Ellie Gordon-Moershel

Ellie Gordon-Moershel is the creator of Butt Out, Baby! Follow Butt Out, Baby! on Instagram here.

Tell us about how the show began. How did you hurt yourself? Are you okay now?
I suffered a bad concussion in 2019 when I stood up under an overhanging rock and banged the top of my head. I’m still living with symptoms but by far the worst of it lasted from summer 2019 until Spring 2022. 

BTW, I have to take this moment for a brief concussion PSA: a lot of us don’t enjoy re-telling the story of the injury to literally everyone we meet -- so keep that in mind, dear readers, next time you meet someone with a concussion :) 

At the time of my injury I was teaching two podcast courses and doing sound design for a movie podcast, and one of the physios I saw  misunderstood my podcast work  with being a video editor. (I don’t think he was familiar with the medium)). In any case, this resulted in him being very determined to get me watching film again. I was pretty depressed at the time and didn’t question this rehab focus other than thinking, wow, this man is very devoted to me regaining my leisure activities! 

But, I will forever be thankful for this intervention because it got me re-watching Dirty Dancing. I had to start with literally 2 seconds at a time because my brain was so easily overwhelmed by screens. 

It took months to finish the film and I became a bit obsessed. When it was time for me to approach editing audio again this podcast seemed a natural progression. 

Do you think injury recovery is a ripe time to create something? Did that fuel you in any way?
I want to be careful about how I answer this. On the one hand, it was absolutely essential for me to have little projects to work on to help cope through a period of suffering. On the other hand, I think it can be destructive for people to feel pressure to create some sort of poetic meaning out of their suffering. On a cultural level, it leads to romanticizing mental illness/struggle and on a personal level… it just makes you feel even more like shit if you’re not making some sort of groundbreaking piece of art out of your misery.

During the worst months of my recovery I noticed that I felt the tiniest bit of spark in my soul if I leaned into caring deeply about stories and music that was resonating with me at the time. There’s plenty of other little small projects I did during this time that I’ll never share publicly but were immensely helpful as a coping tool. 

Were there any podcasts that stood as inspiration for But Out, Baby!?
I believe Star Wars Minute was the first podcast to do this kind of granular analysis. I remember first hearing about that podcast years ago and thinking, yikes, that’s way too nerdy! Then I listened to the first ep and was like nevermind, I get it. 

I was more directly inspired by Xena Warrior Podcast and #WizardTeam. However, those shows are banter/conversation based whereas mine is mostly scripted. When I first listened back to ep 1 and 2 (which I worked on for sooooo long because of my capacity issues) I noticed myself mimicking a bit of the style of Sarah Marshall from You’re Wrong About, Alie Ward from Ologies, and ContraPoints from Youtube. It’s possible I’ve also internalized some Karina Longworth along the way.  

Convince any readers out there (if there are any) who don’t think Dirty Dancing should be taken that seriously that they’re wrong.
If they’re a movie lover, I would ask them to think about the reasons why Casablanca continuesto have a spot in the canon. Perhaps it’s the juicy love story, universal themes, commentary on the times, superb actor chemistry, clear story arc with understandable stakes, memorable lines and music…

Well, my friends, that’s all in Dirty Dancing! 

But, also, my podcast is for the fans so I don’t really care. 

If you were going to do this for another movie, what would it be?
Thelma & Louise. I don’t have plans for this because it’ll probably take me years to finish Butt Out, Baby! (I’m sorry to say BOB does not have a release schedule. One of the things I promised myself when I decided to go ahead with the podcast was that, as long as it’s not monetized, I would not let it stress me out. It’s a hobby podcast and so I want it to stay enjoyable for me.)

Is there a scene you’re really excited to cover? Is there one you’re not excited to cover?
The seduction scene! I still get secondary vulnerability panic when Baby proclaims, “Most of all, I'm scared of walking out of this room and never feeling the rest of my whole life the way I feel when I'm with you.”  IMAGINE SAYING THAT OUT LOUD TO YOUR CRUSH YOU’VE ONLY KNOWN FOR TWO WEEKS. 

The abortion scene will take a lot of preparation and research and while it feels like a worthy endeavor I can’t say I’m excited for it.

What’s a podcast you love that everyone already knows about?
Ologies with Alie Ward. But, I think we’re at the point with podcasts where there is no longer any podcast that everyone knows. I regularly meet podcast listeners who’ve never heard of This American Life or Radiolab.

What’s a podcast you love that not enough people know about? 
Fansplaining. Fandom culture is so rich and misunderstood.

Is there anything we can help you with? Are you looking for voicemails or stories or anything like that?
Yes! I do a “dirty debrief” episode to follow every “scene” episode and those are where I read or play listener responses to the previous episode. Which, so far, have mostly been my friends critiquing me :)

But, also, I talk about craft issues and try to be as transparent as possible about the process and so I’m happy to receive any craft questions people have.

If you were going to start another podcast…your budget is $1M and don’t worry about the logistics or whether or not anyone would like it…what would it be?
Interesting. Perhaps, a podcast about people’s pleasures (in the broadest sense - e.g. if a person’s passion is  miniature textile art and they don’t even have a story about it, there’s no stakes to anything, we’re still gonna talk about it for 3 hours) but each person could learn to produce the episode themselves, if they want, and we all get paid a healthy wage.

Self care tip:  Take up a hobby you’re kind of shit at but still enjoy. 

Hot take: Celebrity actors are not good at narrating audiobooks - except for Kate Winslet who did a superb job on Matilda.

Thanks, Ellie!