July 1, 2020

226 Brenda Salinas Baker - Reimagining the Podcast Landscape at Google

Show Notes

06:00 – Harry welcomes to the podcast, Brenda Salinas Baker who speaks her background and roots, the impact Covid-19 has had on her personally and professionally and her love of storytelling

15:46 – Brenda discusses her experience in radio and podcasting, including the NPR Kroc Fellowship she earned

23:29 – Brenda’s work as a producer and mentor at NPR’s Next Generation Project

31:28 – Brenda opens up about leaving KUT Public Media to become a freelance reporter at 60dB

36:34 – How Brenda honed her skills as a storyteller during her time at Google

40:18 – How Google is approaching the podcasting medium and early learnings they have gleaned

46:25 – Strategies and best practices for discoverability and leveraging YouTube as a tool for podcasting

52:04 – Ongoing podcast projects that Google is working on and what excites Brenda about the future of audio and podcasting

58:08 – What is something that Brenda has changed her mind about recently and what is the most misunderstood thing about Brenda

1:01:22 – Harry thanks Brenda for joining the show, and let’s listeners know where they can follow her

TWEETABLES

“Everybody says now that coronavirus hit, the world that we had pre-Covid isn’t coming back. In many ways it shouldn’t come back. There were things about that world that were very wrong. And so the fact that we’re applying our imagination to create a new world post-Covid gives me a lot of hope.”

“If you’re making content for everybody, you’re making content for nobody these days.”

“I always tell people radio is a visual medium. It’s just that the screen is in your own head. They call it theater of the mind.”

“Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it useful. And that is why Google cares so much about the open web and the RSS ecosystem in podcasting.”

“The first couple minutes of a podcast are incredibly important. If you manage to get people past the first couple of minutes of your podcast, they’ll basically stick with you the whole way through. So, when you’re scripting a podcast, I think having really clear introductions is important. I personally don’t think every podcast can get away with doing a pre-roll.”