People love stuff. Everyone has their own interests and quirks of various degrees of obsession. Sometimes these are the overall general interest shared by millions, like music and TV – but the further niche that go into someone’s interests, the more original they get. Also, depending on the person, the more obsessed and passionate they are; to the point people can either look at you with confusion or bewilderment.
This is where the Guilty Pleasure podcast comes in, as Jackie Rae Aubel and Amanda Salvatore “celebrate and elaborate your odd interests”. It’s an hour a week where people can talk positively about something they have a genuine passion for. The resulting podcast delivers something that makes things you may not find interesting, interesting.
The show has covered varied topics such as anime, Will Smith, the concept of clickbait, dancing alone and even the act of eating food while in the shower. You would be very surprised how much mileage you get out of eating food in the shower.
Pivotal to the dynamic of the podcast are the two hosts: Jackie and Amanda. Both are comedians from New York who write sketch comedy. They met in Los Angeles as part of the same sketch team. They both manage to show interest in their guests and carry the momentum of episodes with genuine enthusiasm.
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Their involvement in the conversation varies according to their experience with the guest’s guilty pleasure. Sometimes they’re just reacting and making plans to take part in the guilty pleasure themselves, to the point that they debuted a new feature where the last 15 minutes is them trying out the guilty pleasure. Other times they know a little more about the topic and it becomes more of a balanced conversation where the guest plays the expert.
There’s never a real imbalance on which kinds of episodes are better, as it depends on how well the guest conveys what they want to talk about, because you feel as if you’re learning alongside Amanda and Jackie. The other times you are getting more insight into certain things. An episode on Burning Man festival allows Jackie to contribute with her own experiences and help build an idea of what the festival is like.
All in all, the podcast promotes positivity. The term “guilty pleasure” suggests that people feel guilty or ashamed in their passion, but nine times out of ten guests don’t feel any ounce of guilt. Sometimes guests find an outlet to finally being free to talk about their weird interest, and fully embrace the fact that they’re just a person that likes stuff they want other people to know about.