For anyone who’s already a fan, you’ll know that The Cut’s podcast, The Cut On Tuesdays, is the sort of podcast you wait with bated breath to see the newest topic, always looking forward to the next week’s episode. It’s packed with carefully considered insights, meaningful conversations, lots of funny tidbits and, sometimes, random information you never thought you needed by now know you definitely do. In other words, it’s quickly become one of our favourite podcasts since it launched in late 2018.
Molly Fischer, host of the podcast, was in Sydney this weekend for a live recording at the Opera House’s All About Women festival, discussing a topic centering around women, particularly women in the media. Afterwards, we spoke to Fischer about what it takes to start a podcast, her biggest learnings and which episode she counts as her favourite.
On her biggest learning from starting the podcast
Making a podcast take a LOT of time. Planning, booking interviews, writing, listening to all the interviews, editing, making all the pieces fit together… it can be slow going. We’re still working on how to manage our schedule so that everything gets done without the whole team working every weekend.
On her favourite episode
I’m still really proud of our second episode, about the Shitty Media Men List. We pulled it together fast when news broke that a man was suing Moira Donegan, who was the creator of an anonymously-sourced spreadsheet of allegations against men in media — and even though the episode was a quick turnaround, our producers still managed to gather sources and archival audio that let us tell an engrossing story.
On the best feedback she’s had so far
I’m still not used to people telling me that they recognize my voice — our podcast is new enough that ANY listener feedback is exciting. But I’ve been particularly struck by the age range of people who seem to be listening. It’s everyone from teenagers to women my mom’s age.
On dealing with negative feedback
I just try to make sure I’m satisfied with what I’m doing. Negative feedback mostly only bothers me if it has to do something that I knew I could have done better — there’s nothing worse than letting stuff slide and then getting called out.
On advice for someone trying to launch their own podcast
Don’t be afraid to sound dumb when you’re doing an interview. Being willing to ask questions that seem obvious or basic can get you the best answers.
On her favourite podcasts
I have such huge respect for the Daily. The sheer scale of what they’ve pulled off — translating the New York Times to a whole new medium — is astonishing.
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