Arielle Nissenblatt on Community, Podcast Taxonomy, and Diversity

This week, I chat with Arielle Nissenblatt, founder of the Earbuds Podcast Collective newsletter, Community Manager at SquadCast, and whole lot more.

On Why Quality Control is Important

Arielle's newsletter, Earbuds Podcast Collective, celebrated its five year anniversary this year. The newsletter sees a subscriber/podcaster curate five different podcasts around a specific topic, and has brought many interesting shows to the table. While it's a smooth process today, it wasn't always the case as Arielle shares.

Community is a Learning Process

Arielle is extremely well-known for the sense of community she brings to her interactions, as well as the community she helps foster around the brands she represents. While it comes naturally for her, Arielle also believes it can be learned, whether from those you follow online or even classes. 

At the End of the Day, We're All Just People

As a leader in the community space, Arielle knows what it takes to be a good community member, and what it means to be a not so good one. Despite what some podcasters might believe, sharing nothing but your links across multiple social media channels is not the way to get people to listen. But even then, there may be a different person behind the keyboard than the one behaviour might suggest, so it's important to always keep an open mind.

Why We Need Podcast Taxonomy

As the podcasting space grows, and more people come on board (including larger production companies), it's becoming clear that there can be a lot of people that put a show together, outside of the name on the artwork. To recognize these people and the important work they do, the Podcast Taxonomy was created, of which Arielle is part of. She explains what this means for creators of all skill sets, and how it's also being used to address pay inequality in podcasting.

We're Addressing Diversity, But We Can Always Do Better

The podcasting space has been questioned over the last couple of years around the topic of diversity, or lack of. As Arielle herself pointed out earlier in the episode, too many "best of" lists are all centred around white men. While there have been movements and conversations to redress this, it's still only a small splash in a bigger pool of conversation and action. Arielle shares her thoughts on what she believes we can be doing to be better.

Key points:

00:00 Arielle Nissenblatt on Earbuds Collective, Podcast Taxonomy, and More

06:37 The Power of Community: An Interview with Arielle Pardes

09:29 Community Management: A Cross-Sectional Approach

18:01 The Squad Cast Community: From Feedback to Feature Development

22:52 Podcast Taxonomy: An International Initiative to Standardize Roles and Credits

27:56 Inclusion in the Podcasting Industry

31:00 Women in Podcasting: The Work is Not Over

33:29 How to Make Your Podcast More Inclusive

36:02 The Importance of Listening to Podcasts Outside of Your Comfort Zone

Connect with Arielle:

TwitterEarbuds Podcast Collective

Contact me: danny@dannybrown.me

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