Supplemental Post 7 - Lauren Sullivan

I've been thinking a lot about the strange and unique way that podcasts construct stardom. My friends and I all love My Favorite Murder, a casual true crime podcast hosted by Georgia Hardstark and Karen Kilgariff. The podcast started in 2016 and for my first months of listening I had no idea what Georgia and Karen looked like. I created some sort of vague physical appearances for them in my head based on their voices but never felt all that compelled to look up pictures of them. Despite this, as is the nature with many podcasts, I felt closely connected to them. The casual conversational nature of many podcasts makes listening feel like you're hanging out with friends. You become a part of inside jokes and laugh and react along with them. Eventually, I joined the online community they'd constructed by following the podcast's Instagram account. Now I know objectively what Karen and Georgia's faces look like, but if they post a video talking it feels like they've been dubbed with those familiar voices and my brain struggles to connect the voices to the people.

Podcast stardom is so interesting because fans experience a far more personal connection to the star than with acting or music, for example, which keep the audience at a distance through controlled images and constructed personas. This isn't to say that podcasts have no element of personas or are complete and accurate representations of the podcasters, but the experience is structured around casual conversation and is entirely detached from appearances. The nature of podcasts seems to distance the listener (by limiting the senses to only audio) but also brings the listener much closer to the individuals they listen to; it's a sometimes confusing relationship for me to wrap my head around. As I was talking to my friend about seeing celebrities in LA, we both agreed we usually feel too  intimidated to approach the star, but she added that if she ever saw Karen or Georgia somewhere (both LA natives), she wouldn't hesitate to approach them and start a conversation. She says it's because she already feels like she knows them so well. That being said, they still occupy a definite star status among their listeners; the friend I previously mentioned has paid A LOT of money to secure a ticket to one of their live shows. Getting tickets to these quickly sold-out shows is difficult and not cheap and reflects the instense star status of more traditional kinds of celebrities.