Accept Cookies
Subscribe

The ‘10 Things That Scare Me’ podcast

Hrishikesh Hirway

Dec 8, 2021
24

I love a podcast that has a really specific concept. I also love a podcast that has very short episodes. So it may be no surprise to you that one of my favorite podcasts of all time is the ultra-short-format (and too short-lived) 10 Things That Scare Me.

10 Things That Scare Me is incredibly beautiful, in both how it’s made and what it’s about. It’s an interview show where the guest talks about ten things that scare them. (I also love a podcast that makes a promise to you and then keeps it.)

I was first introduced to the show by my friend and fellow podcaster-in-arms, Helen Zaltzman, who knows I’m partial to very short podcasts. The first episode I heard was Anna Chlumsky’s. I’m a big fan of Veep and In the Loop and her performances in both, and at the time, her episode was the most recent. It was 6 minutes long, so I put it on while driving the four minutes to the grocery store. I spent the last two minutes parked, transfixed. Despite the seemingly straight-forward premise, I was surprised by almost everything I heard. I immediately put on another episode. Groceries be damned! (For, like, five more minutes.)

The show is a non-narrated format, which means that you only hear the guest’s voice. (This is also the format I use in Song Exploder and Partners.) To me, this is a great way to make a podcast feel very intimate, and when combined with the confessions about whatever inspires fear in that person – both big things and small things, silly things and gravely serious things – it felt like a tiny, revelatory glimpse into someone’s mind.

Every interview that someone does is a chance for them to answer the gargantuan question: “Who am I?” It’s a question that is too big to answer in any form other than an entire life, lived in real-time. So you can only chip at it, in little bits. What I want from a podcast interview, ideally, is for someone to answer the question “who am I?” in a way that reveals something new – new to the listener, and maybe new to the interviewee, too. That’s what I feel like you get on 10 Things.

On top of that, the show has the best sound design I’ve ever heard — it’s not just well made, and well executed, but it’s a piece of the show’s text, as well.. As Anna Chlumsky described her fear of misunderstandings, and how the show Curb Your Enthusiasm made her anxious, in the background, you hear a piano moving up the scale, chromatically, and a chorus of voices going “ppppbbbbtttthhhhh” – blowing raspberries in key with the piano. It’s an eerie, unsettling, anxious sound, as well as a very silly one, and it pairs perfectly with hearing her talk about how gut-churning, cringe-inducing comedy like Curb Your Enthusiasm makes her feel. The sound crescendoes and then cuts off abruptly as she goes to her next item.

BUT THEN: the next thing that scares her? “Poor vocal health.” She talks about the need to warm up her voice. And suddenly your brain casts back a second in time and remembers that creepy soundtrack we had just been hearing was a group of people doing vocal warmups! Just brilliant. That sound design is the work of Isaac Jones, who also makes the show’s fantastic music. I don’t use the term ‘genius’ often, but on multiple occasions while listening to the show, I have considered the possibility that he is a genius. (There’s a compilation of some of his work on the podcast that you can listen to here.)

Some months after falling in love with the show, I got to do an episode of my own for them. I was interviewed by producer Odelia Rubin, and we spoke for over two hours. The resulting episode, despite how brief it is, feels like a terrifyingly up-close and personal view into who I really am. My awe for their editing and sense of pacing only grew, knowing what the raw materials were that they had to work with. If someone wanted a crash course into what my brain is like, I would point them to that episode.

And so, I’m pointing you to that episode of 10 Things That Scare Me, as well as a handful of others, including some from my sister-in-pod Samin Nosrat; Ear Hustle co-host Earlonne Woods; fellow Bulletin writer Mitch Albom; and that Anna Chlumsky episode that got me in the first place. I put those all in a Hark playlist that you can listen to here.

If you enjoyed this newsletter, please hit the “join the discussion” button and leave me a comment. Because you know what’s one thing that scares me? The idea that these emails are just disappearing into a vortex of inboxes, only to be trashed upon entry. So if you made it this far, say hello! Maybe let me know something that scares you. We can look at all the fears that get mentioned in the comments and think of it as one long poem that our collective anxieties are writing together, as we each try to answer who we are.

Hrishikesh

Subscribe for free to Accept Cookies
By subscribing, you agree to share your email address with Hrishikesh Hirway to receive their original content, including promotions. Unsubscribe at any time. Meta will also use your information subject to the Bulletin Terms and Policies
24

More from Accept Cookies
See all

Out of Sight

I’ve been on tour this week with Jenny Owen Youngs, my dear, dear friend. The two of us have many things in common, but our movie viewing history is not one of them. I discovered this while we were driving from Seattle to Portland, and I mentioned my deep love of Steven Soderbergh’s classic 1998 film Out of Sight. Jenny has never seen it. Ca...
May 12
4
18

Ranking of Kings

A couple weeks ago, I finished watching the incredible first season of “Severance.” It was a show whose popularity seemed to gather momentum as it went along. After the 6th episode, I felt like everyone was raving about it on social media. And rightly so! It was fantastic! But when you love a show enough, there’s this moment right after a ...
Apr 28
1

Snack Club: Dill Pickle + Almond

One of my all-time favorite sketches from Key & Peele is “Gremlins 2 Brainstorm.” You should just watch the whole thing, because it’s a masterpiece, but in it, a ‘sequel doctor‘ comes in to instruct the Gremlins writers’ to imagine new Gremlin characters. Around 3:07, one of the writers suggests, “Um, Electricity Gremlin?” To whi...
Apr 13
21
Comments
Log in with Facebook to comment

24 Comments

  • Mitch Albom
    Writes Life at the Orphanage
    Hey thanks for the shoutout. And yes, agree, this is a great one. And a little therapeutic to face your fears in narrative form
    • 21w
  • Jeremy Faust
    Writes Inside Medicine
    Is there any question more difficult to answer than "Who am I?" I never know where to begin! Great post
    • 23w
  • Jennifer Jansen Perez
    I love your discussion of sound design here. I blame you personally for my complete inability to listen to podcasts with poor sound quality ever since I started listening to yours. Some of them have really good content but I just can't handle constantl…
    See more
    • 23w
  • Becky Walsh
    Hi Hrishi (I hope that’s not too familiar of me!) I love getting your newsletters, having spent much of 2021 listening to all the episodes of TWWW it feels like I’m hearing from an old friend when your emails pop up. As for what I’m afraid of (I think …
    See more
    • 23w
  • Samantha Thompson
    just saying hi/that I didn't trash the newsletter. I'm scared of zombies and I hate them. Whenever there is a zombie walk (where people dress as zombies and take over the city) I make a conscious effort to stay home because it's my literal nightmare.
    • 23w
  • Erin Cox
    Read the entire thing and loved it! I’m not scared much, maybe worst is my mom dying too soon, she’s 80. Which is why I love your song as well.
    • 23w
  • Chelsey Nisbet
    Hrishi, thank you so much for your newsletter. I collect/save things, somewhat compulsively, including e-mails. I 'star' them in gmail in case I want to come back to them later. I have half a dozen of your newsletter e-mails starred. Thank you again. S…
    See more
    • 21w
  • Tora Oliphant
    This is my favourite newsletter, maybe ever. You're a fantastic curator and have such a gentle and inviting way of pitching cool things. I've checked out almost everything you've suggested and have been delighted by what I've found. Please don't trash the newsletter 🙂
    • 23w
  • Christy Kravette
    When I got the announcement you were making a newsletter, of course I immediately subscribed! I've been really enjoying them: the insights, the craft with which they are written, and all the interesting subjects. And the title. 🙂. What scares me ar…
    See more
    • 23w
  • Sophie Jones
    Hi Hrishi, your emails aren't going nowhere, they're going to me! I'm kind of scared to think about what I'm scared of...is that weird?
    • 23w
View 13 more comments
Share quoteSelect how you’d like to share below
Share on Facebook
Share to Twitter
Send in Whatsapp
Share on Linkedin
Privacy  ·  Terms  ·  Cookies
© Meta 2022
Discover fresh voices. Tune into new conversations. Browse all publications