Zach Mack

Zach Mack is a longtime podcast producer for places like the Ringer and Vox Media and is now host and producer of Greetings from Somewhere. Follow him on Twitter here.

How did you get introduced to the audio space? Have you always loved it, before podcasting?
Randomly my high school had an actual radio station and that gave me a little taste. In college, I was a TV and Radio Broadcasting major and got more involved in the radio scene, and had a show with my friends. After college, I just missed radio for years and started listening to a ton of podcasts while doing unfulfilling work. Eventually, I was able to find my way back to audio. It’s been a long road but I’m so glad I listened to my gut.

How was the show born?
A little over 2 years ago I drove across the country from end to end. I brought my recording equipment and was went around, interviewing people with plans to make short little audio postcards. After editing some things together I thought, “this could be a show!”

How is Greetings from Somewhere different from other travel shows? Do you call it a travel show?
When I started making this show I couldn’t name a single other travel show that felt immersive or like you actually got to experience being in a place. I wanted to make a show that felt like it took place outside in the world, where listeners would feel like they were on the road with me.

TELL ME ALL ABOUT THE DISNEY EPISODE. It's how I was introduced to your show and I'm obsessed with it. Was it weird to record there?
I had never been to Disney World and it was not on my original list of places to go this season. After the Pandemic hit I started to think about places I could responsibly go to. Disney World was open and is all outdoors. I grew up with Disney movies like everyone else but never understood the extreme Disney fandom, especially around the theme parks so that felt it’d be a fun subculture to explore. It was.

How did you make a travel show during a pandemic?
It’s tricky. But in many ways, I think the Pandemic has added this layer of tension to the show that works really well. It feels more current. It’s a universal experience we’re all having. It sucks. It’s changed the way we do nearly everything but it’s a creative constraint that has helped me make a more focused and empathetic show.

What has worked when it comes to growing the show?
Growing an independent podcast in 2021 is tough stuff, let me tell you. No one needs a new podcast right now. There are so many already and it’s really hard to break through the noise even if you’re making great stuff.

The main tricks are pretty simple tho, getting featured by places like Apple and Spotify, a marketing budget (which I don't have), and getting put on other existing big shows seem like the best way to go. And newsletters of course.

What's your favorite and least favorite part about making it?
Probably the PR and Marketing aspect and feeling like I have to beg people to listen. That’s never a comfortable role for me. In terms of the actual making part, I always feel a little overwhelmed right before I start to comb through all the tape I’ve gathered for an episode. It’s daunting but you get through it.

Which episode was the most fun to make?
The Disney World episode. I got to go to Disney World and I think my engineer Dan Tureck and I got pretty creative with the sound design and tried our best to make the whole episode feel like one long day in the park.

What's your dream episode?
Japan. I don’t know what about but if I could do a mini-season in Japan somehow, that’s the dream.

I also really wanted to go to small cities like Clarksdale Mississippi to check out their world-famous blues scene.

Have you always been a good traveler?
No way. Not even sure I’m a “good traveler” now. I don’t travel a ton or define myself by how many places I go. I’ve traveled less than a lot of my friends which I think makes me more excited when I do get out there. Anyone can do this, I’m so far from a travel expert or even a travel enthusiast but I love meeting new people and seeing new places.

Are there too many podcasts?
Yes and no. I don’t think “too many podcasts” is why podcast discovery is broken. There’s a lot with platform curation, metadata, and algorithms that can help crack that, but let’s be real, there’s a lot of poorly made podcasts out there. That being said, I think it’s great that so many people are turning to this medium as a creative outlet.

What’s something listeners don’t understand about podcasts and what goes into making them?
That narrative, documentary-style podcasts are challenging to make. They take time and money and teams of people. And that if they would just rate my show or leave a review on Apple podcasts it will make a difference haha.

What do you hope the show does for people?
I hope my show takes a place or a concept that people are somewhat familiar with and adds a few 3-dimensional layers of nuance and understanding.

Why are you the perfect host for this show?
Because I am making the show I wanted to make. Every part of this show is me pursuing my own interests. If you’re reading this and want to make a show, my advice is to make YOUR show! What is YOUR show?

What have you learned about the country making the show?
When you look at this country, what’s happening with the pandemic, politics, racial justice, the lens we view history through, it’s clear we’ve got some work to do. Empathy feels like a good place to start.

What have you learned about yourself making the show?
That I can actually make this show. When I started I really wasn’t sure I could. I was terrified.

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?
A serialized quest to get that elusive Wu-Tang album from Martin Shkreli.

What is your relationship with your voice and how would you describe it?
I've always been pretty self-conscious of my voice. Growing up in California people would always ask me where I was from or suggest that I sounded southern, despite growing up in the exact same area as the people asking the question. That always made me aware that I sounded different and no one wants to be different when you're that age. You just wanna fit in. I've made more peace with it since and have heard a lot of compliments on it while making this show, thank god!

Do you think there are any rules all podcasters should adhere to?
Make something that you, yourself would want to listen to.

Should podcasters read their Apple Podcast reviews?
I think feedback is helpful. There's a world where you can get too caught up in it but I've appreciated many of the thoughtful responses. Obviously, the good ones are easier to hear than the bad ones.

What shows do you love?
Reply All is an incredible show. The way they abandon format and allow themselves to be so free to create inspires a lot of what I do. The episode by episode journey of Mystery Show wow'd me. Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unkown was another that I drew a lot from, RIP. I also love Atlanta, Succession, and Harley Quinn.

Is there anything I didn’t ask you that you’d like to talk about?
I've been thinking a lot about independent creators and things like how difficult it is to get a show made, IP ownership, and wondering what happens to the indie creator in this medium. Where do they go? What should they do? How can one be successful without a larger network? It all feels increasingly difficult and I just want us as an industry to look out for creators more. Still processing how we do that.

Thanks, Zach!