Karina Longworth

Karina Longworth is a writer, film historian and the creator, producer and host of You Must Remember This. Follow her on Twitter here. Follow You Must Remember This on Twitter here.

I once read that you don't consider yourself a podcaster. Is that still true?
Yes. I'm a film historian. I wouldn't be podcasting about anything but the history of Hollywood, but I have and will in the future do work on the history of Hollywood in other media.

Episode number one, "The Hard Hollywood Life of Kim Novak," is a "lost episode." What do you remember about it?
It's...not very well lost. You can find it if you try. But, I can't include it as part of the feed because it has a lot of copyright music on it, and I don't have the original project file so I can't re-edit it to take that music out. I have pledged to recreate the episode once we hit 1000 Patreon subscribers. We're less than 300 subscribers away!

Is there anyone in film you wouldn't cover? Are there people who don't deserve the You Must Remember This treatment?
My husband is a writer/director, and I won't cover him, or anyone I've met through him, or whom he has worked with, or anyone related to anyone he knows or has worked with. So for instance, because Jamie Lee Curtis was in a movie he made, there will be no Janet Leigh/Tony Curtis season, I'm afraid. I made an episode involving Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds before I met Carrie Fisher, but wouldn't do anything about that family now.

What’s something listeners don’t understand about podcasts and what goes into making them?
I don't think my podcast is anything like most podcasts in terms of the labor that goes into making it. On average, once I have an idea for a new episode, it takes me 6 months to make it. 

Women in podcasting are constantly being criticized for their voices. What is your relationship with yours? How would you describe your voice?
I've always been made fun of for my voice, because I grew up in the Valley and I sound like it. I never liked hearing my own voice, and I had to start "doing a voice" in order to feel comfortable doing the podcast. I still get made fun of, for how my podcast voice sounds, and for supposedly mispronouncing words -- but I think at least half of the complaints that I'm mispronouncing things comes from the vestiges of my suppressed accent. 

What podcasts do you love to listen to?
Right now my favorite podcasts are How Long Gone, Effectively Wild, Glowing Up, Night Call, Everything is Fine and Who? Weekly. 

Thanks, Karina!