Mike Bloom joined Parade Magazine in 2017, where he quickly became one of the go-to journalists for Survivor, Big Brother, Amazing Race, Top Chef, Dancing with the Stars, The Challenge, and more. He’s also a key contributor to the Award winning Podcast Rob Has a Podcast. Since 2025, he has served as the TV editor for Parade, where he oversees coverage of scripted and unscripted television for the magazine. A superfan of Survivor, Bloom often says that he has his “dream job.” I sat down with Mike to discuss his fandom, his career, his journey with mental health, and, of course, Survivor 51.
Will Flejter: Were you always a Survivor fan and how did you discover the show?
Mike Bloom: In terms of getting into the show, I wouldn't say it was like a day one fan. I guess technically it was episode six. It's kind of impossible to talk about what the vibe was like at the time because reality TV is such an easy part of the mainstream nowadays that we sort of don't realize how nouveau it was back in 2000, but it really was this big unknown, especially in a time without social media. It was all about word of mouth, like, “oh, hey, can you believe that there's this show called Survivor?” I remember the famous DJ Howard Stern had actually said, “oh, there's this show where they kill the person that they vote out.” Things caught on so quickly that after 5 episodes, I decided to jump in during episode six. Now, what's interesting is that they did not have reruns at the time, nor Paramount Plus, so you kind of just glean what you do from recaps and rating things, not even online, but mainly papers and columns to try to catch up, but I've been pretty much in it since then. A lot of people say that when I asked them about their Survivor origin stories, they say, “I watched them when I was a kid, but then dipped out in college because I was too busy.” Not this guy. I skewed a lot of my social life in lieu of watching Survivor, not always live, but the day after. So yeah, I have been a loyalist ever since pretty much June of 2000.
Of course, it’s one thing to watch the show and another to truly enter the reality TV world. How did you get into the fandom?
The fandom is interesting because when I started watching reality TV, it was when a lot of people did in the early 2000s, and that was also at a time where the internet was slowly thumbing to life - specifically the idea of fan cultures and having a place to go [to discuss them]. I think when you ask this question to a lot of people, they would say forums like “Survivor Sucks,” which was meant to be this very snarky, almost like a subreddit, to use modern nomenclature of people gathering to talk about the show. It's usually used to bash on the show or on the contestants.
So in terms of the fandom, you know, everyone watched the 1st season. Maybe people started watching the 2nd season. Then there was drop off. I remember my sister and I would watch it together. She dropped off maybe around like season 5 or 6 and then for a while it was just me as the only person I knew who watched in my life, from about like season 8 to honestly when I started podcasting. That's when you turn to the online fandom. You turn to Survivor Sucks, where you get to commiserate with some people or read the funny, snarky stuff that's being said every week. And I’m grateful for that, because listen, you can do a whole different project, Will, about how internet online culture, especially for reality TV, does more harm than good, but it does serve as a nice point of unification for a lot of people, especially those who do not feel like they have that in their personal lives.
I know that Survivor Sucks led you to the Survivor Historians, and I’d love to know about your time there.
I'd love to, yeah. So when I got out of college, I was out on the open road and trying to be a young adult. I was on “Sucks” one day and I remember seeing a thread for the exit press of Survivor South Pacific (23) with Rob Has a Podcast. And I was like, oh, Rob Cestermino, from seasons 6 and 8, he has this thing that's sort of like a radio show, but for Survivor. Around the same time, I was, like many, a big fan of The Funny 115, which is a compendium that Mario Lanza put out that describes the funniest 115 moments from each decade of Survivor. I started listening to both and really getting involved with them. At the same time, I had gone to school for theater, I had a degree in theater. I was trying to be an actor. And that, I wouldn't say it wasn't going well, but for me, I was definitely feeling that I didn't want to do this as my full-time gig, and so I quit. Coincidentally around the same time, one of the co-hosts of the Survivor Historians was studying abroad in Germany at the time, and his Wi-Fi was horrible. They wanted to cover Survivor All Stars, but they couldn't get him to commit. So they decided to hold auditions for a new temporary host, and I threw my hat in the ring. I'd only been listening to podcasts for a while, but I had experience in improv, and I certainly had a lot of Survivor History in my noggin. It’s super cheesy, but the moment I sat down and talked for the first time with Mario and Jay I felt this sort of chill from “performing” that I had not felt in a long time.
The process was akin to American Idol, though on a much smaller scale. They started with 16 of us, then cut us down to 5, and then they ended up picking me. I remember at my office job when I got the email that I “got the job”, I got up and paced around because the idea of being wanted and being picked it was so exciting for me I didn't know if I was good at this, nor did I know anyone who knew about, much less talked about Survivor. So I have so much credit to both of them for really helping kickstart all this for me by giving me a platform. That extends over to Rob, who at the time I was doing website work for. When he found out that I'd joined the Survivor Historians, he just happened to line me up on a podcast on a guest appearance where I got to share my thoughts on Survivor Cagayan. It was truly just a confluence of a series of very fortunate events happening in the spring of 2014 that really got me set up with the major Survivor podcasts at the time.
As someone who grew up both reading you and then went back to read Mario’s work, it's so cool to see that everyone is connected, even people that you don't necessarily think are linked together. Survivor really is a community.
Yes, completely. I think that's why, for me, when I get asked for advice or when I’m asked to check out a Survivor podcast, I always try to. I compare it to the Survivor challenge where you have to hoist yourself over a practically vertical wall. While some people can be Joey Amazing and get up themselves, most almost have to get hoisted up and then turn back and offer their hand to pull somebody else up. I've been so lucky to get hoisted up by so many individuals at the right place at the right time, and I feel like it's only appropriate that I reach back and help out those and try to be the person in their lives that others were in my life.
I think people forget about that. That community means turning around and hoisting up the people who come after you. Thanks for taking the time to remember about the little guys, guys like me.
Well, the other thing as well is that I'm a fan 1st and foremost. You know, when I got involved in all this, I didn't have any prior journalism experience. I didn't have any prior interview experience. I got thrown into the ocean and was told to swim my way to shore. I'm lucky that I had, much like Kilby did in the 51 premiere, a life raft to help me along, but there’s still a bit of imposter syndrome. All these years later, I have compatriots who have been trained in this type of stuff, who know how to handle these situations. I just have what I want to hear and my ability to talk with people and then go from there. I'm not better than anyone else, Who am I to be like, “Oh, no, no, no, no, please. I am one of the coveted Survivor journalists, I will not call”? Because, again, I was that person 12 years ago who just so happened to get lucky at the right time.
Speaking of getting lucky, in a Reddit AMA that you did before season 50, you stated that Josh Wigler was the one who recommended you for the Survivor beat at Parade. I’d love to hear more about your relationship with Josh and what led him to give you that recommendation.
Josh is one of my best friends, the brother that I never had, and we’ve developed an incredibly close relationship as he has changed his relationship with Survivor. Josh was one of the pre-eminent reporters on Survivor for Parade Magazine up until about like 2017 or so. As I talked about before, I was going through a crisis. I hate that term, but like, I was going through some stuff and asking, “What do I want to do with my life?” I like podcasting, and I knew that Josh had made a career out of doing interviews, particularly reality TV interviews, and so I sat down with Josh one day and I asked him authentically for advice. We talked things through, he gave me some recommendations, and then informed me a couple months later that he had been offered a full-time position with the Hollywood Reporter. And so he said, “I'm leaving Parade, and I want you to take my spot.” Again, it was right place, right time, right person. I got recommended to essentially just jump in and pick up from where he left off regarding doing exit press, eventually going out to the island, to do interviews, et cetra.
My role at Parade expanded from there, where I was asked to cover Big Brother and Amazing Race as well. I keep talking about all the guys I owe my life to, but like I owe so much to Josh for giving me that opportunity. People talk about the “Mike Bloom Preseason Interviews,” but to me, that's always been done in an echo of what Josh did. I feel like what I do is continuing his legacy, albeit with my own spin.
You’ve been flown out to Fiji five times to conduct the Survivor pre-season interviews. Tell me more about your experiences on the island.
I think unbelievable is the best word to describe it. I feel like if everyone had unlimited time and unlimited funds, every Survivor fan should get the chance to go out to Fiji. Let me say, that does not mean that now I'm watching everything with rose colored glasses and that the show can do no wrong. There are certainly choices that I still disagree with, that I would tell Jeff Probst to his face, that I disagree with. But I think we take for granted just the iceberg-like structure of the Survivor crew. It’s a workplace where every single person behind the scenes has contributed in some way to some part of that show, whether it's hosting it front and center, whether it's painting that tribal council stump, whether it's designing the challenges or getting all the rewards for the sanctuary. There are hundreds of people whose job it is to make sure that what happens on screen goes off without a hitch, and not only that - they’re putting their all into it. Like, I know there's been a lot of talk about the budget era of Survivor, but I could tell being out there how much people truly love what they do. If they didn't, they would have gotten out of there a long time ago or they would have gotten kicked out a long time ago. They really build a familial like atmosphere out there. Crew members have met on the show, got married, and had children that are currently running around Fiji. It's a really cool environment to be a part of.
Even just being there while the show is filming is well, it's really, really cool. It's given me such a new dimension of appreciation for the show, knowing how much work goes into it and how people's experiences on the island are magnified even more from that hard work.
I think that's what separates Survivor from Big Brother is the actual reality of the grandness of the planet that we live in, that they get to experience something that the ordinary American doesn't. They're not on a studio lot in some parking lot in Los Angeles. They're in Fiji.
100%.
As a journalist, you get to meet the contestants as people before they're transformed into characters. How does conducting the preseason interviews impact your watching of the season?
That's a really great question, because from my own commentary perspective, I see them as people, but I treat them as characters, if that makes sense. I'm certainly not going to be above throwing shade at some people. Listen, I don't think I would be the person to make personal attacks against these contestants, even if I didn't cover the show. But it definitely does stop me sometimes and decide, okay, let's not go after this too much. I know who they are, I know they're a fully fledged person, not just a character on the TV screen. This is a living breathing person who's being presented in a certain way.
Getting to know these people as well beforehand is very fun because, you know, I'm a captive audience for them. They are supposed to, through the rules, not be able to communicate with anybody in the preseason outside of like their respective handlers. I am just a warm body who happens to be sitting on the island with a microphone. Talk at me. I've had a lot of people tell me that they were just very grateful for that. They don't even know if it made sense. They don't even remember some of the stuff they said. They were just happy to talk to another person, which makes me excited because it also helps me get to know the personality outside of the edit as well. The new era has done a better job, I think, of fleshing out who these people are, sort of giving everyone their time in the sun, but I think certainly the way some are painted are not characteristic of who they are as people. And so I relish the opportunity to get to know these people as people first before I get to know them as players.
Despite your stellar pre-season coverage of Season 50, you, nor Entertainment Weekly’s Dalton Ross, were not brought out to conduct the pre-season interviews for Season 51, nor any other member of the press, for that matter. Why do you think CBS decided not to fly y’all out?
Trying to get into the brain of CBS is tough, especially as they’re ever-changing, much like the open era, where you never know what you're going to get in the next episode. I do not envy those who work for Paramount and CBS at this time, considering the tumultuousness and changes in leadership. If I were to describe a couple of reasons, the first is that they had a lot to spend on the budget for 50. They flew about maybe 9 or 10 press people out, even more as the season went along, with all these huge marketing events throughout the country. It costs money to house the media and to accommodate them for a few days. It could have come down to the fact that they did not necessarily have the funds to do so.
It also might have been because 51 was in the middle of 50 airing, and so they didn't have anyone to accompany us from CBS. That said, we also did not get the ability to talk to them for 52 as well. I have not been given like a formal reason outside of like bandwidth issues from production, whatever that might mean. I'm manifesting that they do come back at some point and that CBS is able to reverse that decision. Even if they don't have us out there, they could just do what we did a couple times for 45 and 47 and have us talk over Zoom. I just really relish the ability to talk to the contestants in the preseason, and while I didn't get the chance to do so for 51, I did get the chance to beat a lot of them at the advanced screening where we met at the American Dream Mall, which was really nice because it gave me the opportunity to meet these people before they become players.
How does your lack of preseason interviews this season change your approach to both watching the season and covering the show?
It doesn’t really impact me watching the season. There might be some personal information that I'm not privy to, but it impacts me more when covering the show, as I don't have that initial meeting with the contestants that we’d have on the island. We don't have that initial rapport, though I'd like to pride myself in thinking that I am able to build rapport with people fairly quickly, even if I don't have that preseason conversation with them. It also helps that I actually did meet basically all of them at the American Dream as well, whereas otherwise I'd be meeting them over Zoom. Honestly, otherwise it's pretty similar, which speaks to how after I do my preseason coverage, I sort of shift into viewing the contestants as characters and comment on them as such.
You’re also responsible for conducting the exit interviews. Give us an insight into that process.
Obviously once I watch the episode, I know who's going home the next day. I'm a very visual learner. I will take notes on everything just because then I could kind of commit it to memory, and if I can't, then I can say, “hey, CTRL-F Will. How many times does Will appear in my notes? Oh, I should ask him about this because this happened!” It's a good way to remind myself about everything that happened over the course of the season, especially for interviews that happen at the end of one, and then it just becomes a matter of writing down the things I want to ask about and putting them in a loose order of priorities because we are only given about 10 to 15 minutes. Not a lot of people seem to understand that we only have a specific allotted amount of time. But I still keep my mind open for, depending on where the topics take me, right? Like, if they're going down this path of like, “Oh, well, actually, I had this alliance with Bob the entire time.” Even if something wasn’t in my notes, I want to give them the opportunity to talk about it, especially, if it's something that they're revealing for the 1st time, I have to follow that lead and instinct.
Regardless, I'm always a fan of overpreparing, just in case I get thrown for a loop, or especially if I'm given the dreaded interview who gives us the “go ahead girl, give us nothing,” and gives very short answers. At least then you're overly prepared to go through the things you want to talk about without being too thrown off.
How do the Survivor and Big Brother exit interviews differ?
Oh my god. Night and fucking day.
With Survivor, they've lived the experience once, they've watched the experience back, and now they have seen everything. They've seen it from other people's perspectives. They can talk to you about their thoughts, about their thoughts on other people's thoughts. With Big Brother, oftentimes, I am one of the 1st people they talk to from the outside world. And it is especially this season. Quite honestly, this is something that provoked a lot of anxiety within me last week with the Big Brother finale. There is this unique role that journalists play in the Big Brother space. We’re the first people to talk to them, and viewers really expect us to “hold them accountable.” for any and all comments or actions.
The difference between Survivor and Big Brother is that oftentimes, yes, people will do bad things on Survivor, but Big Brother shows such an uncensored look at watching a person's livelihood that it does feel like sometimes we come into their characterization with a laundry list of all these different behaviors and relationships to address, and a lot of pressure to “give the people what they want.”. It's incredibly tough, and you can take or leave whether or not I do a good job at it. I think it depends on what you want out of it. I think that some people want to get their immediate reactions to things for the first time, to get their unvarnished thoughts before they go out into the outside world and actually experience what people are saying about them. On the other hand, and though I fail to do this sometimes, I try to treat them with, with some care, knowing that they don't know or even might not remember what they said or did. I don't want to bombard them. I don't want to ambush them. I know those words have been used sometimes and I very much understand where they're coming from, but it's not my intention whatsoever. So it is, I'll be completely candid. It's one of the hardest things about my job, and if you speak to Sharon Tharp or Dalton Ross or even speak to Taran Armstrong, he can attest to that.
We want to be able to talk to these people in a way where their opinions are not colored by what the Internet thinks about them, but we also know the things we sometimes ask them about are not necessarily ones they even remember, and therefore they're not going to always give the “best answer.”
What is your biggest priority in conducting [Survivor] exit press and what questions do you always ask? Alternatively, how do you adapt your interviews to the interviewee?
Especially when someone gets blindsided, I like to ask them, “Is there a moment or an exchange that, in hindsight, you realize could have contributed to your blindside, right?” Hindsight, of course, is 20/20. Otherwise, I’ll be asking about their reactions to specific moments that happen and their relationships with a variety of castaways. It’s really fluid after that, just because there's a million ways to play Survivor. If I was locked into asking the same questions every time, that would lock me out of an opportunity to ask other things, considering that, again, we only have a limited amount of time to talk with them.
How are you finding Survivor 50-Fun, or Survivor 51, compared to the new era and to Survivor as a whole?
I'll call it 50-fun, at least so far. The word I've been using is freedom, which I think pertains to everybody on that beach. It’s a creative refresh for Survivor. Jeff revealed to us that, by design, the new era seasons were supposed to be cookie cutter because we wanted the players to be able to watch, learn and adapt their gameplay as a result. Now we're just throwing everything out there, and the cast is really playing ball with that. It is a delightful shit show. so far. It is so messy.
It's also just been a nice return to form with bringing in a lot of these elements that we haven't seen in half a decade - 2 tribes, a marooning, idols without beware advantages attached, etc. I am still, as I am, always cautious about the other shoe dropping, especially with 21 players. Like, when are we going to brew something up? Where's the blood moon coming or when are we going to have to boot like 2 or 3 people at once? And what's that going to involve? But right now with the way that things are going, especially with production showing restraint in slow rolling the format and letting the players play, I am all in so far. I think that we're having the most, again, 50-fun that we've had in a long time.
Who is your winner pick?
So I ended up picking Mike. There's a Survivor super fan named Mike who works for the Yankees - let me take this low hanging fruit right now.
Out of all of the interviews you've ever conducted, which one was your favorite?
It's gotta be the Christian Hubicki preseason interview before Season 50. I've had the incredible opportunity to speak with so many different people, from both the unscripted and descriptive perspective as well, including actors and actresses that I've had the chance to talk to while covering scripted shows for Parade. But Christian’s felt special for a number of reasons.
It was the 1st time I'd ever really interviewed him. I did an exit press interview [after Survivor David vs Goliath], but during this one we did so many fun things together, from discussing the “narrative warfare” of Survivor to him breaking down the cast into these like 3 buckets of why they were cast on the show or when I did the friend or foe game and he talks about how he’s worried that he farted in front of Colby and Colby hates him now because of it. And, of course, the interview culminating with him revealing that he has a secret son is a moment I will never forget. For me, it was so much packed into one 35 minute chat that it's something I will never forget. I got so much out of him and he gave so much to me from both a work perspective and an emotional perspective. I know it's a lot of recency bias. There are many, many, many other people that can make this list, but that is the one that's really top of mind for me.
Out of all of the players, whether you've interviewed them or not, who's someone that you don't think would be brought back to Survivor that you wish you could see play again?
It's only because I'm pessimistic about this, but I love Sean Rector with all my heart. I would love to see him back. I think he has gone through so much, and there's such a great storyline for him, and especially just stuff that he was talking about on the show has a lot of prescience nowadays that I would love for it to happen. It's not like he's blacklisted or anything…pun unintended. You know, it seems more so like they don't really consider him anymore in the wake of all these newer stars. So it's not like he's banned from the show. I just don't necessarily expect him to be back.
What's something you learned and that you wished viewers realized about Survivor and reality TV in general?
I think it is, honestly, that everyone is trying their best. Even if you don't agree with the decisions, they’re doing what they think is best. There is so much passion for Survivor specifically that happens behind the scenes, that I think just because we see the same thing over and over again, it kind of gets excused away as, like, well, they don't care anymore. You can argue it's almost like they care too much.
Is that regarding production or regarding the players?
Production specifically.
Is there something you wished that people realized about you?
Sometimes people don't realize that just like these reality TV contestants, sometimes we get treated as these characters, and people can speak openly about things like, “well, I've never liked so and so. They are “too annoying” or “can so-and-so please stop talking?”” Uh, I'll admit that, despite doing this for 12 years, the skin's still a little thick, but not too thick. There are comments that hurt, even to this day. I'm all fine with constructive criticism, but you don't always need to go for the personal attack. I can work on what words I use or the questions that I ask. I can't work on my voice being annoying or loud. How is that helping in any way?
I think, especially in this reality TV world, people don't realize that you’re people, because they see you in this controlled setting and they don't necessarily see you behind the scenes.
Yeah, I think people think we're sort of above it all, and I wish I was, but I'm not. Going back to what we were talking about before, I still consider myself a fan 1st and foremost, someone who's been very fortunate enough to be given a platform. That means that when other fans make comments about us that verge into personal territory, I take it because it's like, oh, well, I'm just another fan, so it's tough. Also, we sometimes don't necessarily realize the platform that we have, where we’re regarded as “official news sources” and if I loosely speculate about something, I have to be really careful now because then people are like, “Oh my god, Mike Bloom confirms so-and-so,” even if I didn't outright do so. So it's tough to also, on my part, manage the flow of misinformation to make sure it doesn't get misattributed to me at all.
Do you ever feel like you were playing Survivor in real life?
100%. Not from a deceit perspective,, but certainly, I think in playing to a number of spaces, you know, being able to make people comfortable in conversations. And that's not to say that, like, I'll actually go back against your statement. That's not playing Survivor, I think that's just like being a person. You know?
Being a person with anxiety.
Yeah, that's exactly it. So I would not say no. I'm not necessarily like living survivor. I'm picking and choosing what to say because otherwise I might get voted out. No, I would not say [I’m playing Survivor in real life], because again, if that were the case, this would be way too anxiety abusing for me.
You’ve mentioned struggles with anxiety and depression before, and I’d love if you could speak a bit more about them.
Oh, my goodness, yes. I mean, it's perfect timing that you bring this up because we, of course, just had the Big Brother 28 finale, and I will admit that after I did my finale exit interviews, I got hit with a huge dose of both anxiety and depression for the first time in a while. Overall, this is something that I've essentially been living with my whole life. I grew up in the 90s where these things were relatively undiagnosed, especially in children, unless you were in a really dark place and needed to be institutionalized. You were just the weird kid. So for the 1st like, maybe like 26 or so years of my life, um, I lived with depression and anxiety without even realizing it. I would have bouts of insomnia. I've also been diagnosed with ADHD as well. In elementary school, if I didn't do perfect on a test, I would have intense emotional breakdowns, where I just catastrophize everything. It wasn't a pressure put on me by my parents or this school - it was all the pressure that I put on myself. I put an inordinate amount of pressure on myself. What really broke the cable's back was my wedding day, which was absolutely beautiful, and it was meant to be outside, and it rained. I remember in the weeks and months following just stewing and festering on that thought of how depressed I was, not fixating on all the good things that happened, but the things that were bad. My wife, who has also lived with lifelong struggles with anxiety and depression, said that I should go to therapy. I had no experience with therapy before, but I finally went, and honestly, I think it's something that everyone should take part in, because there is so much value in talking about your life to someone who is not directly involved in your life. If you're asking someone for advice, there's a good chance that they might color it based on what they know about you, who they are, the role they play in your life, et cetera, et cetera.
I finally went to therapy, and I just felt so free, talking with somebody, not feeling judged, getting to hear some reasonable opinions back, and having some ways to talk through things. And then this conversation started coming up a couple of years later of like, have you tried medication? which I never had in the past because even with therapy, I was still living a lot of highs and lows from day to day, almost uncontrollably so. And so, all that is to say, therapy is not for everybody. Medication is not for everybody. It is for me. I do take medication for both anxiety and depression, and it’s helping me immensely. I have received so many incredibly beautiful words about being so open about it. I don't feel brave in any way about doing so, but I also know there is, I would say up until a few years ago, so much stigma around it, right, that, like, you're different if you have these kinds of thoughts. But really, there are a lot of people who are struggling with it like me who just don't realize it until it's named. I was recently diagnosed with ADHD, and while I don't seek treatment for it, it is so much easier to Google, “how to do this with ADHD” than “how to do this, and I can't pay attention, and I forget what I'm doing when I walk into the room.” You know, just typifying it, even if there are a spectrum of things that you experience with that diagnosis, helps so much in helping identify what you have going on and subsequently treating it.
Is there anything that you'd like to put on the record that you'd want to talk about that no one has given you the opportunity to do yet?
Oh, well, that's a fun question, giving me the blank check. What I will say again, that I think people really need to realize is the time limits that exist within these interviews. We cannot go on and on and on and on forever. I understand if, A, there are certain topics you want us to get into and B, there are certain topics you want us to get into more, but we are given a very specific time limit that we have to operate within, and it becomes a little bit of like a trolley problem.Which path do I go down? I think people need to realize that time constraints are our primary limit. We're looking at the clock, we're getting messages saying 2 minutes left, and we know there's a question that we have to close on, and so we have to jump into that and move to the next topic.
What advice would you offer an up-and-coming journalist such as myself?
It's so tough because, as I mentioned before, my origin story was incredibly opportune. I did not go through the typical backchannels whatsoever.
But what I would advise is that, A, put your stuff out there. Not only to get seen in front of people, but also because the more you do, the more you're going to learn your style, the more you're going to learn your tone and what you want to do. I think you should just do it. Whether you'll have qualms about, not having connections or being able to get into publications, I tell them to start writing blogs and making YouTube videos. Give yourself samples so that you can actually show them a few publications and get to say, “hey, this is my work.” Nowadays, we are very rarely picking people off the street - you need to build a body of work. If people aren't gonna do that for you, you have to do it yourself. And considering how nowadays we have so many opportunities to create your own content, I feel like it's much easier today than ever.
The reverse side of that, however, is that we are so oversaturated with content. So how do you do it in a way that helps you get discovered?
I think it's speaking towards things that you want to talk about. You should not start a podcast about something that you are not passionate about and want to talk about. If you're starting something because “everyone's talking about this, so I guess I should talk about this,” your inauthenticity is going to bleed through like Brady's thumb. So even if you feel like, “Oh my god, this is another survivor podcast,” I bet you have a unique perspective based on who you are where you could bring your own flavor to it. Does it mean that you're going to become the next big Survivor podcast? Maybe not, not necessarily, but what's to say that like, you work on your own thing, you get it going, and you get approached by the “Specialists” or by “Survivor Now” and potentially get asked to enter their network. That's something. And it will come from the fact that you are using your own voice to speak from the heart instead of putting out a podcast that you think other people will like.
So, all right, I'm gonna steal this one from Taran - What should we check out about you? Obviously, you're covering Survivor, you're covering Amazing Race, but what do you want us to look out for from you?
I mean, it's just everything over at Parade, where I'm doing Survivor, Amazing Race, Traitors New Blood. There’s a bunch of other reality and scripted stuff coming in as well. I used to be everywhere doing all these podcasts, but now they're pretty much concentrated to Parade and RHAP. So pretty easy - there’s two homes to find me in.