You’re here because you love podcasts
You are what the industry calls a “Heavy Listener.”
My goal is to make narrative podcasting a bit more like pickleball.
Bingeworthy is a listener-supported newsletter. If you’re aligned with my goals: To bring narrative podcasts out from the fringe shadows; To make them a subject of critical discussion; To see them recognized as their own storytelling format….please support this publication by purchasing a subscription. There’s an alluring discount available now.
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Everyone knows that pickleball is not tennis and it’s not badminton
Even if you’ve never played pickleball, you know not to bring a badminton racquet to that game.
That’s because you know pickleball is its own sport, with its own rules…ones that are both similar and different to its neighbouring sports.
I want the same thing for podcasts. But I want Bingeworthy to help us see narrative podcasts as their own thing.
Not chatcasts. Not celeb gossip. Not short news segments.
Narrative podcasts, or narrative audio, or narrative storytelling…whatever you want to call it…is its own thing.
And my goal with Bingeworthy is to help celebrate that thing. That space. Those stories, the people who make them, the craft that becomes them and the underlying industry that makes that all happen.
My name is Samantha Hodder
I’ve been hooked on podcasts for a decade. Since at least 2012, I’ve been listening closely and watching this genre emerge. By now I’ve listened to thousands of hours of serialized podcasts. I’ve even made my own.
Here’s what you should know about me: I listen as a producer. And then I’ll write these newsletters like your editor, giving you notes after a table read.
I listen for all the details.
What is this narration?
How is the sound is cut?
Why did they interview that person?
Does the story, the order, the sequence work?
I have opinions about the music choice, the midroll…even the closing credits. I listen for what parts of the story are included, and what is left out.
And I ask lots, and lots, of questions.
So let’s talk craft.
Let’s discuss this genre that has literally emerged from the woods of radio in the last decade.
Where has it been? Where is it going?
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