swift (who released new music last Friday).
Here is an audio-adjacent digital exhibition I’d like to share with you
My brilliant and talented dear friends who make up a little collective called Probably Theatre have launched a digital exhibition called This Inescapable City. They sent ten artists an audio piece of the same name that they created for the 2021 Halifax Fringe Festival, and asked them to create artwork in response.
The offerings consist of poetry, audio pieces, video, painting, photography, collage, textile design, music… all hosted in one digital space. They describe it as, “a poem, a waterway, and another way to dream where you are.”
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Spend a minute, spend an hour, spend a day, reading and re-reading and listening and re-listening. See what comes up. Write it down in your journal, write it down in the comments poem, record a voice note, send it to your best friend — find your own way to respond to these reflections on waterways.
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When we say these jobs are hot from the fryer, we mean sizzling. Friend of the Newsletter, Bumper, is hiring a podcast growth strategist. Now, the job is exciting in itself, but what particularly stands out are some of the details: the job can be based anywhere in Canada, comes with four weeks paid vacation, and an annual salary of $120k to $140k. Hello, work/life balance!
(If you want to learn more about Bumper, you can read my Q&A with co-founder Dan Misener in the August 11 edition of Vocal Fridays)
McGill is hiring a part-time radio show producer. Details are scant and the ones that are there are kind of confusing — this job was supposed to start on October 5th but was only posted 14 days ago — but for the McGill student in your life, this might be a good place to start. Wage is $16/hour. Apply… soon? I guess?
Hurry! You have until EOD today (October 28) to apply for the permanent, full-time position of associate producer at As It Happens.
CBC Radio is hiring a full-time, permanent announcer assigned to Versioning Inuktitut in Iqaluit. Apply by EOD November 1.
CBC Radio is hiring a producer assigned to Quebec AM, English Services. Apply by EOD November 3.
Could you be the one to bring CBC Classical Music back to the standard that my mother expects? She has been complaining about it for the last fifteen years. Who am I to tell her she’s wrong? If you think you’re up to the task, CBC Music is hiring a full-time, permanent producer for classical music. All kidding aside, this seems like a very cool job, with tasks including “maintaining relationships with external partners such as the Metropolitan Opera and the European Broadcasting Union.” Okay, twist my arm! Apply by EOD November 3.
CBC Radio is hiring a permanent, full-time associate producer for Saskatoon Morning. Apply by EOD November 8.
Antica is hiring an associate producer and a producer.
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Applications for the next round of the CAJ Mentorship close on Tuesday, November 1, so get those applications in!
Out There, a podcast that “explores big questions through intimate stories outdoors,” is seeking story pitches that fit the theme, “Secrets of the Earth.” Deadline for pitches is November 10. They pay $500 to $1,000, depending on complexity and sound design.
JAR Audio is hiring a freelance audio recordist / editor! They describe it as a “per-project freelancer position that has the potential to unlock a full-time position.” The full-time position salary is listed at $50k to $60k, but I would encourage all freelancers who are applying for contract jobs to advocate for rates that account for their own overhead.
Applications for Neon Hum’s podcast editor's bootcamp open on October 31, and you have until November 13 to apply. The course runs from January 12 to March 14, and there is no tuition! The bootcamp is offered to people from underrepresented groups who want to become podcast editors.
The Pulso Podcast is looking for pitches for its upcoming third season. They’re seeking stories that highlight the complexities of living as a Latino/a/e in the USA. Each episode runs between 15 to 30 minutes, and they’re offering a flat rate of between $1,000 to $2,000 per episode.
If you’re eligible to work in the U.S., you can apply for an audio producer fellowship with The New York Times. You have until December 2 to apply.
And now, for a lonely goat herd interlude:
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When I was in Dublin, I unintentionally set a sort of curse on myself. I stepped onto the Trinity College campus to go see the Book of Kells and, more importantly, the old library, and was immediately overcome with an aching desire to apply for another useless graduate degree. It wasn’t enough that Normal People was set in my era — that the characters were going through university (or “uni,” as they so charmingly call it) at the same time as I was — being on campus instilled in me a need to be the Normal People. Age discrepancy be damned.
The more I learned about Irish history, the more I wanted to learn. Do I sign up for a continuing ed course? I considered. And then I gave it one more second of thought, and laughed. I am a podcast producer, after all. What better way is there to learn the entire history, culture and folklore of a country than by listening to a podcast about it?
And so, I started listening to the Blindboy podcast, on recommendation from a new Irish friend. The first episode I listened to was about Irish folklore and environmentalism, so it didn’t explain why it is called the Blindboy podcast. I went back and listened to the first episode, and he says, “my name is Blindboy Boatclub. I am one half of the Rubberbandits. We sing songs on the internet…” so that is as much information I have gleaned as a Canadian outsider. If any readers more familiar with Irish internet culture have any insight, please do write in and let us know.
I returned to the 85-minute long episode at different points in my day. The host has the kind of delivery I really could listen to all day, his voice soft, almost inviting the listener to lean in closer. This was an interview with a writer named Manchán Magan, and their conversation danced between sacred wells, matriarchy in Irish mythology, seasonal lakes, and Indigenous ways of oral storytelling.
If you’re interested in Irish history, culture, and mythology, and are looking for a show that will bring your heart rate way down with its very chill demeanor, Blindboy is a great place to start. It fulfilled my folklore fix… for now. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some applications to write.
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what's happening at vocal fry
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Just launched! Healing Comes in Waves is here, a podcast from Consent Comes First at Toronto Metropolitan University. It’s hosted by Farrah Khan and it’s a resource for survivors to explore healing after harm. You can read Kattie Laur’s story about how to tell sensitive stories with a podcast on the Vocal Fry blog.
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Listen on your fave platform:
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We want to hear from you! What are you looking for in your podcast news?
Thanks to Emily Latimer for editing this newsletter, and to Katie Jensen for designing it.
We’ll see you again on November 4. Until then, here’s an update from three cats I saw meeting up for a rumble in the mountain village of Valldemossa, Mallorca.
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Yours in friends and fries,
Michal
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