Caleb Hearon and Shelby Wolstein

Caleb Hearon and Shelby Wolstein are the co-hosts of Keeping Records. Follow Keeping Records on Twitter here and Instagram here, Caleb on Twitter here, and Shelby on Twitter here.

How did you get the idea for Keeping Records?
Caleb: Shelby and I had been thinking about starting a podcast but we really wanted to have a complete concept. We just felt like purely shooting the shit with our friends wasn't interesting enough to have longevity. So we were tossing around ideas for a few months and then I randomly learned about the Golden Records through my friend Chandler Classen who was studying them in grad school. I immediately was fascinated by them, called Shelby, and the idea came pretty quickly. Jake and Amir at Headgum had some great ideas for it, too, when we pitched the concept to them. Then they hooked us up with Mike Comite who is truly a world-class genius audio producer and he has taken the concept to a level that we could've never imagined on our own.

In trying to explain the concept to people who don't listen to the show, can you explain what your guests are trying to do?
Shelby: Our guests are curating a little slice of our world to give to whatever intelligent life is out there.

What is the recipe for a perfect item to be sent into space?
Caleb: The perfect item to send to space is something that a guest really cares about. It's not a concept that does super well with flippancy or irony. We want to talk about the shit that genuinely moves people, makes them laugh, and feels representative of life on Earth from their vantage point. And of course we want to make it fun and funny but the best submissions start with sincerity.

Shelby: There's also sort of a few directions an item can go. A warning, an olive branch, purely informational, etc. I think the important thing is that it feels representative and the guest cares about it and can speak to its importance to them. If they care about it, how it speaks to the rest of the world will typically translate. But what message it will give to the aliens is something we often think about when someone gives us their submissions.

The number one reason I love Keeping Records is because of the two of you! Listening makes me want to join your friendship. Do you go way back?
Shelby: We met four or five years ago in the Chicago comedy scene. And then we moved to LA together in the middle of a pandemic and saw only each other for a year and a half which translates to about 30 years of friendship.

What do each of you bring to the table? How are you different, how are you similar?
Caleb: I think me and Shelby are both very naturally curious about people. We want to know what makes people tick and that's a very shared quality in us. We also find pretty similar things funny, grew up in the midwest, are queer, did comedy in Chicago at the same time, and then moved to LA together. So there's a lot of overlap. I think where we differ is that Shelby does a lot of research before episodes. She digs into the guest's submissions and really tries to understand what they're bringing before we record. My main goal is to show up and cause chaos or start drama.

Are you, like, obsessed with space or something?
Shelby: Space is actually really scary.

I laugh every time I hear you say "Record Heads." Who are the Record Heads? What is your relationship with your audience like?
Shelby: We truly love everyone who listens to the pod. We message with people a lot on the Keeping Records Instagram, and sometimes on Twitter as well. Our favorite thing is hearing what other people would put on their records, or if something new popped into their head to delete or add, etc. One time someone told us they met strangers at a bar in Texas and they got to know them by playing "what would you put on your records" and Caleb and I both sobbed.

Fill in the blank: You will like Keeping Records if you like __________.
Caleb: Homosexuals riffing on the culture with their little friends.

If someone is new to the show, which episode should they start with?
Caleb: We actually lucked out with our first episode (Holmes Holmes) being a pretty exemplary look at what this podcast is. Samantha Irby and Beth Stelling are two of mine and Shelby's favorites from an all around perspective.

Thanks, Caleb and Shelby!