Making a New Podcast

And you can help by filling out the survey at the bottom of this post!

Portrait of my workspace. Sorry for the mess

So last week I posted here about my frustrations with the current state of the podcasting industry. I've got what I believe is a strong concept for a new podcast—something I'm very excited to put out into the world, but it will demand real reporting, time, and money. Over the last year, I've pitched the show to almost every major entity in the podcast industry and been turned down by everyone because they think it will be too expensive to produce. Many have countered by saying “well what about a weekly chat show? but that isn’t something I'm interested in, and I don’t think it’s what anyone wants to hear from me anyway. I think there's a better way.

That's where you come in! Maybe you can help make this possible. I've been seriously considering that a membership model might be the solution. If this is the path forward, it's important to me that I'm building something that you're excited about. So I’ve made a survey for potential listeners of this new project. If you are at all interested in hearing me make a show again, it would mean a lot to me if you could fill this survey out.

I won’t pretend that the idea of doing this without the backing of a company really scares me. But I have thought a lot about the tradeoffs I will make in going it alone (and to be clear when I say alone I mean independent, not completely by myself - there are so many people I’d like to work with) and it feels a lot like doing the trapeze with no net below me. We all know how well that went for the Grayson family. At the same time, it really sucks to make something and not own it. At Spotify they were frequently trying to make deals to turn podcasts into movies, and the financial windfall for that work, in most cases, would solely enrich the company. Not the people who made it. At this point, if Spotify wanted to reboot Reply All with a hosting slate of 8-year-olds, or open a line of Reply All sandwich shops, that’s their prerogative. They own the name, they own the episodes. I want the people who make things with me to be able to write books based on stories they make with me, and be enriched if Hollywood (or a sandwich conglomerate) comes calling.

So it’s scary times! But also exciting times! I really miss reporting and I’m excited to get back to it. I hope you can find the time to fill out this survey. No matter what, thank you so much for reading. I’m happy to field questions in the comments.

Click the below link to fill out the survey. 

Membership Survey:https://bit.ly/44bNseE

Thanks again for your support, and there’s more Cool Dude Zone coming soon. In the meantime, here’s a couple songs I’ve been listening to lately,

- Alex