Kristen Meinzer
Photo by Lauren Eliot Photography.
Kristen Meinzer is host of By The Book, When Meghan Met Harry, and CNN's Lisa, Sandra & Kristen Go To The Movies. She's the author of So You Want to Start a Podcast. Visit her here and on Twitter and Instagram. Photo by Lauren Eliot Photography.
Describe your show in a tweet-length description.
In each episode of By The Book, we choose a different self-help book to live by, follow it to the letter, and record ourselves along the way so listeners can hear how each book enhances or destroys our lives. It's a reality show in audio form.
Who do you work with?
I cohost with the great Jolenta Greenberg. Jolenta is a hilarious storyteller and comedian who takes great pleasure in showcasing all the messy parts of her life. I come from a producer/critic background, which means my personal life hasn't been something I've displayed in most of my work - until By The Book. The two of us balance each other out well - with her being more of a self-help believer, and me being a skeptic. We also have a terrific production team at Stitcher - Nora Ritchie and Casey Holford, most notably. And I'd be remiss not to shout out our founding producer, Cameron Drews.
You and Jolenta have another reality show podcast you're launching on August 15. Can you tell us about it?
Yes, it's called We Love You (And So Can You). In each episode, we help a different listener with a predicament they're facing. After hearing their story, we prescribe a two-week self-love prescription, and by the end, they hopefully feel a little bit better about what they're facing. We like to call it a makeover show for your heart. Huge props here to our amazing producer Lindsey Kratochwill who does all the writing, guest booking, editing, and a million other things for us on this show!
What do you hope your shows do for people?
We hope they make people laugh. They're comedy shows. But we also hope they make listeners feel seen. So many of us feel alone in our self-doubts. We're constantly being sent messages that we're too old or too young or too fat or too brown or too female. And we're also being indoctrinated to judge others along those same lines. We hope our shows encourage people to be kinder to themselves and others, and maybe even better citizens of the world.
You also have a new book, So You Want to Start a Podcast. Is your goal to get the whole world podcasting?
My goal is to help anyone out there who wants to podcast to tell their story in a compelling way while honoring their own voice. For years, I've heard from people who dream of launching shows, but don't know where to start. When they look for guidance, they come across the same articles and self-published books we've all seen about gear, marketing, monetizing, hacking the charts, and other topics that can feel alienating to newbies (and most of which ignore the fundamentals of what makes for a great show). The fact is, without the fundamentals, a podcast will fail. I, personally, prefer to set people up for success. And I think the world is a better place when people have the tools to tell their own stories. That's why I wrote my book.