I was doing spoken word in Montreal, sending my poetry to wherever I could and not even like big places like the New Yorker. A producer from the CBC found it funny and invited me to do an essay on a local show. And I did that and it led to getting a summer radio show on the CBC. But once he told me about this American life, I started listening to it. They had a really good website and I just loved it so much. So I sent a couple of these episodes into this American life after hearing they shared something that you know, there is a kind of vacuum out there for people who are able to do it too. It must have been a leap of
Jonathan Goldstein is an audio producer and the host of Heavyweight.
“I wasn’t taking myself very seriously, initially. I liked working with my friends and family because I think I was a little more comfortable with them. Then in the second season people were writing in with real problems, and they were looking at me as a kind of expert. It was terrifying to meet with these people and see the look of hopefulness in their eyes. ... I realized I need to step it up and even if I didn’t feel like an expert—an expert in an invented field that doesn’t really exist—that I’d really have to take that on with seriousness.”
Show notes:
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