The Bello Collective

Our newsletter may be signing off for now, but our writers continue their work. Image by Paul Sullivan When Bello first launched in 2016, there were few other publications like ours dedicated to both marveling at and critiquing the podcast medium.

A look back at Bello’s contributions to the industry When you look back at Bello’s collective body of work, you can’t help but notice something: we are relentlessly optimistic about this medium and fiercely protective of its integrity. Bello may have started casually enough as a place for podcast listeners to convene, but over time, it honed a very specific perspective. We believed there was value in elevating independent and marginalized voices. We emphasized artistry and experience and craft.

There can never be too many podcasts. Our final editorial meeting before we hit send on this newsletter. Dear Bellos, The Bello Collective was launched in a very different podcast universe. It was 2016: public media ruled, indies were fewer and farther between, and it was a rare and exciting event to find oneself in a conversation with a fellow podcast fanatic.

Our favorite podcast episodes of the year, as chosen by the Bello Collective and friends Recipe Club, “Boboli” The Ringer / Spotify Every episode of Recipe Club is bookended with the spin of a digital wheel, sealing the fate for David Chang, Chris Ying, and a special guest who will then scamper off to scour the internet for the best recipes using the selected star ingredient.

Mumbai Crime Mumbai Crime is a ten-part thriller based on the story that inspired the award-winning film Slumdog Millionaire. Between the fantastic transitions from past to present and grounded voice acting, the plot forms like a bundle of nerves in the pit of one’s stomach. Consider us all lucky that it is a completed story because the cliff-hangers will have you holding your breath longer than any Navy Seal.

“I was in 8th grade when I first saw a computer in my school, and I was fascinated by them,” says Insha Kanue, a computer engineer and tech entrepreneur living in India-administered Kashmir. She is talking about her career on a podcast called Zanaan Wanaan, a Kashmiri phrase that translates to “the women are speaking.”The podcast was started by a women’s collective by the same name, based in the valley of Kashmir.

Slow down your podcasts (for everyone’s sake) It all started with a desire for longer musical interludes. I was listening to podcasts that had ~30 seconds of music between segments, and I found myself wanting to stretch these breaks to three or four minutes, so there would be entire songs punctuating the spoken segments. Then, I found myself noticing the silences more than I ever had before. So many of them seemed to be five or ten seconds shorter than I wanted.

Manhattan rarely seems like an island, but on 9/11, when the bridges, tunnels, and subways shut down, it felt very much like an island indeed. HISTORY This Week moves off the island and onto the water to recount one captain’s story of ferrying victims across the Hudson River. Among all the tales of firefighters, ambulance drivers, and other first responders, I’d never heard of the heroes who arrived by sea.

Take ten minutes to improve your next year of listening Most podcast apps now come with powerful features that are easy to overlook, and all it takes is around ten minutes playing around with a new app to get yourself up to speed. Consider this your guide on how to maximize the obvious and not-so-obvious features sprinkled throughout the podcast app landscape.

Podcasters have a responsibility to our subjects and our audiences — and our own mental health. One of the things I appreciate most about the podcasting medium is that creators are free to discuss the topics that mean the most to them. Whether it’s politics or health, #MeToo or COVID-19, podcasters all around the world get on the mic to address the things that are on their minds. But inevitably, sometimes those topics will be challenging.