I’m thrilled to kick off Season Two of The Format with my cousin Taylor Lumsden, an Emmy award-winning photojournalist and producer whose career spans radio, TV news, documentaries, and branded content—all of which I somehow forgot about until we reconnected at Thanksgiving! Taylor walks us through his incredible journey, from DJing weddings in college to producing the wildly popular Texas political podcast Y’all-itics, which reached over a million listeners during the pandemic. We dive deep into why podcasts create such intimate listening experiences compared to video, exploring the unique power of audio to connect audiences with authentic human stories and even protect guest privacy when needed. Taylor shares the behind-the-scenes story of his award-winning documentary “Discovering the de Kooning,” which evolved from a simple news assignment into a film that premiered at South by Southwest.

Throughout our conversation, he generously offers advice on…

* creative collaboration

* the ethics of podcast editing

* how to tell authentic stories whether you’re working in news or corporate content

If you’re interested in multimedia storytelling and want to learn from someone who’s mastered multiple formats, this episode is for you.

Timecoded Outline:

00:00 Collaboration In Production

00:28 Show Intro And Mission

01:31 Season Two With Cousin

02:49 Warm Up And Catch Up

04:38 Tech Changes Storytelling

05:50 Radio DJ Origins

06:49 Career Across Formats

09:03 Producing Ya’ll-itics Podcast

11:07 Editing Ethics And Workflow

14:31 Audio Intimacy Vs Video

16:40 Podcasting As Protection

17:29 Obama On Marc Maron

18:14 Garage Podcast Reality

18:52 Video Podcast Clarity

19:44 Why Video Matters

20:27 Channel 8 Breakthroughs

22:40 De Kooning Art Theft

24:44 Licensing And IP

28:57 From TV News To Major Airline

31:38 Authentic Corporate Stories

33:01 Making Interviews Natural

35:13 Wrap Up And Subscribe

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