7 Great Examples of Podcasts by Writers
The lines between what is a podcast, audio drama, YouTube series, and written work are blurrier than ever. While there can be stress surrounding the pressure to adapt to new formats, a media landscape with fewer boundaries can be used to writers’ creative and economic advantage.
(7 Interviewing Tips for Podcasters.)
Audiences are now more open to unique formats. Hosting or producing a great podcast can help writers reach their professional goals in a number of different ways—which I will talk more about in the future. There are innumerable podcasts by writers that have done just this, but these are seven of my favorite examples (and a handful of honorable mentions).
Pod Save America
Pod Save America describes itself as ‘a no-bullshit conversation about politics hosted by former Obama aides Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, Dan Pfeiffer, and Tommy Vietor.’ John Lovett is a career journalist, TV writer and producer who served as Barack Obama’s speech writer before co-creating Pod Save America and co-founding Crooked Media. His background in politics paired with speech writing skills and natural humor were a perfect fit for podcasting. Lovett shares his vast political knowledge in a way that is digestible, succinct, and entertaining. Fun fact: Jon Lovett was also a contestant on a recent season of Survivor.
The Read
The Read is a multi-award winning podcast hosted by Kid Fury and Crissle West. Kid Fury is a comedian, YouTuber, and television writer (Rap Sh!t). Crissle West’s essays have been featured in various magazines, and she recounted the tales of Harriet Tubman and Marsha P. Johnson for the series Drunk History. Both hosts are excellent comedic improvisers, which I would argue is a writing-adjacent skill. The Read is a part of the Loud Speakers Network, which was created by Reginald Joseph Ossé (known professionally as Combat Jack). Ossé, who began his career as a high profile hip-hop attorney, is an author, journalist, editor, podcaster, and executive. He also served as the managing editor of The Source before transitioning to podcasting. What they have created together is a hilarious, informative, and touching podcast that dissects pop culture and what it means to be black and queer in the world.
You’re Wrong About
You’re Wrong About was created by co-hosts Sarah Marshall and Michael Hobbs. Hobbs, a former writer for the Huffington Post, reached out to Marshall in 2018 to ask if she was interested in collaborating on a misunderstood history podcast project. Hobbs felt they were a good match after reading a piece by Marshall in Time magazine that positioned Tonya Harding as a potentially misunderstood figure. Their collaboration, You’re Wrong About, was a fusion of Marshall’s love for the underdog, Hobbs’s meticulous research, and their shared ability to give greater context to events in history, while also keeping things (mostly) fun. The two worked together on You’re Wrong About from 2018 to 2021 when Hobbs left the show, amicably, to pursue other journalistic endeavors as well as a new anti-diet culture podcast, Maintenance Phase. Marshall continued You’re Wrong About and launched another podcast with fellow writer Alex Steed called You Are Good which describes itself as ‘a feelings podcast about movies.’
Maintenance Phase
After leaving You’re Wrong About, master fact-checker Michael Hobbs joined forces with nonfiction author and journalist Aubrey Gordon to create Maintenance Phase. The podcast has a similar flavor to You’re Wrong About, but is solely focused on exposing hucksterism and societal failings in the diet and wellness industries. Before creating the podcast, Aubrey Gordon authored two books, What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Fat, and, “You Just Need to Lose Weight” and 19 Other Myths About Fat People—the latter of which was a New York Times and Indie bestseller. The extensive research Gordon had done while writing these books gave her an enormous knowledge base to work from when creating episodes of Maintenance Phase.
Noble Blood
Noble Blood is a podcast created by author, TV writer, and Twitter champion Dana Schwartz. Schwartz first gained attention from publishers through her parody Twitter accounts @GuyInYourMFA and @DystopianYA which parodied the work of young, pretentious, underdeveloped writers. In 2019, after working as a writer for The New York Observer and publishing three novels, Schwartz launched the podcast Noble Blood. In Noble Blood, she explores the history of tyrannical rulers, bloody royal courts, and lesser known stories of mishaps and tragedies in royal families. Unlike the previously mentioned podcasts, Noble Blood is mostly scripted and has very limited banter.
Cautionary Tales
Economic journalist Tim Harford hosts Cautionary Tales, an educational podcast that examines failures and difficult times throughout history, identifying patterns that are applicable to the present day. Fans of the podcast have described it as ‘book quality,’ and ‘better than Harford’s (still excellent) written work.’ Like Noble Blood, Cautionary Tales is mostly scripted and provides a listening experience similar to that of an audiobook.
Nocturnal
Bestselling science fiction and horror writer Scott Seigler is the author of two series, two trilogies, three stand alone novels, seven novellas, and many, many short stories. In 2004, Seigler’s novel Earthcore was performing well as a promotional ebook and was slated to be published in print until economic constraints caused the publisher to drop the book. Rather than press on through traditional publishing avenues, Seigler decided to promote his writing as a podcast. He was one of the earliest adopters of podcasting as a career tool and in 2005 Seigler launched the world’s first ever podcast novel. The EARTHCORE podcast was essentially an audiobook with each chapter released as one episode. By 2006, the EARTHCORE podcast was extremely popular and became a paid iTunes download. After the success of EARTHCORE, he went on to release five more novels as podcasts. After a few years, Seigler was able to leverage his podcast success, social media following, ebook and pdf download stats to gain footing with major publishers. Even after having his work published as physical books, adapted into a graphic novel and being courted by Rogue Pictures and Random House films, Seigler is still releasing his work in podcast form. His novel Nocturnal, released in 2022, is available as a free podcast. Based on his own comments on the subject of podcasting and publishing, it seems he has no plans to stop using podcasts as a megaphone for his written work.
Honorable mentions
While they live in more of a ‘personal brand’ space than the aforementioned podcasters, inspirational writers and speakers such as Glennon Doyle, Brene Brown, and Mel Robbins are some of the most well-known podcasters in the world, especially among female audiences over 30.
This list is far from exhaustive, and I would feel a little guilty if I didn’t mention some excellent podcasts by comedy writers: Las Culturistas created by Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers, B**** Sesh created by Danielle Shneider and Casey Wilson, Lady to Lady created by Babs Gray, Brandie Posey, and Tess Barker, Y’all Gay created by Ali Clayton and Ever Mainard, and countless other podcasts.
As this list demonstrates, podcasting can be part of a writer’s career at any stage. Some of these podcasts were created as a mid or late step in the professional lives of their creators. Others, like Scott Seigler’s podcasts, were a route around roadblocks in traditional publishing.
Whatever your writing goals are, there is a good chance that podcasting could be a stepping stone in your path to achieving them. More on that next month!
