I Don’t Care What We Call Non-Non-Fiction Podcasts

There is a debate in the world of podcasts, a debate that comes up every few months in certain spheres of podcasting, drawing vitriol from every angle of the conversation: What, as an industry, do we call non-non-fiction podcasts? Every time this debate comes up, it is treated as massively important to how we define […]

How “Invisibilia” Fails Empathy and Itself

Since its first episode, Invisibilia has prided itself on having a foremost tenet of empathy. But this thesis statement was challenged in Invisibilia’s most recent episode, “The End of Empathy.” The episode didn’t challenge whether or not we could see ourselves in each other; instead, it challenged whether or not we should.

Perspective | Is music killing podcasts or just wasting our time?

Some of y’all about to be real mad at me, but it must be said—and if this were a piece of music, you would now hear some ominous bass, followed by a moody beat. But, fortunately, this isn’t a piece of music, so my statement will just happen in text: I’m against music.

Podcasters are People: The Intimacy of Medium vs. Parasocial Relationships

There’s an issue in podcasting that’s bothered me about fandom culture for as long as I can remember. It’s the uneasy feeling I get when I see fanfiction written about real people. It’s the pang of pain I feel for celebrities whose personal lives get speculated on by complete strangers. And it’s something I’m seeing […]

Podcast Problems: The Audience as a Third Wheel

There’s a common conversation I’m sure you’ve heard when podcasts are brought up: “Podcasts? Aren’t those just four dudes sitting around a mic, talking to each other because they think they’re funny?” It’s a frustrating joke, a joke that feels dismissive and dated and inaccurate. Haven’t we left those days behind? Aren’t we better now? Yes, […]

Podcast Problems: The Love and Fear of Silence

For the last two years or so, there’s been this kind of terrible, kind of wonderful trend on YouTube. There are tons of videos that follow a basic formula: “[Piece of media] except [some anxiety-inducing change in editing].” The most popular of these are probably “bee movie but every time they say bee it speeds up” […]

10 Things I Wish Every Podcast Would Do

Wil Williams Review is still a fairly new site, but I’ve reviewed quite a few podcasts. If you haven’t read my review guidelines–which would probably be irrelevant to most of you–you might not know that the podcast reviews I’ve written are only for the shows I’ve wanted to review. I don’t typically write bad reviews for […]

Podcast Problems: Good Conversation, Bad Podcast

There’s something that happens to me fairly often when I listen to a new nonfiction podcast. I’ll hear about a podcast that discusses some subject I care about, and I’ll be so excited for a new nonfiction show to latch onto. Maybe it’ll be the new Radiolab or Invisibilia, I think, or maybe it’ll be a new hyper-niche […]

Podcast Problems: Top 10 Tips for Nonfiction Podcasts

Starting up a podcast is very on-trend right now, but it’s also scary. Depending on how you’re going about your podcast, starting one up can be a huge money sink and will almost inevitably be a huge time sink. While my Podcast Problems posts are meant as cautionary tales for podcast beginners, I think they […]

Podcast Problems: Top 10 Tips for Audio Dramas