The Big Listen ended production in May 2018. While this site is no longer updated, all the content remains available for archive purposes.
JD Samson is obviously a cool musician. Look at her rock ‘n roll tattoos!
Hey, pals! When JD Samson was just a fresh-faced kid right out of college, she got hired by the feminist electroclash band Le Tigre to basically operate a slide show for their high-octane live shows. A couple weeks after that, band founders Kathleen Hanna and Johanna Fateman invited Samson to join the band.
The band took an extended hiatus in the mid-aughts (though did reunite for this Hillary Clinton campaign song), but Samson continued making music. She toured with Peaches and started her own band, JD Samson + MEN. She also got hired to write music for other artists, including Christina Aguilera and Junior Senior.
Up to this point, most of Samson’s music has been high energy dance tracks with lots of electronic instruments. But when she partnered with the podcast collective Radiotopia to write some ad music for them, she had to pare down her compositions.
Radiotopia’s executive producer Julie Shapiro told Samson to make her music “boring.” And every time Samson would scale back on the instruments, Shapiro would have the same feedback for her: “more boring.”
Ironically, one of Samson’s favorite podcasts of all time — Strange Animals — has no music in it whatsoever. She says the host’s voice is music enough.
Listen to the rest of the show!
This is just one segment from the whole show! Click here to explore the entire episode, including interviews with Nora McInerny host of Terrible, Thanks For Asking and Helen Zaltzman host of The Allusionist.
Call Me!
Do you have a podcast recommendation you’d like to share with us? We want to hear it! Give us a jingle on the Pod Line at 202-885-POD1 and leave a message. Then we’ll put you on the radio and you’ll get all the pumpkin spice lattes you want!
Thanks for listening, pals! ‘Til next time…keep listening, America.
Most Recent Shows
Tegan & Sara, Podcast Super Fans (Encore)
Musicians Tegan and Sara are podcast obsessives. This episode, we take a peek at their extensive playlist, plus hear about their own idea for a podcast. Also, the hosts of the LGBTQ show Nancy share their funny and tragic coming out stories. And the Pakistani American host of Beginner walks us through all the things she never learned as a immigrant, like biking and swimming. Plus: saving podcasts for posterity at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Keep reading...
The Big Listen Finale! (Encore)
This is the final episode of The Big Listen. Boo! Hiss! Our show is going off the air (read more on that here) and we’re shifting our focus to other projects. So this is last you’ll hear from us. But we’ve so enjoyed getting to share all the great shows we’re listening to with you. Thank you for spending some time with us. Keep reading...
Peering Into Nicole Drespel’s Inbox (Encore)
Over the course of your life, you’ve probably had at least a dozen email addresses. And I’m going to go out on a limb and say that at least a couple of those have been super embarrassing. Comedian Nicole Drespel can relate. Not only has she had deeply mortifying email addresses, but she’s also sent more than her fair share of ridiculous emails. Keep reading...