
Insights from recent episode analysis
Audience Interest
Podcast Focus
Publishing Consistency
Platform Reach
Insights are generated by CastFox AI using publicly available data, episode content, and proprietary models.
Total monthly reach
Estimated from 20 chart positions in 20 markets.
By chart position
- 🇬🇧GB · Music Interviews#43100K to 300K
- 🇦🇺AU · Music Interviews#6030K to 100K
- 🇺🇸US · Music Interviews#8430K to 100K
- 🇨🇦CA · Music Interviews#1205K to 30K
- 🇸🇪SE · Music Interviews#1591K to 10K
- Per-Episode Audience
Est. listeners per new episode within ~30 days
68K to 227K🎙 Daily cadence·185 episodes·Last published today - Monthly Reach
Unique listeners across all episodes (30 days)
226K to 757K🇬🇧40%🇦🇺13%🇺🇸13%+17 more - Active Followers
Loyal subscribers who consistently listen
90K to 303K
Market Insights
Platform Distribution
Reach across major podcast platforms, updated hourly
Total Followers
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Total Reviews
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* Data sourced directly from platform APIs and aggregated hourly across all major podcast directories.
On the show
Recent episodes
Nick Allbrook (Pond)
Jun 24, 2026
47m 19s
Futurebirds
Jun 19, 2026
50m 34s
Ben Gibbard (Death Cab for Cutie)
Jun 11, 2026
59m 11s
Greg Mendez
Jun 4, 2026
41m 13s
Euan Manning (Cardinals)
May 31, 2026
46m 25s
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| Date | Episode | Description | Length | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6/24/26 | ![]() Nick Allbrook (Pond) | "Hard work is important, and it feels good. My family put a lot of stake into working hard, so it's been ingrained in me," Nick Allbrook of Pond told me. We did this interview at 6:30am his time, so that's all you need to know about his discipline. But hard work means nothing if you're not attuned to your environment. Allbrook has that covered too: "You miss out on all of life's beautiful moments and forget that you're a writer if you're always staring at your phone. Once you put it dow... | 47m 19s | ||||||
| 6/19/26 | ![]() Futurebirds | Go Dawgs! Loved having the Athens-bred Futurebirds on the pod. They're no longer college students at the University of Georgia, of course, but as longtime friends and bandmates they've evolved from students to family men. As you'll hear, their songwriting processes have evolved accordingly. The latest album by Futurebirds is Far Out Country. | 50m 34s | ||||||
| 6/11/26 | ![]() Ben Gibbard (Death Cab for Cutie) | "If I could sum up my process, it would be this: finish everything," says Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie. "I finish every song I start even if I know in the first verse that it’s a complete pile of shit. I finish it because there might be a lyrical idea or a theme in the third verse or the chorus or the bridge that I can use somewhere else." Unsurprisingly, Gibbard calls himself a "completionist." He finishes every song he starts writing, every book he begins reading. It's no mystery why ... | 59m 11s | ||||||
| 6/4/26 | ![]() Greg Mendez | Greg Mendez has a shelved album concept that he says you can have if you're a songwriter. The plan was to center each song around the rhythm of a different car's turn signal, and the title of the song would simply be the car's name (so "2003 Honda Accord," for example.) It never came to fruition of course, but it illustrates Mendez's hyperfocus on his environment as he mines for song ideas. Mendez's latest album is Beauty Land. | 41m 13s | ||||||
| 5/31/26 | ![]() Euan Manning (Cardinals) | The formula is simple. Step one, read great Irish literature. Step two, write killer songs. It's worked pretty well for Euan Manning of Cardinals so far. The Irish songwriter for the Cork-based band rattles off writers who have influenced him, and my god does he have impeccable taste: Flann O'Brien, Martin McDonagh, Kevin Barry, among others. As I always say, a clear through line travels from reading great writing to writing great words. The debut album by Cardinals is Masquerade. | 46m 25s | ||||||
| 5/25/26 | ![]() Rostam | "A great way to write is to overwrite. Write more verses than could be contained in a song. Then take the best of what's there," says Rostam Batmanglij. I cannot agree more: good writers know that the first pass is never the time to decide what to keep and what to leave out. Overwriting will always be faster. Just ask Anne Lamott. Of course, overwriting for Rostam comes easy because when he's not writing, he's thinking about writing. "I'm always collecting building blocks," he says. "Lots of ... | 49m 25s | ||||||
| 5/17/26 | ![]() Emma Jansson (Girl Scout) | "When I'm not self-conscious, I tend to write better stuff. I need the dud sessions before I make progress," says Emma Jansson of Girl Scout. Good writing in the initial stages is indeed all about getting out of your own way and applying the Anne Lamott method. And it's why Jansson often starts her writing process with a pen and paper instead of a keyboard because, as she explains, "I don't edit as much when I use pen and paper. I respect the initial thought more." Girl Scout's debut album&nb... | 48m 04s | ||||||
| 5/14/26 | ![]() Kevin Drew (Broken Social Scene) | "We should see how many disco records were made in the winter," Kevin Drew of Broken Social Scene said. And with that, we ventured into the intersection of songwriting and meteorology: how weather patterns and temperature affect the creative mind. The Canadian songwriters I've interviewed tend to be seasonal writers. Many tend to write more during the winter, when they're likely to be holed up inside. Drew and I even dared start a new east coast vs. west coast feud as we pondered whethe... | 53m 43s | ||||||
| 5/6/26 | ![]() Jena Malone | Jena Malone had me at the poet Edna St. Vincent Millay. When the actor/songwriter started our discussion talking about Millay and the profound effect poetry has on her songwriting process, I swooned. There’s a theme here: I’ve had a lot of actor/songwriters on the pod recently (Maya Hawke, Sasha Spielberg, The Wolff Brothers) and it’s not surprising that, given their other day jobs when they’re not singing, language is particularly important in their songwriting process. Malone is also ... | 47m 27s | ||||||
| 4/29/26 | ![]() Maya Hawke | All you need to know about Maya Hawke's dedication to wordcraft is summed up in this memory: "The day I fell in love with my husband was the day we got into a fight about free verse poetry versus formal poetry." (Hawke's husband is singer/songwriter Christian Lee Hutson, whom I interviewed last year.) Hawke is of course an actor (Stranger Things, Inside Out 2, among others) and a visual artist, but she's really a poet, first and foremost. Rarely have I encountered a songwriter with such passi... | 57m 38s | ||||||
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| 4/27/26 | ![]() Lolo Zouaï | As a bilingual artist, Lolo Zouaï uses both English and French on her new album Reverie. Sometimes it's because the meaning of a word in one language is more precise for the song, while other times the sound of the word fits the melody better. We take a deep dive into Zouaï's songwriting process and discuss why she's not good at late-night writing sessions, why the bathroom is a great place to get rid of writer's block, and why she's much more productive when working on many things at once. | 40m 39s | ||||||
| 4/21/26 | ![]() Donovan Woods | Donovan Woods is the master of the pull quote when it comes to the songwriting process. His words are wise counsel for any songwriter. To wit: "A good song asks questions rather than provides wisdom," and "When I have writer's block, it's because I'm not reading enough." I'll quibble slightly with the latter quote only because I cannot imagine Woods getting writer's block: the last three minutes of this episode are nothing but Woods listing all the authors who inspire him. And that includes t... | 43m 57s | ||||||
| 4/15/26 | ![]() Sasha Spielberg (aka Buzzy Lee) | I wasn't surprised when Sasha Spielberg--an actor, visual artist, and musician who records as Buzzy Lee--told me that she once cried listening to the score to E.T., one of her father's most famous movies. I was surprised, however, when she told me that she also cried watching "The Real Housewives of Orange County." But that's why this convo with Spielberg is one of the funnest I've ever done. (And yes, funnest is a word.) As you'll hear, both events are tied to her creative process. I've inte... | 59m 29s | ||||||
| 4/9/26 | ![]() Morgan Nagler | Morgan Nagler has co-written with HAIM, Phoebe Bridgers, Kim Deal, Madi Diaz, and Margo Price among others. And now comes her fantastic debut solo album I've Got Nothing to Lose, and I'm Losing It. We go deep into her songwriting process on the pod, including a discussion of why physical movement is so important to the creative process. | 38m 52s | ||||||
| 4/6/26 | ![]() Cameron Picton (black midi, My New Band Believe) | My New Band Believe is Cameron Picton's new band after his time as the bassist and sometimes frontman for black midi. We go deep into his songwriting process, including a discussion of how sounds outside the studio affect his songwriting. My New Band Believe's self-titled debut is on Rough Trade Records. | 39m 59s | ||||||
| 4/2/26 | ![]() Carl Newman (The New Pornographers) | It's the return of Carl Newman of The New Pornographers! We were just kids back in 2015 when I first interviewed Newman and we discussed his love of the 10cc song "Dreadlock Holiday." We return to that song in this episode, and we span the entirety of Newman's songwriting process, including a great discussion of why writing badly is so important and why gibberish is a great way to jump start the process. The New Pornographers' latest album is The Former Site Of on Merge Records. | 50m 46s | ||||||
| 3/28/26 | ![]() King Tuff (Kyle Thomas) | "I'm a jacket man," King Tuff (aka Kyle Thomas) told me as we discussed why feeling good is important to the songwriting process. I had mentioned a writer who told me that he must wear a winter coat when he writes--even during the Washington, DC summers where he lives. This is not a complicated idea: if we're in a good headspace, we're more likely to be productive and write good songs. "I want to feel like I'm sparkling and then want the songs to feel like treasure, like candy," Thomas says. ... | 50m 19s | ||||||
| 3/24/26 | ![]() Snail Mail (Lindsey Jordan) | "I very much consider myself a writer," Lindsey Jordan (Snail Mail) says. And any good writer has a ritual. Part of Jordan's ritual involves the balance between keeping the writing process precious and recognizing that too much preciousness can create a rut. Regardless, Jordan's love of reading (and poetry!) makes her one hell of a lyricist. Snail Mail's latest album is Ricochet. | 49m 28s | ||||||
| 3/17/26 | ![]() Nate Ruess | Nate Ruess's songwriting catalog includes his Grammy winning band Fun; his co-write and co-performance with P!nk on "Just Give Me a Reason"; and songs for Hayley Williams, Kesha, and Young Thug. After feeling no urge to write for ten years, he's back with the first new material in twenty years for his band The Format. Their new album is Boycott Heaven. And as you'll hear, nothing gets Ruess in the songwriting groove quite like a good, long run along the beach. | 40m 53s | ||||||
| 3/4/26 | ![]() Tyler Ballgame | Procrastinators unite! Thank you, Tyler Ballgame, you are a kindred spirit. Finally someone who admits that procrastination is a great tool for writing. So much has been written on the evils of procrastination, yet some people achieve peak efficiency only when they're under pressure. But sleep works for Ballgame too: as you'll hear, some of his best songs started as dreams. And his ideal state of mind for songwriting is what he calls "mindlessness." Tyler Ballgame's debut album is For t... | 46m 59s | ||||||
| 2/25/26 | ![]() Buck Meek (Big Thief) | “When I go to the grocery store, that’s part of the songwriting process. When I work on my truck, that’s part of my songwriting process. Every aspect of our life feeds into our creativity. The more present I can be, the better the songs,” says Buck Meek. Meek, the guitarist in Big Thief, is the first songwriter to discuss how “fluid dynamics” impact his songwriting. The ocean—with its waves, shifting sand, temperature fluctuation, and changing tides—inspires him because these shifting e... | 45m 13s | ||||||
| 2/22/26 | ![]() Hotel Fiction | Jade Long and Jessica Thompson of Athens, Georgia based Hotel Fiction have a simple routine for their songwriting sessions: make some brownies, pour some wine. And they like to be outside. It's not complicated. But while food, drink, and the outdoors are all common sources of inspiration for songwriters, one element of the Hotel Fiction writing process is unique. When they're outside, they often prefer the top of a parking deck on the University of Georgia's campus. (Long and Thompson a... | 52m 45s | ||||||
| 2/12/26 | ![]() Nat and Alex Wolff | Nat and Alex Wolff had me at Sam Shepard. The playwright/writer/actor was one of my dissertation topics and the brothers acted in his plays, so we agreed early on that he's one of our favorite writers. (After you listen, please read Shepard's Pulitzer Prize winning play Buried Child.) I’ve interviewed other actors who are also songwriters, and as you’ll hear, all channel their stage experience when they write songs. The Wolff brothers call these elements “artistic nutrients”: all ... | 58m 16s | ||||||
| 2/5/26 | ![]() Patton Magee (The Nude Party) | Patton Magee of The Nude Party has the best reason why reading makes you a better songwriter: it gives you a stronger and more wide-ranging vocabulary, which in turn gives you more ways to express yourself. "Words that you rarely use are a lot more fun to play around with," he says on the pod. This reminds me of one of my favorite lines in William Zinsser's book On Writing Well, when he says that if a word comes too easily to you, don't use it because it's probably overused. The Nude Par... | 43m 25s | ||||||
| 1/20/26 | ![]() Courtney Marie Andrews | "I am a taskmaster," Courtney Marie Andrews told me. When we talked back in 2018, I marveled at Andrews' discipline. She calls it "chunk writing": Andrews doesn't write on tour but instead collects notes and ideas while she's there. Then, when she's home, she blocks off chunks of time on her calendar and does nothing but write. This discipline makes for prolificness: besides being a fantastic songwriter, Andrews is a published poet and a visual artist. And as you'll hear, it all has to go in ... | 47m 47s | ||||||
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Chart Positions
21 placements across 20 markets.
Chart Positions
21 placements across 20 markets.
