Exciting news: I’m launching a new podcast. No, Blocked and Reported is not going anywhere — it will continue to come out once a week for everyone, with three extra episodes per month for premium subscribers. This is an entirely separate, solo-hosted venture that will be available exclusively on the new “social podcasting” platform Callin. It’s called Singal-Minded Conversations, and it’s basically a spiritual successor to my initial babysteps foray into podcasting, a long-defunct podcast of the same title that consisted entirely of interviews with people I found interesting (that’s where my first-ever on-mic interactions with Katie Herzog took place). But with several twists!
Before the twists, the catch: To fully participate, you’ll have to download an app and sign up, and at the moment said app is only available for iPhone, though an Android version is around the corner (I am an Android man myself, so they sent me a loaner phone in the meantime).
But I think you should do that. It only takes a couple minutes and I’m really fascinated by the potential of this format. “Social podcasting” is basically a marriage of podcasting and call-in radio. Each episode is technically a ‘room’ where I am recording live in front of an audience, either alone or with a guest. Anyone who wants can add themselves to a call-in queue, and when I click on them they effectively join the podcast, on the hosting side, to ask me a question, compliment my impeccable fashion taste, call me a monster, or whatever else (there are obviously moderation tools that will allow me to banish any trolls and/or gamers who manage to sneak into one of my rooms). This allows for a lot of interesting potential back-and-forth, fun and freewheeling hangouts, and so on.
Unlike Callin’s most obvious competitor, Clubhouse, after a room ends, the host (me) can then edit the recorded audio and post it as a regular ol’ podcast episode that folks can listen to at their leisure, the only difference being that they can’t do so in traditional podcasting apps, but rather only via the Callin app or an episode’s webpage (here’s an example).
Here’s the link to my show, here’s the link to my profile page, and here’s the link to my first-ever episode, which will be going live at 9:00 p.m. Eastern time THIS VERY EVENING. For the first 45 minutes or so, I’ll just talk about my new venture and take any questions people have about anything, and after that I’ll be joined by Ethan Strauss to talk a bit about the NBA’s response to the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict (he’ll also be taking questions).
That’s it! That’s the pitch. This is all free so please consider downloading the app, following me, and subscribing to Singal-Minded Conversations. This will ensure you’re kept in the loop and show the folks at Callin that I’m off to a strong start. If you have any thoughts on how I should best maximize this new platform, please send me a message on there or email me. I could really use some feedback, as I am essentially working with a blank canvas here. It’s extremely exciting and I’m quite grateful to Callin for this opportunity, but it’s also a little scary. What if I choke on a slice of pizza live on-air?? Actually, if I have to die at some point (unclear), that’s how I want to go out.
Thanks as always for subscribing to this newsletter, and I hope to see you on Callin.
Would you mind letting us Morally and Intellectually Superior Android users in the loop when the Android version is fully released? I am aware I could do this myself, but I am what you would call "lazy" and "useless" but still want to participate.
I am too old for this and I can never even remember my apple password, but I downloaded the app and followed you because I will be forever grateful that you covered the actual complexity of youth gender transition despite it being against your self interest.