[powerpress]
Podcasting began as an obscure, embarrassing hobby for the RadioShack enthusiast.
Then the medium became the most powerful new form of new media. Now there’s a sense of audience saturation, and the pace of it feels like a hundred years compressed into five. We’re at an inflection point.
Set against this cultural backdrop, streaming tells a similar story. Netflix, once a haven for documentary filmmakers, is no longer a hospitable home. Today the platform is algorithmically driven, and what that has produced is the vanilla middle we’re all seeing.
And yet art always finds a way. The creative voice, the storytelling, the transgressiveness. It always ekes out.
Which brings me to two people who’ve felt every bit of that upheaval.
Malcolm Gladwell needs little introduction here: The Tipping Point, Outliers, Revisionist History, and Pushkin. Back for his third appearance (eps. 692 and 1002). Kenya Barris is new here. He created Black-ish, co-created America’s Next Top Model, and co-wrote Girls Trip. But he’s not just a writer and creator. He showruns, produces, makes documentaries, and is now stepping into the creator economy. He’s built an empire. I went to his studio. It’s rare air he occupies.
Together they host The Unusual Suspects, an Audible Original now in its second season, where the two of them sit down with people from each other’s worlds.
What they share is a tremendous amount of curiosity about the world, a curiosity that infuses their creative works. What differentiates them is the lens.
The conversation covers:
- The Journalistic Lens & the Comedic Lens
- Inglewood, Organic Chemistry & Wanting to Be Spike Lee
- Manifestation, Jinxes & the Sacredness of a Creative Idea
- Richard Pryor, Tom Bradley & the Price of Assimilation
- Walking Away From $100 Million & a 7 a.m. Call From Ted Sarandos
- The Vanilla Middle & Why Art Always Finds a Way
- Brands as Patrons & Taylor Sheridan’s Ranch
- Podcasts as the New Magazines & Advice for Young Creatives
For those who prefer a visual experience, the conversation is available on YouTube. As always, the audio version streams wild and free on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Peace + Plants,
Listen, Watch, & Subscribe
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