We interrupt Bills Week to bring you some good news: Defector is launching two new podcasts in partnership with Radiotopia!
When Kelsey and I handed off Normal Gossip to Rachelle and Se’era in December, people asked what was next, and we said “:) I don’t know yet :)” but that was a lie—at least on my end. I was actually several months into developing two new shows, and the time has finally come to tell you about them!
The first is called Try Hard and it’s hosted by … me!
In every episode, I help one person try to do something new, from playing in a pickup basketball game to singing karaoke in front of a room of strangers.
You know that feeling you get before you do something new, like your stomach is about to fall out of your butt? I'm obsessed with that feeling because usually when you push past it, there's something really cool on the other side. Try Hard is a show where I help people push through that moment of "Oh my god why am I doing this" and try the thing they always wanted to do.
Most of us have that thing we would do if we just had more time, or if we scrolled a tiny bit less, or if we just admitted to ourselves that we wanted to do it. Sometimes the thing is big and life-changing, but more often, it’s surprisingly small. It’s noodling around on the dusty guitar that’s been sitting against your wall for years, or sketching something in your notebook between calls.
So that’s what we’re doing in this podcast. Ten extremely brave people agreed to put themselves out there in vulnerable, sometimes embarrassing ways, and we recorded the whole thing for you. They each decided on a skill they wanted to learn, and we agreed on a challenge together for them to aim for. Then we get together and talk about how it went.
The trailer for Try Hard is out now, and the first episode publishes July 28. Please subscribe to it on your app of choice (here's the RSS link) and write a nice review so the app algorithm favors me and shows me to other people!
But that’s not all!
We have a second podcast that will come out this fall called Only If You Get Caught, hosted by the esteemed Patrick Redford!
Only If You Get Caught is about how we can better understand sports and culture by appreciating the ways humans cheat in ways big and small. Each episode will dive into the history and methodologies behind cheating scandals to explore what bending or breaking the rules tells us about ourselves.
The fantastic Jae Towle Vieira has also been lending their producer skills to the project as I’ve been putting finishing touches on Try Hard. This is the first Defector podcast to take a step in a slightly more narrative direction, so we’re excited to see what you think.
Only If You Get Caught comes out in October, so stay tuned for more on that!
OK, back to Bills Week!
