Rebecca Lavoie

Rebecca Lavoie is Digital Director at New Hampshire Public Radio, lead audio editor for the hit podcast Undisclosed, the host of the Netflix podcast You Can’t Make This Up, and co-host of Crime Writers On… Follow Rebecca on Twitter here, Crime Writers On… on Twitter here.

How did you get introduced to the audio space?
Everything I learned and love about audio I learned from listening to the Howard Stern show growing up. That being said, my first job in audio was in 2010, when I was 36 years old and became a talk show intern at New Hampshire Public Radio. A year and half later, I was senior producer of that very show. That job led to others at NHPR, including helping to create some very successful podcasts, including Bear Brook.

What makes the chemistry between you and your co-hosts so great? What do each of you bring to it?
Here's where the lessons from Howard Stern come into play. When we started Crime Writers On..., the idea was to have Kevin and me (because we're married and therefore always available to tape together) to talk with a rotating panel of guests. But when we taped our first show (back when we were recapping episodes of Serial), I immediately knew that this should be our permanent panel. What Howard taught me was that even on a talk show with real people, you need to be comfortable establishing and leaning into the characters of those people, and chemistry is a huge part of that. Kevin, Toby, Lara and I are completely different people with different reasons for loving and hating what we do, yet the thing we have in common is that frankly, we all really like each other. That's always given us a safe space to have true debate, real ribbing, and genuine explorations of ourselves as characters and people.

What do we each bring to it? Well, we've all got some background in journalism, but Toby is a cynic - and a novelist - so his sensibilities lean toward both the pragmatic *and* the plot-creative. Lara, meanwhile, is a free spirit who is willing to give anything a try, but at the same time, isn't afraid (at ALL) to say when something sucks, or to defend her love of something really trashy. She's also a private investigator who used to work in the legal system, so she KNOWS her stuff. Kevin is a former broadcaster (TV and radio), so not only does he bring an understanding of the medium, but he's also the humorous heart of our show, because he might be the funniest person I've ever met. As for me, I'm the anchor, but I also see myself as the harshest critic on the show much of the time.

How do you decide what will be covered?
It depends! Sometimes it's driven by what we know people are watching or listening to, so we want to be part of that conversation. But another thing we love to do is help our listeners discover something they haven't discovered yet, so it's kind of a joy to review and talk about more obscure podcasts and shows.

What do you do while you are listening to podcasts?
I walk. Seriously. I walk around 3-6 miles a day, which is when 99% of my listening happens. The other 1% is while I'm in the shower. I would listen more in the car but most podcasts are mixed terribly for car speakers. (Shout out to Spotify originals, which seems to have worked this issue out!)

When you're listening to something you are going to cover, how do you take notes? Do you listen several times?
I don't take notes for myself except when something really exceptional sticks out at a certain time stamp and I know I'm going to want to pull a clip. Kevin, Lara, and Toby all take solid notes and those get added as bullet points to our script. I use those notes to ask questions on the fly. I used to script questions based on their notes, but found the organic conversation sounds a lot more engaging in the final edit. And I'm definitely smarter when I'm winging it.

All this true-crime...do you ever feel forlorn about the world? Do you have to go to something bright and cheery to take you out of a dark place?
I don't find a lot of true crime particularly dark, to be honest, except when a podcast is very poorly made or ill-conceived. Even the darkest stories should be told in a way that makes me want to listen, and if I want to listen, it's clearly for a reason.

That being said, I really do love plenty of other media, including audiobooks (which account for about 90% of my ear time), juicy TV shows, and yes, even a couple of soap operas. (Don't @ me, because General Hospital is SUPER good right now.)

What is your fan feedback like?
Oh man, our fans are THE BEST. When we first started our Facebook group and it grew into the thousands, I became convinced I'd have to hire someone to moderate it, and for a time, we did do that. But our fans...they are so great and there are SO few assholes among them. That might be because I'm not afraid to lose fans by being radically honest on the podcast and on social...like, I will call someone out if they deserve it.

What has worked in helping you grow the show?
Honestly, the best tactic for us is doing direct appeals to our core listeners (the folks on our Patreon, our Facebook group, and our newsletter list) to recommend our show to others. We also have a couple of well-known fans, so of course it helps when they tweet about it!

Which story do you wish they would make into a podcast?
I would listen the hell out of a podcast about the Market Basket saga of 2014. Here's that story. It's bananas.

Which story has been made into too many podcasts?
Ha. There are frankly too many to name. But they all involve white women and lots of irresponsible speculation.

How has the show changed since it started?
We pivoted from being a discussion show to a true thumbs-up or down review show a couple of years in. That's been our biggest change, and it really benefited the show.

Have you ever totally changed your mind about a show you reviewed?
ALL THE TIME. Sometimes we review a show or podcast too early in its release, like The Undoing on HBO, which turned out to be a real stinker. I look back on some of my podcast reviews and really wish I could take them back. And it's NEVER because I said I didn't like something that turned out to be great...always the opposite.

Are there too many true-crime podcasts? Do you think the genre will ever die down?
There are too many true crime friend chat shows for sure, and far too many podcasts that say they "cover" a crime but are actually just relying on newspaper articles and Wikipedia. But no, there are FAR too few deeply-reported true crime narrative podcasts.

Why do women really love true-crime?
Women don't love true crime any more than men do. Don't buy the hype. Seriously!

What is your relationship to your voice, and how would you describe it?
My voice is my voice! I was born with it and can't do much to change it. We get some negative reviews about my laugh (often described as a "cackle"), which I also can't change. But many more listeners seem just fine with it!

If you were going to create another podcast, don’t worry about the logistics or whether or not anyone would like it, what would it be?
I had a show called HGTV & Me that I LOVED making. I'd like to make something similar about Selling Sunset, and also something about all the weird basic cable shows we all watch, whether we admit it or not...things like Storage Wars and Zombie Flippers and Dance Moms and Catfish. I LOVE interviewing/talking to people (regular people and celebrities) about C-list pop culture stuff.

Do you think there are any rules all podcasters should adhere to?
Yes: Don't plagiarize. Don't buy downloads or pay for reviews. Don't expect people to work for you for free or close to free. Respect your audience. Don't be a jerk in the world or on your show or to your producers. And try not to make a crappy podcast if you can help it.

What shows do you love?
Anything made by Dan Taberski, Connie Walker, the In The Dark team, and a lot of random shows where smart people are talking about pop culture things they know more about than I do and are way funnier than I am. My current favorites in that genre are 60 Songs That Explain The 90s (Spotify) and Keep It! (Crooked Media). I also LOVED the universe-expansion podcast spin-off of HBO's Insecure, the true crime parody Looking for LaToya (HBO and Tenderfoot).

Thanks, Rebecca!