Why I Love Independent Podcasts: A Confession

 I am a podcast reviewer, so I am listening to podcasts I've never heard before all the time. My daily routine includes leaving my home in Southern New Jersey and walking six miles through several suburban housing developments, wooded areas, and working farms. 

There is no better feeling to start the day than anticipating listening to a podcast I've not heard before. FYI -- even if it's a video podcast, I still just listen. There's something soothing about the purity of just listening. It's like my sonic latte. 

Of course, I have a steady diet of podcasts that I listen to regularly. I'm not reviewing them or writing about them. Simply enjoying them. Those podcasts include Every Single Sci-Fi Film Ever, Multispective, Famous & Gravy, Podnews Weekly Review, and others. In the course of reviewing podcasts, I regularly add podcasts that I've reviewed to that list. Recently. I've added Tracing The Path, Echoes In The First Person, The Buzz, and The Currently Reading Podcast to that list. 

You may have started to see a pattern here. Most of the podcasts I listen to are independent. Not all of them, of course. The Daily, Planet Money, Switched On Pop, Explain it To Me, The Town, and others are all products of major institutions. 

I started to review independent podcasts exclusively a few years ago for several reasons. First, I was tired of writing about new celebrity interview podcasts in which originality has been skipped in favor of risk-free programming.

Second, big podcast networks care about money, profits, market share, domination, and, if that doesn't work, subjugation.

I wanted to feel good about what I was doing. I loved podcasts since they began about 20 years ago. A few years ago, I decided that I wanted to write about podcasts I love and about people who love podcasts. That's independent podcasters. Their passion for what they do is life-affirming. It's like being next to a blazing campfire. The heat spreads out over you whether you want it to or not.

To list the indie podcasters I've met, spoken with, and interacted with of the last few years would be in the thousands. We do about 250 reviews a year. I try not to intrude upon people or insert myself unnecessarily in podcast conferences and such because they are for indie podcasters to bond, learn, and grow. 

It isn't just the product these indie podcasters produce. It's their DNA. I think it's because independent podcasting requires the same traits needed to be a good and valued human being. They are hard-working and dedicated to their craft. Who else would work a job and then return home, go into their closet, and spend hours recording a podcast?

 They are naturally collaborative and intellectually curious. They're creative and they take risks. The unknown may scare some of them, but it doesn't intimidate them. They're fearless. 

For some of them, a hobby podcast is enough. But for many others, the dream is making enough money so that they can podcast full-time. Consequently, that is my dream -- for them. 

There are people who have been taking risks to support independent podcasts. Liam Heffernan of the Mercury Podcast Network is not only British but brave and bold. His countrymen in the U.K. -- Em McGowan and Emma Turner -- have been at the vanguard of leading the charge of indie podcasters via their Independent Podcast Awards.

When I made the switch to reviewing only independent podcasts, I was told by one of trusted advisors at Ear Worthy that my visibility as a podcast review publication would take a major hit if I no longer wrote about podcasts from these large podcast networks. One marketing person from a company that rhymes with Sondery told me, "You'll be out of business in six months."

I hope that person is not betting money on the prediction markets because Ear Worthy has never been healthier. I feel connected to these indie podcasters because we are in the same financial situation. Making money at what we love is hard, often frustrating, sometimes financially perilous, and, depending on the day of the week and mood, seemingly not worth it.

 When I was fortunate enough to snag a position at Forbes magazine writing about podcasts, I made a promise that I would try to infuse as much as possible about independent podcasts. The day I'm told I cannot do that will be my last day at Forbes.

The photos accompanying this article are just a visual snapshot of a few of the best and brightest I've encountered in the independent podcasting world. 

The other morning -- about 7 AM -- I began walking on a cool mid-June morning. The air was crisp, the birds were well into the third verse of their musical performance, the sun peeked above the trees, squirrels made wild dashes across streets, zigzagging like soldiers on D-Day in Normandy, and toddler rabbits couldn't decide if I was a threat or a nuisance. 

As I walked, my earbuds were filled with sounds of podcasts. First, Doug Downs on the history of color, then Danny Brown about burning CDs, then Jenn Trepeck about food allergy prevention, then Madison Schmidt about the history of hot air balloons, and finally Erin Carlson talking about my favorite Sherlock Holmes, Basil Rathbone. 

 When I returned home that morning, poured my second cup of coffee, I thought how lucky I was to be part of the world of independent podcasting in some small way.  

 I sat at my desk and looked at the screen. I had been working on a review of a Canadian podcast called The Slow Life by Jennifer Veinot. As I began to type, I thought again how fortunate I was. I've listened to enough episodes of The Life Shift, Multispective, or Walk And Roll Live -- Disability Stories to understand the life is hard. 

I'll end with one of my favorite quotes from Marcus Aurelius, the Stoic philosopher and Roman Emperor. He said, "Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking."