Earlier this year, iHeartMedia joined forces with Tongal to search far and wide for The Next Great Podcast. What does it take to find The Next Great Podcast, you might ask? For head judge Dan Patrick and the rest of the iHeart team, it all began by opening up their ears – and their minds – to the nearly 1,800 pitches that came in.
It didn’t matter if someone had 10 years of podcasting experience or none at all – what mattered was their story. Listening to new voices and perspectives from around the world, especially in a time when our immediate, physical worlds were shrinking quite rapidly, was an incredible experience. From this process, the iHeartMedia team chose 10 Finalists, whose series range from scripted historical dramas to mother-daughter commentary on everyday issues.
For the last few months, Finalists have been hard at work researching, recording, and developing their pilot episodes. Listen to their pilots now on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts, and cast your vote for the one you’d like to tune into on the iHeart Podcast network!
Read on to hear more from our Finalists, including what they uncovered in this process and what drew them to their subjects.
Life is a Mutha
DeMira Pierre, Compton, CA
“Mama P,” Compton, CA
Synopsis: Hosted by mother-daughter duo DeMira Pierre and Eula Jordan (“Mama P”), Life Is A Mutha explores life's ups and downs through conversations ranging from dating, finances, sexuality, mental health, and so much more.
“A few years back, our personal relationship as mother and daughter went through a rough patch. When we were going through our struggles, we noticed that there was not any content or commentary focused on parenting adult children and exploring the unique transformation that happens in a mother/daughter relationship. With that, we figured we'd share our real-time experiences of rebuilding our relationship and candidly discuss the ups and downs of our personal relationship in hopes of being a catalyst for other parents and adult children to evolve their relationships with each other.”
Development Hell
Sol Harris, Manchester, UK
Synopsis: Host Sol Harris explores the history of the most exciting and outrageous movie–projects that were never finished being made.
“I'm a huge fan of The Simpsons and it was a very formative part of my childhood, so I was really excited when I was able to line up some interviews with some writers and directors from the show for my pilot episode (which focused on The Simpsons). They say never meet your heroes, but my interviewees were three of the nicest, warmest people I could have hoped for.”
The Servant Girl Annihilator
Shannon McGarvey, Austin, TX
Synopsis: A chilling 8-part historical thriller that explores a world of serial murder, racism, and martial law inside Austin's infamous Jack the Ripper case.
“I've always had an interest in telling the stories of the underrepresented and underseen; in shining a light on otherwise dark or obscured subject matters. While researching, I noticed that all of the prominent texts regarding the murders were written by white males. This was curious to me because all of the victims were women or people of color. Instantly, I wanted their perspective. I wanted to tell their side of the story through the lense of the Black Southern experience, the history of criminology and policing, and the age-old struggles of women and minorities that persist into the present.”
438: The Original Social Media
Jerry Mallory, Detroit, MI
Synopsis: The riveting true story of how a local Metro Detroit wrestling fan hotline in the 90s was co-opted by nefarious players to prey upon unwitting teenage boys.
“There were quite a few moments that come to mind! Our story is one that required a lot of research and since it revolves around a community, everyone has their own unique recollection of events. On the bright side of things, I was able to reconnect with an old friend after over 20 years. Our friendship ended on a sour note (which we will talk about more in future episodes) but we were able to mend fences while discussing this project. On the not-so-good side, as we delved deeper into one of the central characters (Jim "ML Curly" Thompson) we discovered more and more details on his behavior, background, and tactics. Some of the things we discovered were quite shocking”
Cringe
Sabrina Furminger, Vancouver, BC
Synopsis: Celebrating the most embarrassing and awkward moments of our lives as told by comedians, activists, actors, and, well, human beings, all around the world.
“I’m interested in all things cringe because I’m constantly embarrassing myself, putting my foot in my mouth, feeling that rush of blood to my cheeks as I realize I’ve made a fool of myself yet again… But recently I’ve realized that we can learn a lot about who we are as human beings – about race, about relationships, about family, about our bodies, about aging, about sex – when we embrace our embarrassing moments instead of pushing them away. If you’d told me a couple of years ago that I’d be pitching a podcast pilot called Cringe and that I’d not only be inviting people from all around the world to share their cringe stories, but I’d be proudly sharing my own, too, I would have scoffed. And then laughed.”
Frankly, My Dear
Lianna Holston, Los Angeles, CA
Siena Jeakle, Seattle, WA
Synopsis: Most people like movies, but those people are not hosts Siena and Lianna! Listen as they review a different film from AFI's "100 Greatest American Movies Of All Time" in each episode. Do they promise to enjoy these movies? Well frankly, my dear . . .
“We met on our college improv team (sorry boys!) and became fast friends. Despite taking screenwriting classes in college and now working in entertainment, neither of us has seen many movies, especially “The Classics”. Once quarantine started, we decided to chat once a week to maintain some semblance of social skill. It was on one of these phone calls that Siena made a movie reference that Lianna did not get… and Siena could not explain. After a sheepish pause we admitted to each other that we feel shamefully uninformed about, and unfond of, most films. What relief we felt! With a) this discovery that we are not alone in our potentially unpopular opinions and b) our capacity to always make each other laugh, we figured it could be c) a real hoot to sit down and record a podcast about our wonky takes on classic American movies.”
Ball is Business
Alexis Haut, Brooklyn, NY
Synopsis: An investigative look into the long con that is the high school basketball recruitment circuit.
“As a former athlete who was raised as a sports fan, the intersection between sports and culture has been a lifelong source of fascination for me. I've always paid attention to how sports reflect and shape culture, and began to take notice of how this played out in my personal life. I first noticed the exploitative nature of amateur sports as an undergrad at the University of Georgia. UGA is part of the NCAA's Southeastern Conference, better known as the SEC, where football and basketball are akin to religion. I knew that these sports pulled in a ton of money for our school. I also knew football and basketball players at UGA. I knew that they only came to the wing restaurant I worked at on Mondays when wings were 10 cents apiece because well, you know, that money wasn't going into their pockets.”
WAM
Alexandra D'Amico, Dallas, TX
Thiago Nascimento, Dallas, TX
Eric Lara, Dallas, TX
Synopsis: A scripted historical dramedy that dives into the fictionalized life and times of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
“The boys and I are all classically trained musicians and really enjoy performing. All of us perform a wide variety of music but what brought us all together was performing classical music in Dallas. Classical music is something that brings us a lot of joy but we realize it's not the most accessible genre. This is what inspired us to write a period piece about Mozart, except it's not your typical period piece. We're taking Mozart off the pedestal and out from under the powdered wig and putting him in the bar with us. We wanted to explore the more relatable human side of him rather than the already over examined genius that first comes to mind. We're showing you the friend, the lover, the gigging musician who just happens to be beyond good at what he does and we think you're going to like what you hear.”
Steam Sleuth
Jeff Thurman, Pleasantville, NY
Synopsis: A science–infused mystery podcast for 8-to-12–year–old kids that follows the adventures of a group of friends and their charismatic, resourceful leader, Sadiqa (Sadie) Said.
“I’ve worked in kids’ media for a long time, but have long wanted to focus on STEAM. And the boom in podcasting is a great moment to bring scripted entertainment to kids and families. I grew up listening to recordings of old radio drama productions from the 40s like ‘Vic and Sade’ and ‘The Shadow’ and, later, ‘CBS’s Radio Mystery Theatre’. I’m a huge fan of the theatre of the mind and I’m thrilled to be able to tell this story featuring soundscapes that bring so much to the audience’s imagination.”
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Note From Tongal: "Vote for iHeartRadio's Next Great Podcast" is part of a series of Tongal Community-written blog posts that were originally sourced in the Tongal Blog Open Call Project. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Tongal. Read more Tongal Community-written posts here and then Pitch us a topic you'd like to write about for the Tongal Blog!
