Deez Interviews: Meet the podcast wunderkind who wants you to hustle as if no one’s watching, & live as if your computer could explode at any moment
Happy Friday, Deezers! This week’s interview is with Alex Laughlin, a ~Name To Know~ if you’re at all interested in the world of audio storytelling, and if you’ve ever listened to the NYT’s new podcast The Argument or BuzzFeed’s smart speaker show “Reporting to You.”
We talked to Alex about the podcast boom, adapting audio for the world’s biggest media brands, and the grad school course she teaches at CUNY. Enjoy!
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The interviewee: Alex Laughlin (follow her @alexlaughs!)
The gig: Audio producer
The day-to-day:
I’m a producer at Transmitter Media, which is an audio production company contracted by The New York Times to produce “The Argument.” We have a really quick turnaround for “The Argument,” so on Fridays, we have a prep call and I write a prep document with research and talking points for the hosts to reference during tapings. We tape on Tuesdays, and I turn around the raw tape and turn in the final mix by end of the day Wednesday. When I’m not working on the episode of the week, I’m booking guests for future episodes, planning live shows, and working on development for other podcasts that Transmitter produces.
You got your start in journalism via the world of social media/audience development — how did you make the transition into audio storytelling?
I got started by producing my own indie podcast where I interviewed women about their lives and careers — and it was BAD. But that was how I learned how to capture and edit audio, and I used it to make a case to my employer at the time, The Washington Post, to let me produce a show about multiracial identity. They let me spend half of my time working on it for several months, and it came out in 2017.
From there, I jumped to BuzzFeed, where I was a fellow on the audio team (BIG pay cut!) and worked two other freelance jobs to make ends meet. After a few months, they hired me on contract, and eventually converted me to full time (I was laid off from that job less than a year later, but that’s a story for another time!).
Between creating, launching, and producing podcasts at all of these major news brands, can you tell us a little about your approach to adapting each outlet’s voice for audio?
I think most people who work in media experience the kind of code switching you need to do when going from a place like BuzzFeed to The New York Times. It helps that as a producer, I often work with a host who has been at the publication for a while, so their voices already match the organization’s voice somewhat. I usually spend my time helping hosts sound more like themselves, and less like cable TV talking heads (which is how a lot of reporters are trained to behave on the mic). For the show I hosted at the Post, I was really lucky that I was able to really inhabit my own voice — and I think it sounds pretty different from their other shows!
What podcast/project are you proudest of?
I’m still really proud of Other, the show I made at the Post. It was the first BIG thing I made on my own, and I put everything I had into it. It’s rare to get to do that at all, and I’m proud that it exists.
It also felt special because I got to spotlight some amazing people right before they hit some super big breaks. So one of my sources, Katie Malia, is developing a TV show with IFC executive produced by Margaret Cho. I based another episode on the story of Anita Hemings, the subject of The Gilded Years, a book by Karin Tanabe. The Gilded Years has been greenlit by TriStar pictures to be adapted into a movie called “The White Lie,” starring Zendaya and produced by Hello Sunshine, Reese Witherspoon’s production company.
On top of everything else, you are also a lecturer at CUNY's graduate school of journalism. What's the most important thing you want your students to take away from your class?
It’s up to you to make your opportunities. There are a LOT of closed doors out there, and if there’s something you want to do, whether it’s producing podcasts and writing columns, you need to do everything you can to create those opportunities for yourself. Start your own thing! Pitch something every week! Do it yourself!
Another important, related thing: Don’t be afraid to be bad. Being bad at things is the only way you become good at them.
Finally: Save your money and archive your work as you go. Live as if your computer could explode at any moment, because it probably will.
Finally, New York mag recently wondered if this is the golden age of podcasts. What do you think? Is this as good as it gets before everything goes super corporate, or is it really only the beginning of the form?
These conversations always stress me out. We’re definitely in a boom, and I expect to see a bust in the next several years, which is definitely going to suck, but it will be OK.
People are still experimenting with new revenue streams and business models, and I think (hope) there’s going to be an evolution in the way people make and pay for good storytelling. But I guess this is an existential question about digital media at large — I don’t think it’s going anywhere, but I do hope we get our shit together to figure out how to pay our bills.
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Don’t forget to follow Alex @alexlaughs, and have a delicious weekend!