I'm Against Podcasts

> Lou Reed made it pretty big though.

Not compared to the influence he had on other musicians. The general music loving public is not THAT familiar with him. He was a musician's musician. (Also an asshole and abuser of women, which has nothing to do with this discussion, but I can't praise him without mentioning this.)

> There's something phoney about podcasts. I see most podcasts as similar to TED talks or books by Malcolm Gladwell.

Ironically, Malcolm's podcast "Broken Records" has an episode where Rick Rubin discusses this, in a way. He said something to the effect that all musicians start out copying their favorite musicians, until they find their own sound.

I think this is the same for podcasts. Most podcasters are new to the form, so they haven't had the time to find their voice yet. They're still figuring it out.

Ira Glass himself speaks to this point:

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”

It's pretty clear what's happening here: the author prefers music to podcasts, and then tries his best to make some sort of argument to justify this. His arguments are at best nonsensical and at worst completely contradictory.

I was considering writing out a response to each of his points but it's honestly not worth my time. A lot of what the author says is a blatant slap in the face to podcasters that spend so many hours tinkering with their work. Quotes like "By sound good, I meant that I wanted podcasts to sound considered." and "...podcasters aren’t thinking hard enough about what their talk sounds like" are ridiculous if you know any serious or notable podcaster in person.

One reason why this might be happening [to the author] is because the author wants podcasts to be more like music, but the reality is that even though music and podcasts are competing for the same resource (ears) their goals are mostly different. The primary differentiating factor is that podcasts almost always aim to convey some concrete information to the listener, and this constraint will always limit the ways the information can be transmitted to the listener (as opposed to music, which is more free-form in nature and isn't necessarily subjected to any restrictions).

Why is this taking up space on the Washington Post? Doesn't this belong on a personal blog or on twitter? Or better yet in private diary? My response is as follows: I'm against self-indulgent, curmudgeonly writing like this intended for public consumption being given the patina of approval by respectable publications like the Washington Post.

Keep in mind the author is a pop music critic, so of course he's against anything that could impact his income.

Really? I hear that some people do not like the "NPR voice". OK, that's a criticism of the format, I suppose.

But to then compare Ira Glass/TAL with TED or Malcolm Gladwell stretches credulity.

TAL is the pinnacle, the granddaddy of storytelling, of many types, shapes, and colors. It can't be painted with a single brush. Ira Glass usually speaks for a couple of minutes of each episode.

I would challenge you to listen to some of the classic episodes and then tell me it still reminds you of TED:

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/513/129-cars

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/570/the-night-in-question

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/414/right-to-remain-silent/...

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/355/the-giant-pool-of-money

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/206/somewhere-in-the-arabia...