‘Sampler’ wants to know what podcasts even are

MARCH 3RD, 2016 — POST 059

Anyone with a remote interest in podcasts will be aware of Gimlet Media. Helmed by Alex Blumberg, formerly of This American Life and Planet Money, Gimlet has grown in two year from its original show StartUp to a roster of six shows in 2016. The most recent of these is Sampler. Host Brittany Luse, also host of For Colored Nerds, takes a guest co-host through a series of podcast clips each week to showcase the best the medium has to offer.

I initially thought this was podcasts’ version of service journalism. I don’t mean this to sound derogatory, but rather that Sampler would uncover a few new things for me each week that I might look further into. The show certainly has utility in this regard, something beyond entertainment. Six episodes in, I’ve been exposed to a bunch of shows I never knew existed, only having heard two clips before. However, it’s not accurate to characterise Sampler simply as providing a discovery service. The problem with this is that podcasts require commitment. If I fall in love with any of the clips Luse selects each week, I could very easily be driven into the arms of that show and out of the Gimlet stable all together. My week only has so many hours after all. If Sampler was just about discovery, it wouldn’t make much business sense: it would actively be driving its listeners to the competition.

Which is why the show’s fifth episode was mission critical.