The Life Shift Podcast Welcomes The Host of The Salad With A Side Of Fries Podcast
Also...The EarBuds Podcast Collective recommendations on comedy podcasts, and New 'Rapaport's Reality' iHeartPodcast Takes On Reality TV
What happens when one podcast host interviews another podcast host? You can find out by listening to the latest episode of The Life Shift. On this episode, The Life Shift host Matt Gilhooly interviews the creator / host of the health / wellness / nutrition podcast, Salad With a Side Of Fries, Jenn Trepeck. It's Kimmel interviewing Fallon or Colbert interviewing Meyers.
The answer to my posed question above is that two podcasters adept in front of the mic and both possessing what Elaine Appleton Grant from the Sound Judgment describes as "hostiness," can craft such an engrossing interview that your ears demand more for your brain to process.
Right away in the episode, Gilhooly expresses his trepidation at interviewing another podcaster. Yet his apprehension is misplaced because Gilhooly glides through the interview like a gold-medal figure skater, landing verbal triple-toe loops and insights that approximate a Double Lutz.
Gilhooly is an inspiring host. Unlike, say, Joe Rogan, he doesn't make the show about him but focuses his energy on his guests. His guests' life stories take precedence, and Gilhooly is a master at gently steering his guests on course and through their personal trauma or life stories.
If you haven't listened before, The Life Shift podcast host Matt Gilhooly has candid conversations with people about the pivotal moments that changed their lives forever.
He knows of such moments from personal experience, speaking at the beginning of the episode about how his mother died when he was only eight years old. It's one of those indie podcasts that, when you find it, you feel like you've discovered audio gold.
You can read my April 2023 review of The Life Shift here.
Trepeck's life tale in this episode is made all the more interesting because she takes us down a memory lane of her life, not as a resume of her achievements but more as an inside-out view of how she viewed her life at every stage.
We learn, for instance, that requesting time off to go on an annual family vacation was a critical point in her journey from employee to entrepreneur. She knew then that she would not be able to work for others for very long.
The other compelling part of her story is the independent podcaster part. Both Trepeck and Gilhooly are "indie" podcasters. There's no Spotify to bankroll their efforts, and there's no staff to do the hundreds of tasks related to indie podcasting. They both are writers, hosts, marketing VPs, Chief Financial Officers, Chief Operations Officers, and I.T. gurus.
For Jenn Trepeck and Matt Gilhooly, wearing multiple hats of responsibility is a way of life. This episode also features their love for their podcast, their audience, and their chosen path.
In the episode, Trepeck excels at letting listeners into her thought process as she moves from investment firm employee to founder and CEO of Better Life Now LLC. She offers health coaching, business consulting, and the expertise inherent in her podcast.
From her interview on the episode, you can tell that she's smarter than the average health expert. Trepeck confounds other health coaches because she works with people until they are ready to go solo. That sense of customer-first focus upsets other coaches who like to hook clients for a lifetime.
When she created her health/wellness/nutrition podcast, she was wading into an ocean full of such podcasts. Right away, she found her distinguishing point. She doesn't have clients eat only cabbage for a month, do bench presses until exhaustion, or exclude some macronutrients. Instead, her plan is reality-based, factually corroborated, and eminently doable.
In the beginning of each episode of her podcast, Trepeck says, "Welcome to Salad With A Side Of Fries, talking wellness and weight loss for real life. I'll clear up the myths, misinformation, bad science, and marketing and teach you how to eat and how to cheat."
My favorite attribute of Trepeck's is her focus on motivating listeners, not lecturing to her listeners. Trepeck is not one of those wellness podcast hosts where "failure is not an option."
Instead, she recognizes and conveys that making lifestyle, fitness, and diet changes is exceedingly hard. Look for small wins, she urges, and do not make perfectionism the enemy of gradual progress.
You can read my review Salad With a Side Of Fries from June 2023 here.
If you don't know, indie podcasting is hard. It's building a media business from conception to birth through maturation. It's finding listeners amid a sea of other podcasts. If you are an aspirational or current indie podcaster, you should listen to this podcast episode.
If you are a podcast network exec, you should sign up both of these podcasts onto your network immediately. If there's room on a podcast network for two guys to get sloppy drunk and make stupid jokes, there's room for The Life Shift and Salad With a Side Of Fries.
As a fan of either or both podcasts, you'll love this episode because both hosts are at the top of their game.
Finally, if you are a podcast listener but have never listened to either of these podcasts, I recommend that you listen to this episode and then their podcasts.
I'm paraphrasing animator Butch Hartman here: Life is full of challenges, and people like Matt Gilhooly and Jenn Trepeck have the four P's: passion, patience, and persistence. The fourth P is pizza, of course.
I think Matt would like a nice half-meatball, half-mushroom pizza. Jenn would like a broccoli, green peppers, and black olives' pizza. We'll order from Nick's in Clayton. I have a 20 percent off coupon.
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This Week's EarBuds Podcast Collective Recommends Five Comedy Podcasts
Every week, Arielle Nissenblatt distributes the EarBuds Podcast Collective recommendations by topic. Five podcasts are recommended according to a theme, and a different person curates them.
This week, the recommendation curator is Holly Brown. A self-acknowledged stand-up comedian, Brown comments: "These podcasts are my absolute go-to’s, packed with everything from insane stories to oddball fixations and comedic takes on your favorite chain restaurants. Trust me, there's a little something for everyone in this lineup!"
Now, I look forward to the weekly EarBuds Podcast Collective. After all, there are a multitude of great podcasts out there. The hard part is finding them. For example, I attempted to determine a rough estimate of the comedy podcasts that have an active RSS feed. I lost count at 5,000!
Are all of these 5,000+ comedy podcasts good? Or funny? No. In fact, many podcasts violate a rule put forth by actor Mila Kunis, who famously said: "I think the second you think that you're funny is when you stop being funny."
I think the best comedy podcasts are those where the humor flows naturally. Sometimes, the humor is baked into the words, and other times, it's how the words were said.
Holly Brown has discovered five very funny podcasts --all in their own way. Here is the link to Brown's recommendations.
Holly Brown and I must share a kindred sense of what makes an excellent comedy podcast because two of her recommendations were recently reviewed by Ear Worthy. Here's a clip of the review with the link to the full review.
Indecent with Kiki Andersen: Where NFW Meets LMAO -- As a comedian, Andersen elevates over other comedians on podcasts because she doesn't try too hard to be funny. Unlike other podcast comedians whose diatribes sound more like a bad "Best Man Toast" at a wedding, Andersen allows her sharp humor to flow freely from the conversation. She's funny, sharp-witted, caustic at times, perceptive, and observant. Shepard and Rogan could learn quite a bit from Kiki Andersen.
You can read my full review here.
"Fine" Dining: All You Can Eat Podcast Feast—Although a comic blend between comedians John Mulvaney and Gary Gulman, Ornelas is quite good at reviewing chain restaurants. His criteria are atmosphere, service, and food. He has a good critical eye for mediocrity in restaurants and, in select examples, excellence.
You can read my full review here.
Check out Holly Brown's EarBuds Podcast Collective recommendations about comedy podcasts.
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New 'Rapaport's Reality' iHeartPodcast Takes On Reality TV
People love to make fun of Reality TV, and let's be honest, there is a lot to make fun of. However, Reality TV does generate ratings and, most importantly for networks and production companies, is cheap to produce.
Of course, there is no shortage of people desperately fighting for their 15 minutes of fame, or more likely, infamy. The most ironic part of Reality TV is that these shows are further from reality than fictional dramas. They invent reality by juicing up conflicts into major conflagrations. They are like wrestling without the ropes and bloviated names, but the same histrionics of crafting villains and good guys to satisfy the audience's innate sense of fairness in the world.
Sneer, snicker, or denigrate if you like, but these shows have an audience, and quite a large one at that. After all, we have an ex-president who is, in essence, the definition of a Reality TV star.
For all those reasons, iHeartPodcasts, together with Michael and Kebe Rapaport officially debuted the new weekly podcast titled “Rapaport's Reality,”
New episodes will be available each Wednesday. Fans can listen now here.
Hosts Michael Rapaport and his wife Kebe Rapaport are the new self-described "power couple in the world of reality television analysis."
Bonded by their love of reality television, the Rapaports will invite fans into their living room to spill the tea, dissect the drama, and praise the greatest form of entertainment on television today. They will dive into real-time shows and re-watch all the biggest and best reality shows that have come before.
Michael Rapaport has appeared on Bravo's “Watch What Happens Live'' over 30 times and has generated an enormous fan base of dedicated reality television followers thanks to his honesty and call-it-like-he-sees-it breakdowns. Kebe, the apple of his eye who puts the charge in his battery, will be tagging into the limelight as these two encyclopedias of all things current, past, and future reality TV give the scoop on all the drama.
The marketing pitch is: "Follow the show to tap in with the Superfans and go behind the ropes with the new 'it couple' of the Reality World."
If you're into Reality TV, then this is a podcast for you. If not, you can still listen and feel superior by making fun of the show.
Fans or non-fans can listen now, here.
Thank you for such kind words about my convo with Jenn! Can I request a gluten free pizza crust, please?! 😬🎉🍕
Thank you for writing about the latest from EarBuds!!