Ronald Young Jr.
Ronald Young Jr. is a critically acclaimed audio producer, host, and storyteller, based in Alexandria, VA. He is an avid pop-culture enthusiast and the host of the television and film review podcast Leaving the Theater. He is also a regular contributor to NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour as a guest panelist. He has hosted shows such as Pushkin’s Solvable and HBO Docs Club, from Pineapple Street Studios. Selected as Vulture Magazine podcaster to watch, 2023, his newest show Weight For It, tells the vulnerable stories of fat folks and folks everywhere who think about their weight constantly.
He is passionate about social justice and equity and recently helped to tell historical and present accounts of black folks throughout American history with his work on Seizing Freedom from VPM, and Black History Year from Pushblack.
Describe Weight For It in ten words or less.
Narrative show for folks who can’t stop thinking about weight.
How long was this show idea percolating in your brain?
When I was hosting Solvable back in 2021 we did a series on bodies and interviewed some folks talking about food addiction, fat fashion, and health at every size. Those episodes did better than the previous episodes of Solvable and I thought that there might be room to do a whole show talking about weight specifically. So it’s been a few years.
Did any shows serve as inspiration for Weight For It?
There are other shows that talk about weight, but they’re all interview shows. Like, Maintenance Phase of course, which does a great job of debunking health and diet myths. However This American Life did an episode called Tell Me I’m Fat which I thought was brilliant, and more of the type of storytelling I wanted to do about weight. Then Death Sex and Money did an episode entitled The Weight of Love, which dealt with fat folks trying to date and fall in love. From that episode I tracked down producer Sarah Dealy and hired her as my editor because I knew she’d have a great idea of what we were trying to accomplish on the show.
You’re bringing to light a lot of stuff that women think about a lot, men maybe not so much. Was it scary to do that? Are these conversations men are having in private or are you kind of blowing this open?
I think everyone thinks about their weight. Men and women alike. I think that the conversations we’re having depend on who is in the conversation. For men these conversations tend to be around a specific aesthetic value that we think women are looking for. Which is why Men’s Health is yelling at all of us to get rock hard abs and bulging biceps. I also think that the assumption is that because we see fat men in in sitcoms and on television with straight sized attractive women, that for men being fat is not as much of a factor for being attractive. I think that’s just media. A lot of those shows are just Hollywood magic and aspirational thinking from men writers. ( i won’t speculate much more on that) In my lived experience I haven’t seen that trope proliferate to real life. It wasn’t scary to bring my thoughts into the open because my assumption was that if I was thinking it, then I likely wasn’t alone.
You brought your recorder into your doctor’s visit…that was an explosive episode. How did your doctor react when you told him what you were doing? Has he listened to the show?
I didn’t tell him and I don’t know if he listened. Virginia is a one party consent state and that’s why I never use his name. I wasn’t doing it to embarrass him or ruin his practice but more to demonstrate what fat folks are dealing with when no one is around to hear. Based on the feedback for that episode I think we really showed a lot of folks how hard it is for a fat person to be heard, even when in some cases our lives depends on it.
What has making the show taught you about yourself?
I’ve learned that I’m still hashing out a lot of stuff in my mind about my weight. I know I’m not as settled into my body as I’d like to be or as much as I think I should be. It gives me a lot to pray about and seek therapy for. *nervous emoji*
Which was the episode most difficult for you to make?
Probably A Shame Spiral. This was an episode where I’m the villain. I mistreated someone because they were fat. Trying to walk the line of nuance in the episode was tricky and I appreciated having the editing insight of Sarah Dealy to guide me through and make sure I wasn’t either overly punishing to myself or not making Caitlin a full character in the story. It was hard balance to make but I think we pulled it off. It took a bunch of drafts.
Can you talk about how you got into audio and Time Well Spent?
I used to listen to podcasts while I worked on an IT support desk. I would listen to This American Life, Snap Judgement, Pop Culture Happy Hour, The Ted Radio Hour, and Radiolab. That was really what planted the seeds of live storytelling and storytelling in general for me. I had interned in commercial radio when I had first got out of college, so I had the technical skills to make audio but when I started diving into storytelling I really wanted to make my own show and tell my own stories. So I started Time Well Spent kind of as a version of that storytelling from my perspective and personal experience. In a lot of ways Weight For It is Time Well Spent. The DNA from those early days of audio making were what led me here.
How did this show turn out differently than you thought it would?
There were a lot of parts of this process that I couldn’t have predicted. When pitching the show we had a lot of interest from folks, but nobody necessarily serious about providing a production budget. When I decided to just fund the whole thing myself, it ended up being a longer road, which ended up being a blessing for us. We were able to submit the show to Tribeca and get selected, which I never expected but was happy to get. We were able to get a marketing, ad sales and distribution deal with Radiotopia, which I also wasn’t expecting. So looking at the artwork now and seeing both of those bits of branding on the show was definitely not something I thought would happen when I set out to just get the show made and heard.
What was it like to reach out to your ex-girlfriend? What did it take to convince her to get on mic?
We were already in casual contact. What led to this being an episode was that we happened to be having a long catch up conversation and she mentioned a few things from years ago that made me ask if she’d talk to me for Weight For It. So it wasn’t much to convince her, she seemed ready to have those conversations with me, and was very generous with her time even though she didn’t necessarily have to be.
If you were going to start another podcast…don’t worry about the logistics or whether or not anyone would like it…oh! And your budget is $1M…what would it be?
Narrative interview show about people deep in their careers who still have a specific goal in mind they’re trying to reach but they haven’t quite gotten there yet. We’d talk about how far they’ve come and what they feel they have left to do.
Are there too many podcasts?
Yes. But there’s also too many songs, too many movies, too many books, and too many television shows. Having too much of something is not a reason to stop making it. But I do think there’s an argument for who gets to decide what we hear, and currently those decision makers aren’t doing a good or equitable job of getting quality audio in the ears of hungry listeners.
What’s a show you love that everyone already loves?
Hang Up from Caitlin Pierce! It’s a reality dating show but is also a podcast. I like it because it’s low stakes and as a person who watches a lot of reality dating shows, this one felt like they’re fans of the genre and took great care to make something good. Something that responds to the problems of reality dating shows, but was also lighthearted and fun. I really enjoyed it.
What’s a show you love that not enough people know about?
I don’t know if this counts, but I don’t hear enough people talk about Stuck with Damon Young. Damon is a writer and cultural commentator who founded Very Smart Brothas with Panama Jackson. His podcast is just conversations with writers and luminaries on the topics he feels Stuck on. It’s provoked some real thought in me while listening and as an overthinker it’s right up my alley.
Self-care ritual: Getting a haircut regularly.
Thanks, Ronald!