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You know that feeling when you go back to visit your parents in your hometown and they send you out to the hardware store and you bump into your high school sweetheart/attractive worst enemy/mysterious and alluring stranger? And then after a series of accidents/coincidences you find love with each other, against all odds?
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After a few months of traveling, I’ve come back to my hometown, which is Toronto, and moved back home with my mother, who lives in… midtown Toronto. Not exactly the stuff of Hallmark movies.
However! One of my favourite parts of living with my mother is watching Hallmark movies together on the nights we’re both home. This week, that was every night, because we were all home sick with a cold. Even my sister, who was in town for a family wedding, had the cold. And you know what? It was very cozy.
I’ve always thought it would be fun to write a Hallmark movie. And you know who is sorely lacking in representation in Hallmark movies?
Podcast producers.
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One of these days, I’ll talk about Only Murders In The Building
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But until we get a Christmas movie about podcast producers, what we do have is… good deals on gear? I guess?
The Vocal Fry producers have been working with the question: do we participate in Black Friday?
On the one hand, our values aren’t exactly in step with a day that’s all about consumerism at the expense of, you know… the planet. And often, labour rights. But on the other hand, there’s no ethical consumption under capitalism.
And on the other other hand (I’m going to need to borrow some hands), who are we to avert our eyes from good deals, in this economy?
All of which is to say, we’ve been scouring the internet for deals that might be appealing to podcast producers and/or appreciators.
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Here are our Black Friday picks.
We gotta kick it off with iZotope, because this is the sale that any and every podcast producer should take advantage of. iZotope plug-in bundles can be thousands of dollars, but right now you can literally save hundreds and get some of the best plug-ins in the biz. Do not sleep on iZotope’s Black Friday deals.
Riverside is doing 50% off their annual subscription - it's how we've been recording most of our remote recordings during the pandemic.
Klevgrand has slashed prices on their audio plug-ins.
Get thee down to your local Long and McQuade and check out their deals in person. For example — you can get a Focusrite interface for $150!
The Toronto Star has a great subscription deal on right now — you can get 12 months for $12.
The Logic also has a subscription sale of 75 percent off any subscription — which is a big deal, because an annual subscription is normally $299! Use the code CYBER75.
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Here's what else we have our eye on this week:
Our very own Kattie Laur wrote up a list of Canadian podcast recommendations for EarBuds Podcast Collective! You might even spot some familiar names on there.
A very cute call for submissions: send WNYC's Lulu Miller audio postcards of your animals snoozing! Check out the tweet for details. Deadline to send them to terrestrials@wnyc.org is December 1.
The fine folks over at Tink Media wrote a great post about how to approach your holiday marketing plan, and they have some really fun ideas.
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The Globe and Mail is hiring a senior producer for The Decibel, the Globe’s daily news podcast. You’d be leading a wonderful team of four audio journalists and a host — dream job for people who love daily news!
Pacific Content is hiring a part-time producer. It’s not entirely clear what show they’re hiring for — or whether it is for a specific show — and the salary is not listed.
While doing my usual perusal of the CBC job board, I noticed a few jobs related to the Olympics. My first thought was: didn’t we already have the Olympics this year? And the answer to that is yes. But these jobs are all eighteen-month contracts that start in January 2023, and presumably go until after the summer Olympics in 2024. Without further ado, here are those jobs:
CBC Sports is hiring a producer for brand integration for the 2024 Olympics. This is a temporary, full-time job starting in January. Apply by EOD December 2.
CBC Sports is hiring a senior producer, assigned as Olympic Editorial Lead. This is a temporary, full-time job starting in January. Apply by EOD December 1.
CBC Sports is hiring a producer for Olympic features. It’s a full-time, one-year contract, which suggests to me that this job might not start for a few months. Apply by EOD November 29.
Slate is hiring a co-host for ICYMI, a twice-weekly podcast about internet culture.
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If you’re just starting out in the podcast industry, Immigrantly is hiring a podcast assistant. It’s $20/hour, so the pay is low — but it’s capped at 7-10 hours a week, so it could be a suitable job for someone who needs the experience and has another job. Applications close today.
Did you know that the Government of Canada provides a calculator for you to figure out what to charge out-of-province clients? Now you do!
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One of my favourite episodes of Well Said, the show we made with Indigo, was an interview with Emily and Amelia Nagoski about their book, Burnout. When I heard that Emily had started a new podcast based on her first book, Come As You Are, I was intrigued. It's a sex-ed podcast rooted in science, but what I think makes it really work is Emily’s dorm-advisor demeanor. She takes the kind of nerdy approach that makes it easy to address issues that can sometimes be awkward or uncomfortable, like changes in desire or questions about anatomy.
If you get sick of someone saying “your body is normal” a thousand times, this might not be the show for you. But you know what? In our current dumpster fire timeline, it’s not such a bad thing to remind ourselves that things we think are weird are actually fine and aren’t necessarily problems that need to be solved.
I also love the framework they use to set up the show. The prelude episode is a conversation with adrienne maree brown, author of Pleasure Activism. So, right off the top, they’re making the connection between pleasure and liberation — and that sex is a part of that, but not the only part of that.
One of the reasons I love podcasts is because they’re such a great tool for lifelong learning. If you’re interested in learning more about pleasure and human sexuality, Come As You Are is an upbeat, welcoming, and definitely educational listen.
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We want to hear from you! What are you looking for in your podcast news? Let us know on Twitter, Instagram, or by email at info@vocalfrystudios.com.
Thanks to Emily Latimer for editing this newsletter, and to Katie Jensen for designing it.
We’ll see you again on December 2. Until then, here’s an update from Katie’s sister's Senegal parrot Margie, who got stuck in the curtains.
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Yours in friends and fries,
Michal
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