168 Erica Mandy - Making the News Fun Again

After 10 plus years as a television news reporter, Erica Mandy decided to quit her job and pursue a career in podcasting. After discovering podcasts while commuting to work each day, she realized she wanted to listen to news that wasn’t so much in the style of NPR, but still gave her a good overview and left her feeling energized instead of depleted. With her journalism background and extensive television broadcasting experience, she took the skills she learned in the studio and applied them to podcasting.

Now Erica is the host of her own show, The News Worthy, where in less than 10 minutes you can listen to the news in a fun and easily digestible way. (Sorry NPR) Her goal is to keep more people informed so that they can choose what impacts them the most and decide what topics they would like to dive deeper into.

04:57 - Where I met Erica
07:31 - Overcast app
08:38 - The first time she became aware what was happening in the podcasting world
09:44 - When she first got the idea to start a news podcast
11:55 - If she considers being a reporter entrepreneurial
14:19 - The feedback she received on leaving her job and starting a podcast
15:42 - How many iterations of her podcast music she went through
19:06 - The goal of Newsworthy
20:24 - How the different jobs she did as a news reporter helped her with podcasting
22:13 - Whether or not journalism students have reached out to her to intern
25:03 - The process she uses to sort and select which stories to report on
26:21 - One of the things she dislikes about TV news that she avoids on her show
28:09 - How she emphasizes reminding her audience on topics that have been previously covered to ensure they understand it
29:16 - The Net Neutrality spoof from Burger King
32:26 - If she thinks she will start offering coaching services in the future
34:14 - If she ever got attached to the subject matter she used to report on
36:40 - Bringing on experts from different perspectives and backgrounds
42:27 - The mentors who were important to her during her career in journalism
48:26 - The support she’s received from her parents
52:26 - Something she’s changed her mind about recently
52:56 - The most misunderstood thing about her