Laura Mayer

Laura Mayer was a producer at WNYC, became employee number one at Slate’s Panoply network, moved to Stitcher as the Executive Producer in charge of new show development, and then cofounded the production company Three Uncanny Four with Sony Music Entertainment. She is the creator of Shameless Acquisition Target. Follow her on Twitter here.

Explain Shameless Acquisition Target in 10 words or less.
Selling out as hard and as fast as possible. 

I read that some of your peers warned you that Shameless Acquisition Target could hurt your career. Do you think that’s true?
The jury is still out on that one! 

I’ve basically only defined myself by work since I could work (starting as a librarian’s very junior assistant when I was 12). The question of whether my career has been hurt or otherwise changed in a negative way that I caused has kept me up some nights this summer. And, if I’m honest, has kept me up at night since I’ve had my kid. 

Having a kid, getting acutely very ill right after having my kid (I’m good now!), and my work life changing so dramatically right around the same time, caused a bit of a crisis of … career confidence, that I think is probably more common than I once thought? There’s been a reassuring counterbalance to people who’ve expressed their concern about me being employable again. I’ve had people reach out to me about different opportunities that I wouldn’t have gotten if I hadn’t made the show.

Do you have a bad taste in your mouth about podcasting or are you still excited about it?
Not at all! I still care so much about podcasts, creatively, and the business of podcasting. I’m still excited by the podcast business, with the opportunities, with the business changes that I think will need to happen in the next years as the medium matures. 

On a personal level, if it weren’t for podcasting I literally wouldn’t have my family (my husband and I met because he heard me on a podcast 10 years ago – talk about the power of the podcast ad!). I grew up listening to the radio. That was my primary mode of imagination. That’s continued, and will always continue, with me through podcasting – as a listener, as a maker, or a as a podcast POWER BROKER (I’m kidding). 

If you were going to produce and host another show about anything…your budget is $1M and don’t worry about the logistics or whether or not anyone would like it…what would it be?
Given that I would have one million dollars, I’d make use of that, and create an imprint of shows in which the person at the center of it goes HARD on a journey – a buoyant, fun journey, with real emotional stakes – to go out and get theirs. Whatever that is. I might host a season on some other dumb goal that’s not trying to sell out as hard and as fast as possible. 

I’m a bit of an accidental-on-purpose host. I think I’m a much better at working with talent and weighing the business/creative decisions than I am at being the talent. So this is to say, I’d both love to make a very specific network of voice-driven shows with hosts hellbent to achieve goals. I’d also love selling ads for that network and running that sweet, sweet P&L. 

What did you feel when you hit publish on the first episode of Shameless Acquisition Target?
Really, really, really nervous! I scheduled the first episode to launch the night that I discovered the first of many, many mosquitoes that hatched in my floor. So also, itchy.

Fill in the blank. You will like Shameless Acquisition Target if you like _______.
Nathan Fielder, Elle Woods and/or the podcast Startup.

Thanks, Laura!