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The Writers Guild of America strike is officially underway.
The last one, in 2007-08, ran for 100 days.
The best place to start would be the question of whether striking WGA writers can work on fiction podcasts.
(Some background: The guild had been doingsome organizing workin the genre.)
The strike rulesare tentative on the subject:
The Rules apply to fiction podcasts covered by a WGA contract.
That sounds sweeping, but note that the signatory category is still fairly young.
There are no major MBA signatory production companies that have scripted podcast divisions.
Im told that only about a dozen writers total are impacted by this podcast-specific rule as of this writing.
Thats it on this for now.
In the meantime, those interested in more generalized strike coverage should check outthe site.
AndThe Town, as usual forall your chaos Hollywood needs.
A bunch of messages came in; Ive only got space and time to tackle a couple.
Might get to the rest, piece by piece, as a recurring segment in issues to come.
Feel free to keep those questions and recommendations coming in:nicholas.quah@nymag.com.
This certainly feels true, but it begs the question: Is the money thats left actually smart?
Maybe a Powerball ticket as well, because you never know.
But I guess thats not what were talking about here.
So I figured Id reach out to Nuzum on that question.
Anyway, doescommittedmoneynecessarily equate to smart money?
But you cant get smart if you dont stay in the game.
Do you read Reddit podcast subs?
Im a fan of r/blogsnarks, but I know there are a ton out there.
Lauren
You know, not a ton.
Im in, like, maybe six or seven of those.
Thats more my speed these days.
Reddit makes me squint too hard.
Though not as often as I would like.
Do you know of any good environmental/climate-change podcasts?
Chris
A broad category!
Actually, let me just reach out to Amy and ask if she has any recommendations.
She writes:
Oooh yes, I do!
Floodlines: Which no one talks about as a climate podcast, but it absolutely is!
Fascinating tale of what happened in New Orleans post-Katrina.
So there ya go.
Doesnt seem like a picture of a sustainable economic model to me.
Does money change hands when, say, an iHeart podcast advertises another iHeart podcast?
Since you listen to 100x more than me, are you seeing this too and what do you think?
Doug
Yep, Im seeing a lot of that too, and nope, it does not inspire confidence.
With that distinction out of the way, I totally get your point about the bigger picture.
News and Notes
Heres a reader rec that Ive been really enjoying (thanks, Mer!
):Mixtape Memoir, a feminist music-interview show hosted byCarmel Holtthat hooks around the concept of personal soundtracks.
Thats a fun one too.
Theres also a show all about bridges, which, damn, sounds exactly for me.
Looks like the Los AngelesTimesispulling the plugon its news podcast,The Times.
Very sorry to hear that VicesWaypointis ending due to the companys … well, state of financial chaos.
A truly influential video-game podcast.
A little bit ofKitchen Sisterson Ada Louise Huxtable, the great architecture critic.
And heres my updated list of theBest Podcasts of 2023 (So Far).
