Dan Taberski

Dan Taberski is the creator of Missing Richard Simmons, Running from COPS, The Line, 9/12, and more. Follow him on Twitter here.

When you started Missing Richard Simmons, what was your familiarity with podcasts?
Serial was my familiarity. And Startup. But it never occurred me to do one myself. I did radio in college, but that was a long time ago and I wasn't very good. I was already past the thing about hearing your own voice. I had already dealt with that—nobody likes the sound of their voice. And so you just kind of forget about it. 

How would you describe it?
My voice is too loud. I find my voice loud. Otherwise I don't really think about what my voice sounds like. I just think about if it has the meaning in it that I want, if it's imparting the meaning I want it to express. That's the hard part. But as far as it's sounding good, that that ship has sailed. 

Where did you grow up?
In Flushing, Queens.

I was wondering if there was an accent that you are hiding.
If I get really, really drunk I'll snap little bits of it, I’ll sort of drop my G's off, but I grew up with a lisp. I had a speech therapist for a long time as a kid. The gap in between my teeth doesn't help. If I drink a bunch or if I'm really tired I'll lisp a lot more. I am always doing it a little bit, It's not so pronounced that it's crazy. 

Which of your projects are you the most proud of?
If I had to pick one, I would say Missing Richard Simmons, but it's not even necessarily the best, I just think it was the most unusual and I was really proud of how it struck a chord. Some people loved it, some people hated it. I was really proud of how we went into it with our eyes wide open. And we really just deliberately told a very sensitive story in a way that I still feel proud of. We talked about something that was really squishy, about friendship and what it means to lose a friendship. And how do you say goodbye and all this sort of weird stuff that is really hard to talk about. 

Were you surprised it blew up? Did any prepare you?
Nobody says it's gonna blow up. I just sort of make stuff, and I've been making stuff for years. Sometimes it does well, but most of the time nothing happens, you just make it and it disappears. It's on for a season it's gone and nobody will remember it. I'm used to that. For me, the fun is making it and if it does well, great. 

Are you a perfectionist?
I know I'm not a perfectionist. But I'm committed. And when I commit to it, I'm never just doing like five things at once. This is what I'm doing, I'm doing this, I'm doing this project. I really do live inside the project for better or for worse.

How aware are you of your downloads?
This is gonna drive you crazy when I say it but I don't keep track of the numbers. I also don't read iTunes reviews. We get thousands of them and sometimes my husband, if we're in a fun mood, he'll read the mean ones back to me, just to hear, ‘cause they're always crazy. I work with Henry Molofsky a lot, and he will sort of give me ballpark, he'll let me know, are we doing great? Are we doing good? But I don't really keep track of that. I also think it's very different, keeping track of numbers for a six episode podcast is very different than keeping track of a podcast that comes out every week. 

I'm in a very lucky position. I had one show that was a hit for whatever reason. And so that really sets you up. That really helps. You can't worry about it. It's just too much to worry about. 

If you were going to make another podcast, don’t worry about any of the logistics or whether or not anyone would like it, what would it be?
That's what I'm doing, is it not? That's what it feels like to me, like nobody's making me make anything, everybody just says, what do you wanna do now? Or I have to convince people what I wanna do, but I would never try to convince people to let me do something other than something that I really had a burning desire to do, that is just the quickest way to failure or even worse, mediocrity. Right? To pitch a show that you don't really wanna do, but you feel like it might sell. And then you have to spend the next year and a half making a show that you never really wanted to do in the first place. And so everything I've made is something I could have doubled the time I spent making it.

If the only thing you're left with is… I talked to 50 Navy Seals, and I got to think about what it means to fight in war. And I got to sort of experience things and sort of figure things out that in a way I wouldn't have been able to otherwise because I'm getting to spend all this time reading and talking to whoever I wanna talk to and collaborate with creative partners. And that's the thing. So I feel like I'm doing that already. That being said, I don't know what I wanna make next. 

How would your parents describe what you do? Do they get podcasts and do they understand what you're doing?
I think they do, my mom was in Missing Richard Simmons. I don't think they listen, but they get it. They're proud of me. There are things in the podcasts I’ve made that I know that if my mom heard it, she'd be like, ‘what?’ 

How have you changed as a podcaster since Missing Richard Simmons?
I've learned to really enjoy what other people are good at and that I don't have to be good at everything. You work with these people who have skills that are different than yours and, and that take the pressure off you. You learn to appreciate what other people are good at and really appreciate being around that. It's learning what you're good at and learning what you're bad at.

Did you have to wear more hats in your first project, Missing Richard Simmons?
In the beginning I did. In the beginning I was recording it. I was making it as a documentary and I was shooting shooting the video on an iPhone video with a professional sound rig. But once I hooked up with Pineapple Street and Henry, at first I was like, ‘Henry, send me the cuts and I'll play with it in Hindenburg.’ And he'd be like, ‘yeah, okay.’ And he'd never send it to me. And then you just get used to the idea that like, oh, maybe I don't to that as well. And that was a good lesson. 

Do you miss Hindenberg? 
It's a time suck. You just spend all your time finessing a sentence when he can do it 10 times faster than I can. 

What is your favorite show? 
I listen to a lot of book podcasts and literary podcasts, people talking about books and interviewing authors and stuff like that. Have you listened to Myself with Others with Adam Shatz? It's just an interview show, but Adam interviews pretty esoteric people, authors and artists and musicians and people that I don't even really know most of the time. He's got such a funny way of interviewing. He's such a specific type of person. I really like it when people that are so themselves. That's what's really can be really special about podcasting, getting into somebody's quirks and how the quirks play out in other conversations and listening to that. 

Listen to it. It's really weird. He has funny quirks in his interviews that annoyed me. And now I really like him, he's fun to listen to.

Does he know you think that?
I sent him a DM saying that, which I like to do. ‘Cause I really appreciate it when I get it. He just said ‘thanks.’.

That's so him. I can't imagine getting a DM from you saying you like my work. I'm glad you did that. People need to do that more.
I do that randomly. I'll just email, text, DM somebody and be like, ‘Hey, let's hang out,’ and people do it. I would say, ‘let's go get a beer’ or something like that. And there's something about podcasting, that's it's small enough that, nobody's ever said, like, get away from me. So I'll keep doing it.

Podcasting is encompassing. I know so little about so much of podcasting because I'm just doing a very specific type of podcasting. And so there's all these other types that I don't know a lot about. So it's interesting to talk to people. 

What's your favorite show that like everyone knows about and is just a classic?
I really like Ezra Klein. I listen to him every week and I'm envious of what he gets to do and the people he gets to talk to. He's just so good and even keeled, which is hard to do. I listen to a lot of interview podcasts. I don't listen to a lot of narrative podcasts. It's hard when you're making them to listen to others. I find it gets in my head.

Thanks, Dan!