Podcast Thoughts

Podcasting In The Age of Pandemic Isolation

December 7, 2021 4:19 pm

We remember when the pandemic began. The rush for toilet paper, the looming uncertainty, the right wing bigotry and entitlement that turned a public health crisis–and one of the most bipartisan events in the world, mass death–into a political issue, which foreshadowed the conservative brain rot that would make too many people too stupidly prideful to get a vaccine this year.

Filtered in among all of these loud, chaotic moments was an awful lot of quiet. As we crept into isolation, either working from home or weathering in-person “essential” labor, we had to deal with the uncomfortable ambiguity of tomorrow. In an attempt to flatten the curve of infection, we resorted to the classic “hurry up and wait” strategy. What were we to do with the downtime that would otherwise be a commute or social activities?

Sitting idle in a time of crisis can be difficult, so a new creative outlet became a point of interest for many. While some people started doing TikTok dances or baking bread, others turned to podcasting. Whereas other forms of entertainment, like live performance or film and TV, carried clear safety hurdles, audio projects, which could be more easily conducted remotely and yield a project that bears no dissimilarity to pre-pandemic podcasts (to the listener at least), represented some untapped potential.

When the pandemic hit, that constant interpersonal time disappeared, and I was struck hard, emotionally and spiritually.
Lea Madda, Depressed and Sh*t

I should know; I started two podcasts during the pandemic. I’m not the only one. But how people picked up their headphones and found the mental energy to research audio editing programs amidst the slow-motion nightmare of last year varies from host to host, and we’ve all had strange roads to mid-lockdown podcasting.

(And to be clear, the pandemic isn’t over yet, thanks to the insipid obstinance of antivax conspiracy theorists and the craven selfishness of right-wing vampires. Wear your mask over your mouth and nose when near others, get your vaccine and booster if you haven’t already, and don’t do anything that conservatives would approve of on this or any other issue).

One person who turned to the unknown medium of podcasting is Darryl Edge, host of Cage Rage – A Nicolas Cage Podcast. “I was certainly aware of podcasting but it had never stuck out to me as an avenue to explore,” Edge says. “This may also be a cardinal sin to admit to but I never really listened to podcasts prior to starting my own!” Before the pandemic, Edge said that not only did he not fit podcasts into his daily life, he would also have had trouble finding the time to start any kind of projects of his own. “I’m a chronically unmotivated person at the best of times so finding the time to commit to a new hobby had always been a no-go for me. I have a full-time job and there’s usually some chores to get on with so any free time I had was spent elsewhere.”

Read more: The Podcasts Our Team Makes

For Edge, Cage Rage became a consistent part of his routine, something many people had trouble maintaining during lockdown. “It’s kind of become a regular staple of my life now,” he says, “As the week goes on, I find myself thinking ‘Ok, I need to whip up a promo image for the episode midweek and actually edit and post it by the weekend . . . So it’s certainly a feature of my life now.”

Lea Madda, host of mental health podcast Dep r essed and Sh*t similarly felt like she wouldn’t have been able to undertake a podcast project prior to lockdown: “I was a big podcast listener but never thought I had the smarts or natural ability to make my own . . . Previous to the pandemic, I fulfilled my creative impulses by doing theatre, which tended to be group-oriented projects. I was surrounded by people all the time – and I loved it. When the pandemic hit, that constant interpersonal time disappeared, and I was struck hard, emotionally and spiritually.”

Madda also turned to podcasting as a means of maintaining professional and social connections with her fellow creators: “My initial interest in diving into podcasting came from a need for an excuse to interact with people more. Podcasting is absolutely an artistic, creative medium, but for me, it has always been even more-so about relationships, the people, and the connection.” Depressed and Sh*t is an interview-heavy podcast in which Madda and guests talk about mental health struggles and personal histories with mental illness. Obviously there was a lot for Madda and guests to discuss over its first season.

While personal connection and a sense of routine helped motivate plenty of first-time podcasters, others found new motivation to create due to the new and old forms of bedlam occurring every day. Cole Burkhardt started two new audio fiction shows, Ritual Six and Null/Void. “Ritual Six was written in response to the pandemic and the BLM movement that began around the same time,” Burkhardt said. “It had been a vague idea before then but once the pandemic hit, I found more inspiration to sit down and flesh it out more. Seeing how creators treated marginalized people, especially Black/nonwhite creators, and how the community tends to throw folks under the bus and implode upon itself at the first opportunity, was enough inspiration that I needed to find a way to express my frustration, thus Ritual Six was born.”

For Burkhardt, the act of creating a podcast amidst the pandemic was fulfilling, but other elements that come with producing a show were less enjoyable. “I found I no longer had the energy to be engaged with the community. Social Media became a bit too draining and I stopped interacting online quite as much…I stopped listening to as many podcasts, definitely. I was unemployed for a few months and had zero commute time, which was generally when I listened to podcasts.”

I was able to give podcasting the attention it required. And once I launched new shows, that relationship only grew stronger
Mike Schubert, Multitude

Burkhardt isn’t alone in feeling a change in how podcasts fit into a daily routine. Even podcasters who had already worked on shows pre-pandemic felt a change in the relevance and focus of their work. Beyond finding new subject matter, the pandemic altered how people interacted with podcasts in their daily lives. Mike Schubert, host of Meddling Adults, Modern Muckraker, and The Newest Olympian, an experienced podcaster since 2016, said “My relationship with podcasting strengthened in terms of the amount of time devoted towards it, because with less going on in my social life, I poured more effort into my work. I also had to work harder just to maintain my podcasting career . . . I had to cancel an upcoming tour of live shows, and I started doing virtual live shows throughout lockdown instead.”

On the business end of things, Schubert had to deal with other new elements. “When companies were going into cost saving mode, a significant amount of my sponsorships were cancelled. Thankfully my Patreon support remained (and eventually grew after the initial onset of the pandemic) to buoy the loss in income I faced. So my relationship [with podcasting] certainly got more complex, but with more time on my hands, I was able to give podcasting the attention it required. And once I launched new shows, that relationship only grew stronger.”

Jay Petrequin of faux film rewatch podcast The Marmoset Chronicles, as part of The Orange Groves podcast network, had the unique experience of starting a show right before the onset of lockdown. “It’s funny. Kirsten [Meehan, cohost] came to me with the idea in December 2019, and we started recording in late February or early March,” Petrequin said. “Our first episode released on the Friday before lockdown started in the U.S.; an insane weekend, looking back on it. I was visiting a friend out of state on that Friday, and excitedly tweeted about the show even as we heard rumblings about grocery store panic and whatnot. That Sunday night, I got home, did my own pandemic stock-up shop at 10 p.m. after a 7-hour car ride, and then two days later lockdown began. Because of that timing, I definitely think about TMC as a chronicle of both of our mental states through the first few months of the COVID pandemic (we finished the show in August).”

The Marmoset Chronicles, being a finished podcast, has the unique distinction of being a show contained within the pandemic. While other long-running shows will have several months of pandemic episodes, and the other still-running shows in this article will ideally continue to have post-pandemic episodes, The Marmoset Chronicles, and all the other limited run shows like it, serve as dispatches from within the interminable new normal.

The creators interviewed for this piece, be they first-time podcasters or experienced producers, have felt the changes of the past 18 months reflected in how they interact with podcasts in general. For Lea Madda, it’s about a new appreciation for audio storytelling quality — and a new awareness of its faults. ”I am such an asshole now,” Madda says. “I will listen to shows and think ‘hello, who left so many ‘ums’ and ‘ahs’ in this conversation, can we please clean this up a bit?’ I’m always very dialed into show structure now – something an average listener may not even notice. I’ll listen to Marc Maron’s WTF podcast, for example, and notice that motherfucker’s intros are sometimes nearly 15 minutes long. Respect to him, that is a privilege he has earned.”

For Darryl Edge, getting into the podcasting craft also opened doors to a broader sense of connection with other creators. “Podcasting is also a community, too . . . I’ve met a bunch of superb folk through podcasting that I’d never had known about otherwise,” Edge says, noting that his artistic gratification has kept him going more than any fiscal incentive. “And make no mistake, there are so, so many podcasters out there who do this for free because they love it. I know my podcast is a niche area so I have no delusions of grandeur that it will one day suddenly top any charts. I’m just thankful that anyone listens to it and enjoys it!”

And make no mistake, there are so, so many podcasters out there who do this for free because they love it.
Darryl Edge, CAGE RAGE

For Jay Petrequin, seeing other people get into the podcasting game has offered an interesting bit of perspective. “It made me laugh a little,” said Petrequin of how the podcasting space has changed in the pandemic. “I listen to a good mix of indie shows with a few that are a little more produced; the type where two comedians or critics in a studio make enough money to pay a producer, that sort of thing. Those shows were impacted so much more by COVID than a lot of smaller ones, I think, because you heard people who were used to recording in-person suddenly have to adapt to how people like Kirsten and I had been doing it all along. It reminded me what kind of skills you build when doing something on no budget and across great distances, versus if you’re not.”

While the pandemic continues, it maintains an effect on how we perceive and interact with podcasting and audio storytelling writ large. This remote-safe medium, less susceptible to the production hang-ups of in-person gatherings, has been a means of making connections, making ends meet, and making the days go by. Even with vaccines and boosters in circulation, the allure and flexibility of audio storytelling remains appealing for those of us who have made it through the isolation with only the light of a laptop screen and the company of a USB mic.

Full Disclosure: the author of this piece has been a guest on Depressed and Sh*t with Lea Madda, and Cole Burkhardt is also a contributor at Discover Pods.