In this episode of The Publisher Podcast we hear from Sam Baker, Senior Producer of Deutsche Welle’s award-winning podcast Don’t Drink The Milk. She takes us through the appeal of documentary and narrative podcasts, how the team is experimenting with video and AI, and how overlapping interests allows DW to find new audiences for its audio.
And, of course, we discuss where the title ‘Don’t Drink The Milk’ originates from. It’s a fascinating story – and one that succinctly explains the appeal of culture podcasts, and why audio is a wonderful medium for explaining history.
Here are just a few highlights from the discussion, lightly edited for clarity:
Which genres of podcasts work for video podcasts
This is a big issue in podcasting right now because there’s such a push towards YouTube, which absolutely makes sense for shows that are chat shows or shows where everyone’s in the same room.
But when you’re travelling and doing one bit of the episode here, and then you’re going to a different place and doing another bit here, and then you’re doing three remote interviews and you’re weaving it all together in a narrative format… turning that into video is making a documentary.
How cross-promotion is a mutually-beneficial exercise for podcasts
I think the biggest thing [that helped] was doing promo swaps with other shows. As the seasons went on and as our audience grew, we were able to do that with bigger and bigger shows.
In our first season we swapped with Cautionary Tales, which is a huge history show, and we were so excited to swap with them. They’ve got a massive audience. [I] just set aside a few hours each week and kept reaching out. And honestly, getting featured on Apple was probably the biggest boost to our audience, which we so appreciate, and was awesome.
Being hopeful for the future of podcasts
I don’t think there’s any limit on imagination or experimentation in terms of podcast creators; I think the main limit is money and, being afraid of doing something that doesn’t make money. I think those are the limitations that we often put on ourselves in the podcast industry.
If you run a public for profit podcast studio, you need to keep paying your people. But I think that’s why I’m so happy there are still many indie podcasters out there. And of course, it’s that push and pull. Sometimes to do something really cool and experimental, you need a lot of budget, and that doesn’t always align – but there are grants and awards out there that I’m hopeful can help a few of those projects.
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