Podcasting the American protests

There are a number of excellent podcasts in a crowded market.

Washington DC resident, George (L), slaps hands with three-year-old Mikaela (R) in front of a police barricade on a street leading to the front of the White House during protests over the death of George Floyd.

At the beginning of this week I began hunting around for strong examples of podcast coverage of the ongoing American protests.

The best place to start was The Daily, which remains the standout in a growing crowd of news podcasts.

A Weekend of Pain and Protest, published on Monday, is a sprawling 40 minutes that weaves on-the-ground reporting from protests with a variety of perspectives on the history that lead up to this moment.

At one point, a young man in Seattle describes his anger and resignation as looting rages in the background. It’s an extraordinary, visceral stretch of an excellent episode.

“I wanted to make a change, and I just … I don’t want to die,” he says.

But these protests have also highlighted the real problems listeners face when searching for quality shows that can inform them in vital times.

The Apple Podcasts mobile app, at the time of writing, has spotlighted one episode of the excellent NPR podcast Code Switch, titled A Decade of Watching Black People Die.

Surfacing a show hosted by people of colour was an important choice.

Spotify has placed different shows covering the story in its Best Podcast of the Week playlist.

But the promise of podcasting was one of an open marketplace of ideas, where entrepreneurial audio makers could share quality work with the world.

It’s increasingly difficult for smaller creators to be heard in that marketplace, and it’s clearly incumbent on these major platforms to do a better job of pushing beyond the biggest names to better convey the breadth of coverage podcasts could provide listeners.

The Daily is excellent, and deserves the attention that came with Monday’s exceptional episode. But it’s one of the most popular podcasts in the world, and this was an opportunity to highlight a range of perspectives and reporting.

I’m sure those voices are out there, but I am less sure how to find them.

Listen to The Daily and Code Switch on your favourite podcasting app.

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