Podcasting hit RedFence’s radar about 15 minutes after it came into existence. Since then, the art of the digitally downloadable audio show has exploded in prevalence, quality and cultural penetration. Minds have been tickled. Funny bones have been blown. Fortunes have been . . . Well, some people are making a living.
A few have worked extremely hard and turned this free medium into small empires, or boosted otherwise faltering careers. And yet, we still sometimes get funny looks in response to the question, “What podcasts do you listen to?” (In person, we sometimes end a sentence with a preposition — just to fit in.) Or worse, we discover that some of the best shows have gone unheard. We find this unconscionable.
So, here, RedFence Editor Titus Gee begins a series — in no particular order — of podcasts any artist or art lover should be streaming during their next workout and/or late night dash to the drive thru.
Required Listening #1
The Dinner Party Download
by Titus Gee
One night in 2008, two young radiomen stayed after work to borrow their company’s equipment for a little experiment, or so the story goes.
Rico Gagliano, who also has written for print and television, including MTV and the Cartoon Network, and helped found an L.A. sketch comedy troupe.
Rico Gagliano and Brendan Francis Newnam were working for American Public Media’s economics show, Marketplace. They liked the work, but dreamed of hosting their own show on a subject that would be more . . . well, to put it bluntly, more fun.
They were young, artistic and sociable. They also were journalists — which is to say, walking encyclopedias of information on a vast array of topics. So they created “the culture show that helps you Win your weekend dinner parties.”
The show runs like its namesake, starting with an endearingly bad joke as the “Ice Breaker,” moving on through small talk and culminating in an interview with a “Guest of Honor” artist. In between is a fast-paced, light-hearted collection of segments about everything from indie music and off-beat news to etiquette questions and cocktails invented in honor of historical events.
The show thrives on the particular chemistry of the hosts combined with their technical prowess and the access to news and celebrities that comes with their public radio ties. And it doesn’t hurt that they are among the best interviewers in the business, with a seemingly unquenchable curiosity and dedication to “asking people smart questions,” as Newnam put it in their 300th-episode retrospective.
Brendan Francis Newnam, still writes for outlets including Dwell and Modern Farmer, and has a tattoo of the word tattoo.
After extensive research we have discovered that a weekly dose does, in fact, make us more interesting at parties — or at least makes us feel that way (especially once the custom cocktails start flowing).
What started as a 15-minute podcast that Newnam and Gagliano created in their spare time, soon caught the attention of APM, which apparently gave it a tiny bit of funding. Soon other public radio hosts were taking an interest, and the pair started doing a short, late-week preview of the podcast on the air. Now, seven years and more than 300 episodes later, The Dinner Party has grown to an hour-long show that also plays weekly over the public radio airwaves.
Which brings up an interesting point:
Among all the amusing, fascinating and obscure things that Rico and Brendan have taught us, over the years, perhaps the most striking is that radio and podcasting need not be enemies. The Dinner Party Download both shaped public radio and was shaped by it — to the great improvement of both. Indeed, we could argue that they have proved the two audio media are in fact one, delineated only by the delivery system.
We’ll stick to the podcast, frankly, preferring the pause-able , rewindable version that is always there when we want it. But if the radio happens to be tuned to NPR, and those familiar voices come on air to hail the coming weekend, we’ll spare an extra smile for the boys who bridged the gap.
“vince tuum convivium” Translation: Conquer your guest.
