“This sucks, but here’s what I’m doing” 💪

A hopeful approach to audio’s fallow season

“Dude, read the room.” That’s what producer Katie Feather wrote in a recent LinkedIn post. She was still seeing audio folks on her feed sharing their awards or high-profile new jobs. In a moment when so many audio producers are struggling, it felt tone deaf. 

She goes on to write that it’s important for producers to acknowledge the challenging phase we’re in … to stand up and say, “this sucks, but here’s what I’m doing”. She also writes that there is as much to be gained from a fallow season as there is from a bountiful one, if not more. That hopeful note really resonated with me, and I wanted to hear more about what Katie’s doing, why she’s calling out major podcasters, and how she keeps her motivation. 

Katie Feather is story editor and producer for public radio and podcasts. She is Co-founder and Executive Director of Hometown History NJ, which makes narrative audio documentaries about New Jersey history. She taught an audio production class at NYU, and has worked for Gimlet, Wondery and Sugar23.

Tell me why you’re thinking about your career as being in a fallow season at the moment. 

I’ve worked in audio since 2014. I don’t need to tell anyone reading this how much things have changed since Sarah Koenig got behind the mic and taught us all about serialized storytelling. In 2021 I moved from full-time production work to freelance story editing and was able to make a decent living at it. But I’ve spent the last year and half watching my freelance workload shrink to less than half my household income. I’ve had to adjust to the reality that if the audio industry doesn’t change, then I might have to. 

Why did you write that LinkedIn post?

A lot of people in the audio space are feeling powerless. People in industry listservs are decrying the state of the audio job market. Influential voices like Mia Lobel have been outspoken about how stretched thin podcast budgets are expected to get. At the same time powerful audio companies seem to blatantly ignore the suckiness that most of us are dealing with. I took to LinkedIn to call out some of the tone deaf behavior I’ve seen from some major podcasters. It’s turned that platform from a networking tool into a bulletin board for bragging. 

The point of that LinkedIn post was to be a voice challenging the narrative that everyone is doing ok, or maybe that your next role in audio is one or two more applications away. I think audio is experiencing a paradigm shift. Just look at the major podcasters that are slashing budgets and laying off workers. They’re trying to hold on to a system that was working for them, but is clearly changing. So why are we working so hard to cling to this sinking ship? 

You wrote: “Don’t let the bragging posts on LinkedIn make you feel like you’re not doing something right. Stand up and say ‘this sucks, but here’s what I’m doing’.” So what are you personally doing during this fallow season?

I recently wrote about an interaction I had with an early career audio person that changed my perspective and my trajectory in this industry [page 17 of Sound Sorcoresses July issue]. From that conversation I realized that I don’t want to quit audio itself. I want to quit the landscape that has made working in audio feel like a knock down, drag out, winner-take-all fight to the death. 

I started thinking about what it would be like to hit pause on the 24/7 freelance job hustle. What would that leave me with? The answer was a lot of time and a solid set of audio skills. Those felt like two assets I could put to good use.

I live in a small town in North/Central NJ that has been around since the 1720s. Everywhere you look there’s a historic building that I know very little about. I also discovered that my local library had an untapped archive of documents about the history of the town. A simple exploration of those archives yielded a ton of amazing story ideas. Now I had some time and a skillset and a genuine desire to learn something cool about my hometown.

That was more or less the idea that kicked off Hometown History, NJ a podcast about the iconic events and people that make a town some place people call home. When my creative partner Ryan Ross and I first sat down to sketch out what Hometown History would be, we settled on goals that weren’t financial. And since we weren’t getting paid, we had to be extremely realistic about our partnership. We started out committing just three hours a week to the project, which is a laughably small amount of time. 

It’s now grown from a side project to a small non-profit with a lot of potential. I never would have guessed this endeavor would have sent me down the path of running my own small business, but that’s what happens when you give yourself the freedom to follow your creative instincts.

How do you find the motivation to work on a ‘passion project’?

I don’t think I could have succeeded in making season one of Hometown History NJ without a creative partner in crime. Had it just been me, I would have pursued the idea until I encountered the first stumbling block or unexpected illness or family emergency and then never returned to it. Instead, I had someone who was keeping me accountable. Every week I felt like I would be letting Ryan down if I didn’t accomplish what I said I would. There would be times when one of us would have to go focus on our actual job, in which case the other one would grab the reins and keep the momentum going. 

We also had a lot of fun with the project. In fact, we both agreed when we started Hometown History NJ  that if we weren’t having fun then we wouldn’t keep doing it. That was really important for maintaining perspective. If you’re investing time and resources into making something that isn’t bringing in income, then you’ve got to benefit from it in some other way. 

What would you say to any producers out there who might be losing heart?! 

I’ve said before that I think the audio industry is experiencing a metamorphosis, but that it will bounce back in another form. Think about the innovations in streaming audio that had to take place for us to even get here in the first place. There’s no reason to think the industry won’t transform again and give creators a way to sustain and get paid for their work. And that transformation could come from something someone is working on right now, which is why it’s important to share what you’re doing. I think no matter what, sharing inspires others to keep going, keep innovating, keep thinking about what the next phase of this industry could look like. 

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In that spirit, I’ll share that I’m currently working on my first personal story in audio - memoir meets reporting - very much a passion project. I’ve also started a text chat with three amazing audio freelancers, to give notes / support / pointers on each other’s work. It’s reassuring and motivating 📻💌

I would really love to hear what you’re working on at the moment: whether it’s a personal project or driving change in the industry. Let me know in the comments under this post.

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Events and classes

🌻 How to Make Podcast Friends ~ free webinar offered by Tink Media ~ 30 July (waitlist only)

🌻 AudioSpice listening party ~ Brooklyn, NY ~ 30 July

🌻 SoundPath classes:

Managing People to Managing Productions: A How to Guide for Editors and Producers with Mia Lobel ~ Starts 9 September 

How to Pitch Podcast Executives and Get Your Show Made with TJ Raphael ~ Starts 9 September

From Idea to Launch: How to Create a Sustainable Podcast with Laurel Morales ~ Starts 17 September 

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Jobs 

🐚 Morning Edition Host ~ WBUR ~ Boston, MA

🐚 Floating Producer ~ WBUR ~ Boston, MA

🐚 Producer, Fresh Air ~ WHYY ~ Philadelphia, PA

🐚 Producer ~ Wonder Media Network ~ New York, NY

Thanks for reading and supporting The Audio Storyteller.