// MEDIA+ENTERTAINMENT //
The Art of the Potcast A roundtable discussion with cannabis-focused podcast hosts By Anthony Elio According to Statista, there are 88 million podcast listeners in the U.S., with that number expected to almost double by 2023. Looking through your typical platforms such as Stitcher, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts, you can find podcasts about pretty much every topic, including but not limited to junk food, Power Rangers, tabletop games, the films of Mike Myers, and even ballpoint pens. And yes, those are all real. One of the many podcast topics growing in popularity is cannabis. Because of its fairly open format, podcasting has allowed for more education and discussion around the substance, something most traditional media outlets would avoid. In this exclusive roundtable, we spoke with numerous cannabis podcast hosts about the ins and outs of discussing marijuana behind the mic. time job, and it’s expensive — audio equipment, social media, booking guests, recording twice a week, recording ads, promoting sponsors, and editing… Thank God for weed.
Mary Jane Gibson and Mike Glazer
Technology: Shout out to Zoom! They hooked us up with a beautiful audio package for our live show at SXSW. It’s a great company that isn’t scared to support a podcast with “weed” in the title. Zoom wants to support quality content made by people who believe in themselves. First Episode Vs. Latest: No change. We’re perfect. (We’ve learned a lot about backing up our audio files though.)
Mike Glazer - Comedian & Host at Weed+Grub Mary Jane Gibson - Writer, Actress & Host at Weed+Grub Podcast Description: Weed+Grub are the cornerstones for cultural conversations. If you love comedy, cooking, cannabis, and news from the front lines of weed culture, then we’re for you. Cannabis brought us together (shout out rooftop joints at sunset!). We love to interview people who smoke like Jim Belushi, David Crosby, Ron Funches, Laganja Estranja, and Thug Kitchen, but we also talk to folks who don’t consume, like Trixie Mattel or Animaniacs creator Tom Ruegger. New Episode Process: We write a 150-page script, send it to Rian Johnson for notes, and then 80
Cannabis & Tech Today // Spring 2020
write a second draft based on his thoughts. After we submit the script to the Writers Guild so no one steals our ideas, we set up our mics, open our Apple laptops (this is not an ad for Apple), and carefully read each page. Sometimes we do two or three takes per page to make sure we’re getting the most out of each sentence, but we try not to overthink it. (We actually just smoke, snack, and have a great time.) The Unique Nature of Cannabis Podcasting: We were early to the cannabis podcast table, and it’s incredible how fast Weed+Grub became one of the top entertainment sources for cannabis culture news. We’re really proud of how we’ve grown and continue to grow. Cannabis Podcasting Obstacles: It’s a full-
Recommended Episode: If you’d like to hear a free-flowing conversation that’s just us, check out “Origin Stories & Shower Techniques.” If you’re interested in a juicy cannabis-infused chat with an industry leader, check out our Spotlight Series episode with Quim CEO and co-founder Cyo Nystrom. If you want to hear a dazzling chat with a celebrity, check out our episodes with Jim Belushi or David Crosby.
Tad Hussey Cannabis Cultivation & Science Podcast Podcast Description: The podcast is really designed as a way of bridging the gap between the information that’s available to cannabis growers and what’s already out there in the horticulture world, in the academic world, what sort of science supports a lot of the stuff that we’re doing in cannabis cultivation. Because being something that was underground and black market for so long, there really wasn’t a lot of great information. Your resources were fellow growers, possibly stuff in forums. Now people use Instagram or you’d
