Jesse Thorn
This is an older interview with Jesse Thorn from the Sound of Young America because I did not have time to get an interview this week. Will be back in full force soon!
Why did you start podcasting?
I decided that if I was going to do a radio show, I should do everything in my power to get as many people access to it as possible. It was great to have a small but loyal audience on the college radio station in Santa Cruz, but my hope was that podcasting would be one more way to get it in front of people. I didn’t expect podcasting to grow so fast, I just figured if another 100 people could hear the show, it was worth it
Do you listen to podcasts other than your own?
I do. Like anything without a filter, there’s a lot of crap in the podcasting world, and that turns some people off, but I download about six or eight shows every week. My favorite podcast-only show right now is Jimmy Pardo’s Never Not Funny, which is kind of what I wish morning talk radio was like.
Where did you come up with the name “The Sound of Young America”?
We went through a lot of names before we started… for a while I was really into the idea of a music show called The Night Train. We settled on The Sound of Young America because it suggested something old and grand, but ridiculous. It was always about the irony of three guys in college calling themselves something so grandiose.
A lot of podcasters find it hard to pay the bills because it’s not
exactly a very lucritive job, do you find yourself having this
problem?
You bet. Recently, the show has had a sponsor which has more or less payed my bills (bear in mind I live a pretty spartan lifestyle), but that’s only been for a month. I still work side jobs, and until I moved to LA about six months ago I had a real job at an evironmental non-profit called The Trust for Public Land. After I moved down here, I applied for some jobs, but didn’t get any, so I was working odd jobs to pay the rent and so forth. At this point, I hope that I won’t have to get another part-time (or full-time) job, but it’s far from certain.
I also take listener donations, which is a really important stream of income. That basically helps cover the costs of the show — when I need equipment, hosting, bandwidth, that kind of thing. I’m really touched that people care enough about the show that they’ll give money, even though there’s no “thank you gifts” or anything. Some folks have been giving for a couple years now, and I really appreciate it.
Why did you start doing Jordan Jesse Go!?
I basically missed doing a show with Jordan. He used to co-host TSOYA with me (and Eugene O’Neill, who’s still our friend). It was just the most fun thing I’ve ever done, so I wanted to do it again. That was part of why I moved to LA — I couldn’t convince Jordan to move to the Bay Area.
One of the cool things about podcasting is that we don’t have to convince program directors of radio stations to give us a timeslot — we can make a show, and if people find it and like it, they can listen.
Now that you have very successful audio podcasts, would you ever consider adding a video podcast to the MaximumFun network?
Yeah. I’ve been working the past few weeks on adding dribs and drabs of video to The Sound. And we’ve podcast a fair amount of video in the Kasper Hauser Comedy Podcast. But something more serious and regular would be great.
The trick of it is that video production is dramatically more labor-intensive than audio production, and I already work a LOT. Hopefully as the audio casts grow, I’ll find some great collaborators who can help me with video, or at least get further along the learning curve so I can do good work myself.
How do you get such awesome guests to come on the show? Also, how do you decide who you want on the show?
Well, the fact of the matter is that as awesome as the guests are in my eyes and yours, many of them are pretty unknown to the general public. Part of what I try to do with the show is share these people who are doing such amazing work with people who might not have heard of them, while still getting some insight that’s surprising to people who already are on board. One of the things I don’t like about most mainstream interviews is that they’re just banal.
The producers of Leno or editors of GQ seem to think that if the subject isn’t a Celebrity (like, say, Jim Carrey), we only want to hear some “relatable” story. I think that people want to hear about the creation of art — because an artist will always be passionate about their work, and that passion will carry the day.
As far as how I book them… it’s a slog. I don’t have a team of producers, I do it all myself. Sometimes it’s easy — somebody’s email address is on their website, I email them, they say “yes” or even “I love that show!” Usually it’s an extended dance of self-justifications and self-aggrandizement (“X thousand listeners… nationally syndicated…”) which gets really old really fast.
As far as the who… it’s basically people I’m interested in. That’s mostly it. It’s a very personal show in that way, and I think people respond to that.
Is there anything you want to plug?
I see this whole thing as an extended plug, but I just started a new podcast called “Coyle and Sharpe: The Imposters.” It’s these two guys who spent the early 60s walking around SF with an early tape recorder doing man-on-the-street interviews. Only the interviews are on subjects like, “How do you feel about the morality of leasing babies.” They’re comedy geniuses, and I’m really proud that Mal Sharpe (Jim Coyle has passed) gave me permission to podcast their work. It’s one bit a week, and the stuff is astonishing.
