What podcasting means to me

Seeing this piece of art by Katie Zhu pop up in my Instagram feed yesterday inspired me to write this piece today. She writes: “podcasts are the new blogs 😅 i considered words my primary means of expression for many years. but i’ve enjoyed the creativity and different type of expression in creating audio and visual stories over the last year.” Hear her on Sweet and Sour, and check out her wonderful hundred-day illustration project on Instagram. Should We and Sweet and Sour go way back; we took the stage together at our live show last year!

The other weekend, I walked up to the red door at Women’s Audio Mission just as Lisa turned onto the side street in the back of a Lyft. The symmetry felt like good news: we were back. Veronica, the producer we’ve always worked with there, opened the door and ushered us in. We plunked down in our chairs and I felt right at home.

Since Lisa and I started making Should We in 2015, podcasting has gradually become my favorite medium to work in. Is that possible? Our podcast started as a way to avoid writing—no surprise. It became a bigger and bigger deal as we realized how easy it felt to make room for the kinds of conversations we love to have, and to hear as listeners: spacious, true, full of surprises. Our first season was raw, our second season was more structured, our third season was full of ambition, and our fourth season is simple: just us, recording real talk whenever we feel like it.

Albert Lee once shared with me and Lisa that his job as a coach is to create space for clients to hear themselves think. That’s what podcasting is for me: a way to hear Lisa think, hear myself think, and leave plenty of room for listeners to hear themselves think, too. It’s different from writing—more ragged. What I love about rough edges is that they’re a way in.

Listen to the new season of Should We on Breaker, the best app for listening to podcasts—built by some of the best people, including the one I married.