Hi BB & CGW,
Watched the first episode and wanted to say thanks taking the time to put that together. As someone who has experience in the field I have some notes if you’re interested.
1) Stan Lee used to say: “every comic book can be someone's first!”
This means essentially you need to make each issue (episode) accessible as a starting point. I know a lot of EOD lore, but I have no idea who DG, Angie or whoever else you covered are. I have a vague knowledge of KC, but I have no medical knowledge. I hear people saying she's faking. Explain to me why you know she isn't. You’re expecting too much of a first time listener to understand who the players are and their individual lore.
2) Lack of context about what you’re discussing
If you’re doing a recap, context is key. When speaking about incidents, provide a visual cue so the audience has a clue what you’re talking about. If you’re doing a recap for people who’ve not caught up with the prior week’s shenanigans then that visual aid is imperative. The occasional screen shot isn’t sufficient and really doesn’t work well on audio only audiences.
3) Lore
I feel this podcast could be a really useful reference material for people to point at when highlighting why these people are bad people. Talking about what people did on live has its place but early on in this series it feels like you’re missing the “why should I care” part. The audience of people aware of all of these creators together is very small. I would recommend starting with focussing on each player as an episode, and having weekly highlight catch-ups as parallel content.
4) Experts
You both are well versed on these characters. What is missing from any awareness is expert voices. Having on mental health professionals (psychiatrists, therapists), specialists in Autism, ADHD, medication and relevant fields would be a key unique selling point to your podcast. We all have opinions but what is missing from discussions around these creators is facts. You could really lead the way there. (Edited to add this on: You could offer anonymity to prevent E's minions causing professional headaches.)
5) Voices
I really like both of your voices, they are very soothing but you need to put some fire in your bellies to keep people engaged. Again, visual cues would break this up as there was a lot of talking at quite a flat tone that felt like it needed more energy. (Not hating, I have been told this in the past and it really helped me).
6) Hooks
Opening the podcast with 30 seconds of highlights from each chapter of you discussion points would work as a hook to let people know what is in store.
7) The video version
Podcasts mostly have a really good video version to compliment the audio version these days. You should look at ways to either incorporate your faces when you’re speaking, or really utilise the ample content about these creators to make the visual version stand out. Without trying to be cruel, this did not.
I hope my feedback isn’t taken as mean spirited, I’d love this sort of content to succeed.