The Grind Hotline; The Writer; Audio Indies; Crow’s Feet, The Grudge; PodGround Micro-Grant; Buzzworthy Radio In Hollywood
This Week’s Indie Star: Angela Holowell (Honey & Hustle podcast) — Angela has written one of the defining essays on conducting podcast interviews.
Titled The Science Behind Great Interviews, here is an excerpt: “Research is the part people love to romanticize. They want to appear as though they did a deep dive into their guest, while secretly doing the laziest version of it (like scrolling their Instagram for three minutes and calling it journalism). Real research is less about facts and more about context. What do they return to again and again? What topics do they light up around? What do they do outside of work that might explain how they think?”
The Grind Hotline
What’s This Podcast About: The Grind Hotline is a worker-first news and business podcast that analyzes layoffs, AI job pressure, and corporate restructuring from the employee’s side.
Who Will Enjoy This Podcast: Anyone who cares about workers and the people who make the money for large corporations and small businesses.
Creator/Host: Harj Singh recalls: “I spent nearly two decades working across banking and financial services, and that chapter of my career ended around 2020. After leaving the industry, I began building my own businesses and independent income sources. I wanted to create a safety net that no employer could suddenly take away from me. That journey eventually contributed to the creation of The Grind Hotline.
What I love about the show: It's worker-focused. Enough with the podcasts about successful entrepreneurs. How about the millions of people who do their work with passion and skill every day and are rewarded with layoffs because the corporation needs to boost its stock price? This show grew out of the personal tribulations of Harj Singh, who was laid off via text.
Recommended Episode to start listening with: August 14, 2026 — Big Tech Layoffs 2026: Meta Is #1, and Profits Won’t Save You. The Grind Hotline presents about five-minute episodes on current or impending layoffs. Recent episodes included Wells Fargo Layoffs 2026: 79,000 Workers Gone. Charlie Scharf Isn’t Done, Citibank Layoffs 2026: 5,000 Jobs Gone. Citi Isn’t Done, and Free Layoff Tracker 2026: Corporate Stress Index + 7-Question Job Threat Check.
Creator/Host Harj Singh states: “The long-term vision is to build a durable media and workforce intelligence platform that helps people recognize corporate pressure before the company memo reaches them.”
The Writer Podcast
What’s This Podcast About: The Writer podcast uses a future war as a backdrop to a dialogue about the nature of truth and the power of propaganda. When Americans hear that a nation’s nuclear capability has been obliterated and then six months later it is one of the pretexts for starting a war, truth becomes untethered from reality. When a large swath of the American population denies that our chief executive had a convicted pedophile as one of his closest friends and that their past joint actions were being denied and covered up by a slavish conservative media, truth becomes subservient to political obsessions.
Who Will Enjoy This Podcast: Anyone who loves speculative fiction, audio drama, political thrillers, and apocalyptic stories.
Creator/Host: Oliver Smuhar is a multi-award-winning Australian writer. He has published 4 books, completed 15 book manuscripts, written several screenplays for film and television, and crafted various comic book scripts for illustrators.
What I love about the show: His podcast creation has cinematic sound design, professional audio recording, an atmospheric score, and a complex character arc. Clearly, Mr. Smuhar is comfortable with world-building.
Recommended Episode to start listening with: Season one, all eight episodes.
Be on the lookout for season two of The Writer in 2027 and for the re-release of Season one with a full voice cast.
Audio Indies Podcast
What’s This Podcast About: Audio Indies is a specialized show designed for audio-first and audio-only creators who prioritize the pure listening experience over video elements. After all the unnecessary gushing over video podcasts, audiophiles need a place to revel in sonic purity.
The show extols an “Audio-First Rule.” It is built around the concept that episodes should never require video to be fully understood.
Who Will Enjoy This Podcast: Audio podcast fans and those who appreciate the sonic power of audio podcasts.
Creator/Host: Matthew McLean
What I love about the show: The show focuses on independent audio creators and puts the listening experience first. Despite what you may have heard, audio podcasting is not dead or dying.
Recommended Episode to start listening with: July 8, 2026 — Interview Skills, Learning From Radio, & the Definition of a Podcast, With James Cridland
Crow’s Feet: Life as We Age
What’s This Podcast About: Crow’s Feet: Life As We Age on the Medium platform (www.medium.com/crows-feet) offers a lively and informative collection of written essays on aging, with new pieces added daily. Since its debut in June 2019, the publication has quickly grown in popularity with contributing writers and readers alike. Currently, Crow’s Feet: Life As We Age features the work of more than 600 contributing writers, 30,000 followers, and more than 6,000 visitors a day. Crow’s Feet: Life As We Age includes podcasts, classes, and information to help change the perception of aging.
Who Will Enjoy This Podcast: Seniors; anyone concerned about aging, and caregivers.
Creator/Host: Crow’s Feet: Life As We Age is a volunteer-run publication, created by people who have decades of experience in publishing and marketing, but also in a variety of careers, like nursing and financial planning, or raising a family.
What I love about the show: Getting older can zap your zest for life, as dopamine — your “Whoo-Hoo!” brain chemical — diminishes over time. In one episode, for example, health and fitness writer Linda Melone gives listeners ten ways to get your mojo back (most without breaking a sweat). This show doesn’t shunt older people to the sidelines.
Recommended Episode to start listening with: April 1, 2026 — Crow’s Feet Extra: How to Get Your Mojo Back.
Check out the August episodes: On August 12th, Author, advocate, and “proud " crone Stella Fosse talks about writing erotica; On August 26th, Don’t Walk Away author Marilyn Raichle talks about finding hope for those with dementia and their loved ones.
PodGround Creator Micro-Grant of 2026
According to Remi Roy, “We’re currently accepting applications for the third and final PodGround Creator Micro-Grant of 2026, created to support independent podcasters with funding and resources to keep creating, growing, and bringing meaningful stories to their audiences. In this round, two podcasters will each receive a $500 micro-grant, plus one year of free podcast hosting from our partner, rss.com.
VOLT Productions proudly supports the grant.
Grant Details: Applications Open: September 1st — 12th, 2026; Number of winners: 2; Grant amount: $500 per winner; Additional prize: One year of free podcast hosting from rss.com; Sponsor: VOLT Productions; Past grant winners: podground.io/grant/winners
“At PodGround, we believe independent podcasters deserve access to the resources, visibility, and support they need to continue telling stories that matter. Through the Creator Micro-Grant, we’re creating a small but meaningful way to invest directly in the people building and contributing to the podcasting ecosystem.”
You can find the full details and application here: podground.io/grant
The Buzz — Buzzworthy Radio meets the stars!
Friend of Ear Worthy, fellow South Jerseyan, and creator/host of the long-running entertainment industry podcast, The Buzz — Buzzworthy Radio, NaVell J. Lee traveled to Hollywood in late August.
He told us, “I came to Los Angeles to cover Televerse 2026 for The Buzz — BuzzWorthy Radio, and I can honestly say this weekend exceeded every expectation. I was credentialed to cover the festival, secured multiple red carpet opportunities, and came away with nearly 30 interviews with actors, creators, and entertainment personalities.”
Some of the major highlights included:
🎙️ Michael Urie, Jessica Williams & Jason Segel — Shrinking
🎙️ Connor Paolo, Nick Wechsler, Gabriel Mann, Josh Bowman, Henry Czerny & Emily VanCamp — Revenge
🎙️ Quinta Brunson, Tyler James Williams & Janelle James — Abbott Elementary
🎙️ Justin Hartley — Tracker
🎙️ Tom Pelphrey — TASK
🎙️ Patrick Ball — The Pitt
🎙️ Richard Gadd — Half Man
🎙️ Kate O’Flynn — Widows Bay
🎙️ Brad Caleb Kane — Crystal Lake
🎙️ Colin Hanks, Jennifer Candy-Sullivan & Sean Stuart — John Candy: I Like Me
🎙️ Kareem Rahma — SubwayTakes
…and that’s only SOME of the conversations he had that weekend.
NaVell continues: “From the red carpets to the press rooms to the one-on-one interviews, I had the opportunity to connect with some incredible talent and bring those conversations back to the BuzzWorthy Radio audience. And to think, just days ago I was sitting at home wondering, ‘Am I actually going to get approved for Televerse?’”
“The answer was YES. And I made the most of it. Nearly 30 interviews. One unforgettable weekend. One very grateful host.”
The interviews are coming soon to BuzzWorthy Radio.
The Grudge Mini-Series launches from the Echoes In The First Person History Podcast
Echoes in the First Person is a storytelling podcast that reclaims overlooked narratives and breathes life into the forgotten and the misremembered.
Each episode offers a cinematic encounter with the past, where emotional truth takes center stage. Echoes in the First Person reclaims history’s unspoken truths — through vivid soundscapes, careful storytelling, and voices once pushed to the margins. What we share is drawn from lived experience, cultural memory, and historical research, shaped by empathy and artistic license. The echoes are real, even when the dialogue is imagined.
The music sets the mood for each episode and almost feels like a character in the depiction. The intro and outro music has an almost violin-pizzicato style that signals the narrative's gravitas. Creator/Host and friend of Ear Worthy, Michael Washington Brown’s narrative style is theatrical, faintly Shakespearean in tone, and mesmerizing. He draws emotion from his voice and creates vivid images with carefully enunciated words.
Now, Mr. Brown has developed a mini-series called The Grudge, which he describes as “A story about the moment a partnership fractures — not in the headlines, but in the quiet shift that changes everything. The Grudge traces how a single turning point deepens, hardens, and becomes the force neither side can walk away from.”
The first episode is about two inventors/innovators — Thomas Alva Edison and Nikola Tesla.
Check out books by Frank Racioppi. Everything from novels and nonfiction to podcasting books and essays. Coming in 2027: The Best Independent Podcasts Of 2027.
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