The beauty of podcasting is that anyone can do it. It’s a rare medium that’s nearly as easy to make as it is to consume. And as such, no two people do it exactly the same way. There are a wealth of hardware and software solutions open to potential podcasters, so setups run the gamut from NPR studios to USB Skype rigs (the latter of which became a kind of default during the pandemic).
This week, we spoke to Jody Avirgan, who co-hosts “Summer Album / Winter Album” with the frontman of the American indie rock band The Hold Steady, Craig Finn. Each episode finds Avirgan and Finn debating whether a classic record should be categorized as a “summer album” or “winter album.”
Avirgan – who previously hosted shows for Radiotopia, TED, FiveThirtyEight, and ESPN – told us about his podcasting set-up of choice. Here he is in his own words:
“Even when I worked at ESPN/FiveThirtyEight, I always had a home recording setup. Since leaving — which happened to coincide with the start of the pandemic — I’ve made my basement recording studio my main home. It’s actually the kitchen of a basement studio apartment, so just off-frame, behind some curtains, is a fridge (unplugged), sink, and lots of cabinets.
“But I’ve hung tons of curtains, scattered soft things around, and put some sound dampening panels up. I think it’s now both cozy and pretty warm-sounding. My mic is an Electro-Voice RE27N/D, a $500 studio mic.
“To be clear: I don’t make RE27 money. We bought this mic when I was hosting 30 for 30. I left ESPN three weeks before the pandemic hit, and somewhere in there I wrote them an email asking if they wanted me to return the mic. I never got a response, and I certainly didn’t write a follow-up. So I kept it. This is probably why Disney stock is down 20% over the last five years. It’s a very warm mic, but it’s a behemoth.
“When I’m on the road, I pack an AT2020-USB+, which plugs right into my computer and I can knock out tracking from wherever — usually under a blanket in a hotel closet, which is a podcaster’s natural habitat.
“I run my mic through the FocusRite Scarlett 2i2, a simple but mighty interface that lets me control my mic levels and route right into my computer, where I am often joining people over Zoom or Riverside. I always record a local backup file using Hindenburg, which I then save to Dropbox. All roads eventually lead to Dropbox.
“The one place I deviate from the typical Podcaster 101 kit is in my headphones. Everyone has the Sony MDR-7506, and I’ve run through my fair share of those, but I really like the Rode NTH-100 headphones. They are just a little more comfortable, look a little slicker, and so far the padding hasn’t broken down in the way that the padding on the Sony’s inevitably does, leading one to find little black flecks in their ears after taping.
“Like a lot of podcasters, I’ve been doing more and more video stuff lately. I’ve used Descript for years, but as the worlds of audio and video have merged, I do almost all my editing in it at this point. I make social videos of our conversations for “This Day” and “Summer Album / Winter Album,” but also original stuff I’ve been playing with on Instagram.
“I’m doing a series each week where I try to guess the title of that week’s New Yorker cover, and I record that right into Descript and turn it around in like 20 minutes using a template I built. Descript — I’m a big fan. It’s very versatile, and it’s nice to work with a program that seems to give a crap about what podcasters want, as opposed to ProTools.
“I suppose I’ve had to think about my visual setup a fair amount, too. I bought the webcam that the Wirecutter recommended, but honestly I prefer the look of the MacBook camera, so I usually just use that. In my background, I put some books to prove that I know how to read; a signed photo of George Mikan, about whom there was a running bit in “Death At The Wing” — and $28 worth of fake plants from Ikea.
“I block the view so I don’t think people can even see that the plants are there; but I like to know that they are there, and will always be there, because of forever plastics.”
We’ve previously asked others of our favorite podcast hosts and producers to highlight their workflows — the equipment and software they use to get the job done. The list so far includes:
