If you really love a podcast, chances are the person you most associate with the show is its host. Sharp-eared listeners may even notice producers, editors, or sound designers who actively work on several of their favorite podcasts. But what about the many other people behind the scenes during a podcast’s development and growth?
Creating a podcast from scratch and running one every day takes a lot more work than most people know, and involves many more hands than the name or two that we most associate with any given show. So I want to encourage all of us in podcasting to start crediting more of the people who have helped form the shows we work on, starting with me. Some of that help is hands-on: people who listen to show ideas or sample audio, giving feedback and notes to help refine the idea. Some help is indirect, as we draw inspiration and motivation from other people’s work. Their names might not be listed in the credits of our episodes, but the people who spark ideas, give us opportunities, and help our shows grow need their shine.
Here are some of the people whose inspiration and guidance made my own creative goals possible.
Rose Eveleth’s groundbreaking mixing of fictional scenes with expert interviews on Flash Forward has been imitated but never duplicated in the years since the show started. Soon after my cohost Julia Schifini and launched Spirits in 2016, Rose invited us to contribute our voices to an episode of Flash Forward. Collaborating with someone whose work we knew and loved legitimizing us as podcasters and helped open professional doors for us. It’s no surprise that Rose is also creating the template for ending creative projects, too; their sunsetting of Flash Forward in 2022 (first announced at our first ever Multitude Podcast Conference!) is something I know I’ll be referencing again and again in my career as a creator.
Nichole Perkins is one of the greatest interviewers in podcasting, and choosing Multitude as the home of her show This is Good for You was a tremendous act of trust. She also introduced the term “furniture,” meaning the intro, outro, ads, and other bits of audio hosts need to record before an interview goes live, to Multitude producers. We use it all the time!
Lauren Shippen and Mischa Stanton’s work on The Bright Sessions inspired my colleagues and me in a ton of different ways. Both championed me and my future colleagues at Multitude as we were establishing ourselves in podcasting, and have remained incredibly generous with referrals and help in more recent years. Plus, Stanton’s sound design influenced our work on Join the Party, and Shippen’s community management and social media foregrounded how we build the community for Spirits (and later Multitude). I have a lot to thank them for.
But most of all, Eric Silver is a prolific podcaster whose list of credits don’t come close to capturing how many podcasts he’s helped start, grow, and thrive. He has supported me in countless ways as we started Multitude and grew it from a part-time umbrella for our podcast projects into a full-time business. As Multitude’s Head of Creative and also my husband, I witness every day how versatile and important his help is. But don’t just take my word for it—I asked some of his collaborators how they would describe his help.
Lindz Amer, author and host of the podcast Rainbow Parenting, credits Eric with helping figure out how their show is structured. They said, “Eric has been such a helpful collaborator and someone to bounce ideas off especially when we were first trying to figure out how the show would work. We had great conversations about structure and overall vision and he really helped me work on the language we use to describe the show so we could communicate what we are doing to our audience.”
Dr. Moiya McTier, co-host of Pale Blue Pod, names two crucial areas of input from Eric: planting the seed of an idea for the show, and gut-checking details like metadata. “Eric urged me to make an astronomy podcast for a long time. When the show’s launch was imminent, Eric provided priceless feedback on the show’s cover art and description. I know his help made the show better at each stage and I’m so glad Eric’s creative lens was available to focus Pale Blue Pod’s brain power.”
Amanda Silberling and Isabel Kim, co-hosts of Wow if True, also credit Eric with creating the branding that’s helped their show grow over the last two years. “As underrepresented creators, we sometimes fall into the trap of underselling ourselves, but Eric encouraged us to own our expertise and project confidence in ourselves,” Silberling said. Kim agreed, “Eric’s had a really sharp eye in zeroing in on what made our show unique, and in further helping us refine what our pitch and copy would be based on those things… That bulletproof branding has been guiding a lot of our growth since.”
I benefit from Eric’s assistance most of all, whether it be from co-creating Multitude’s business plan to coming up with ideas that spark single episodes or whole miniseries of my podcast Spirits. Eric has encouraged me, supported me, and even gotten me out of bed and stepped in when I couldn’t do my job. Starting when I was 25 and burning out of my day job, all the way through to those terrifying early years of the pandemic, he’s stepped up countless times to support me, our colleagues, and his peers—all without credit. He deserves way more shine than I’ve given him for the work he’s done, on- and off-mic, creatively and business-wise.
Capitalism and startup culture laud founders, while extracting value from and obscuring the names and faces of everyone else who makes businesses work. I benefit from the perception that my podcasts and business are Herculean efforts of a few individuals, and it just isn’t true. So I want to especially urge those of us in positions of power, who benefit from the unsung work of people who work for us, to step up. Credits are real units of career capital, and our colleagues deserve more. Our industry as a whole is stronger when we name those who help our shows become the best versions of themselves.
So, tell me: who has inspired, helped, and guided your shows and career?